Thanks all again for your valuable input. My gumbo was a definite success, and my Gumbo & Music a blast.
In cas you wonder how I ended up doing it (to feed 30 people):
Ingredients:
Two big red onions
One white onion
One big green pepper
3-4 cloves of garlic
Two stems of celeri
One big chicken
10 good size fairly spicy saucages
Fresh parley & two green onions (to add on top at the end
4 cups of canola oil
4 cups of multi pupose flour
8 cups of chicken broth
Tony's Chachere's
Tabasco
Salt & Pepper
Rice (about 3/4 of a 2KG bag)
1) To make the roux:
Pour 4 cups of canola oil in a cast iron pot. Heat it up until it is pretty hot. Add the 4 cups of flour gradually while stirring. Stir non stop for about 45 minutes until the stuff changes colour to a light brown. Be careful not to burn it! (I almost did it).
2) Cut all the veggies in small pieces. Sear them a bit, add the roux, stir, trip to get the veggies to cook & caramelize a bit at a fairly low temp to avoid burning the roux. Gradually and slowly add the chicken broth and about 24 cups of hot water. You should count about one cup of liquid (water + chicken broth) for each serving. Therefore, 30 minus 8 cups of chicken broth = 24 cups of water. Let the whole thing simmer a bit, and add your seasoning slowly to your taste (salt pepper tony's & tabasco).
3) Cut your chicken in small pieces, and saucages in 2 inches pieces. Sear them in a frying pas separately. After that, add them to the gumbo. Let the whole thing simmer for about 1.5 hour, until the chicken seem well cooked. Let cool off for a couple of hours. Before serving, remove the excess oil on top.
4) Cook rice.
5) Before serving, add the finely chopped green onions & parsley and sprinkle them on top of the gumbo.
The April 2011 Dewey Balfa Cajun & Creole Heritage Week
