Gumbo and Greens

Dinner tonight was down home deliciousness!!

We hadn't made gumbo in awhile, but when J and I noticed we had a lot of seafood odds and ends in our freeer, we knew it was time to clear it all out and make some Cajun goodness. Gumbo is great because it can take many forms. This time, our seafood gumbo was built on a base of cod, shrimp, and clam stock. After creating the stock, we whipped up a medium dark roux and added onions, celery, bell peppers, okra, chicken, catfish, shrimp, and oysters. Then it was time to add the herbs: cayenne, paprika, oregano, thyme, celery salt, and seasoning salt all play a part in adding depth to this broth. We bemoaned the lack of bay leaves in our pantry, but after hours on the stove, this was quite a treat even with a missing ingredient. I made some special rice today to go with our gumbo. I threw a raw chicken wing, a cup of cooked white beans, and the juice of one lime into the rice cooker with our usual rice. Then I added a spoonful of oregano and a sprinkling of paprika for good measure. It was delicious, sort of a riff on red beans and rice.

Our greens for the evening included celery sticks, apple slices, green lettuce, and a handful of dried cranberries with plenty of homemade blue cheese dressing. I went the healthy route with the dressing tonight. Instead of a blend of cheese and oil, the dressing was just equal parts crumbled blue cheese and plain homemade yogurt, with a pinch of salt and some cracked pepper. If you decide to try this, make the dressing ahead so the cheese and yogurt have a time to blend flavors. It's a really nice dressing, pungent with just enough tang to take the edge off the metallic flavor of blue cheese. And it could not be any easier.