Traditional Cajun Recipes

Method

1. The following recipes are those of Mrs.
2. Adolis Montoucet, a Cajun cook from Lafayette, Louisiana, and Mrs.
3. Georgette Berthiaume, a Québecois cook from Woonsocket, Rhode Island.
4. Chicken Gumbo For 6 people: “To make a gumbo first you make a roux.
5. .
6. .
7. |use about 5 Ibs.
8. of flour and make a gallon of roux at a time, because I use a lot of roux!
9. To make the roux, first you put a bit of oil in a pan and add about one cup of flour.
10. Stir well and let the mixture brown, cooking it slowly over a low heat.
11. It has to be brown enough to be good.
12. If you don’t get the roux, you can sure mess up a gumbo!
13. Then add 4 quarts of hot stock.
14. Season with salt, black pepper and one chopped onion, one cup minced green pepper, pureed red hot peppers (to taste) and filé powder [dried and ground sassafras leaves first used by the Choctaw Indians to make medicinal teas].
15. Use one fryer chicken, if you don’t have an old chicken or an old hen.
16. An old hen or rooster is the best for gumbo.
17. Add the chicken to the pot and simmer it all together for two hours or more — that’s what makes it good, you let it simmer.
18. Serve the gumbo in a soup bowl with a large bowl of boiled rice on the side.” Variations: