Main Ingredients:

See below ingredients and instructions of the recipe

Cooking Preparation of the Recipe:

1 lb Okra Available
1/2 c Olive oil x Onion
3/4 c Flour x Green pepper
4 c Vegetable stock x Greens (7 types)
1 To 2 cayenne chilis, or 2 t If using fresh or canned,
Fresh crushed chilis, or I'll assume you know how to
Whatever is Handle

That will make the base. Here is how you do it:

There are three critical tasks:

1)Make the roux. Heat the oil in a small saucepan under low to med
heat, add flour slowly. Stir non stop for about 20 - 30 minutes.
This is made less painful if you have a glass of wine to drink and
some music playing. Don't try to rush it, or you'll end up having to
start all over. When you get a pretty brown color and a nice nutty
smell, it is ready. A suggestion, if you discover you like gumbo,
make extra roux. It can be frozen for later use.

2)Slice the okra crosswise, and saute. It will do something very
amusing. It is called roping - it will look like there are strings of
cheese between pieces. When it stops making "new rope" (that is, a
nice steady state) it is ready.

3)Adding the roux to the hot stock. Do a little at a time, try to
have at the same temp, stir. You don't want the roux to separate.
It always does a little on me, just stir.

Obviously 1 and 2 should not be attempted simultaneously. Unless you
have someone to share the wine and cooking chores.

Stir in the fresh crushed chili. Now you have your base. Time to
make it ready to eat.

The original idea was to use 7 or more greens. The exact
interpretation and balance does not matter. Kale, collard, mustard
greens, parsley, chard, escarole (my favorite), whatever you like.
Saute an onion, green pepper if you like. Throw it all in, and 20
minutes later you have a nice gumbo. Sorry I don't give exact
numbers. Still, a good guess might be 2.5 pounds greens to make
this. A lot depends on personal preference. Gumbo should not be
viewed as a special recipe, it should be a fun experiment. If you
would like to make it more "meaty" than consider using some of the
"fake meats" available in oriental grocery stores. Mock duck, mock
abalone, mock shrimp, whatever, all work.

To serve: put a scoop of rice in a bowl, ladel gumbo over. Have some
spoonbread on the side, or just ordinary cornbread.

From: drm#uniwa.uwa.edu.au (David Maurice). rfvc Digest V94 Issue
#212, Oct. 1, 1994. Formatted by Sue Smith, S.Smith34,
TXFT40A#Prodigy.com using MMCONV.

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