There are three key elements to the best gumbo–an excellent seafood stock, a solid brick roux, and quality ingredients to go into it–fresh seafood when possible, okra in season, and so on. While you may sometimes have to make due with frozen or out-of-season ingredients, the stock, roux, and giving the gumbo the time it needs to develop flavor will still always give you incredible results.
Tag: economical
A Pie By Any Other Name? Shepherd’s Versus Cottage Pie, and a Recipe to Make Yours
This is an easy, versatile, and satisfying recipe for cottage pie: ground beef and vegetables in rich gravy topped with a crust of mashed potatoes and cheddar cheese.
A Wholesome Marriage I: A Recipe for Red Beans and Rice
Served over white rice, the rich, savory Andouille sausage and smoky, salty ham play off of the red kidney beans to produce a harmonious whole in this traditional Creole red beans and rice dish.
Chopped Liver: Amending America’s Distaste for the Humble Organ, and a Recipe for Georgian-Spiced Chicken Liver with Eggplant and Chickpeas
Liver is a nutritious, economical, and, most of all, tasty protein that takes almost no cook-time to prepare. In this recipe, the spices bring complexity and balance to the iron-y flavor of the liver, and the meat plays nicely with the textures of the eggplant and chickpeas.
Come Fry with Me: A Defense of Deep-Fried Food and a Recipe for Crispy Beer-Battered Chicken Strips
Although associated with health risks and low-class eats, there’s nothing that can rival the crispy outside, juicy inside, and intense flavors frying offers.
Forgotten Feast II: Offal Rising
Offal’s descent into ignominy is a mainly Western, modern phenomenon that is tightly bound up with issues of class. But there are pockets of our food culture that have either never stopped eating the “humble” parts or who have returned to it, finding something wholesome, exotic, or even erotic about it.
Forgotten Feast I: The Descent of Offal
Offal occupies a central place in my kitchen–but many Americans would never even try it, let alone attempt to cook with it themselves. In this article, I explore how offal used to be an integral part of the Western diet, and why it has suffered a fall from grace in modern times.
“…Into something rich and strange” Part II: A Recipe for Bone Broth
Most people would just throw away the bones of their rotisserie chicken or spare ribs, seeing only trash, but the right eyes will recognize their worth. By first roasting and them simmering them for hours, you’ll get a bone broth that is better than anything you could get at the store, and which can breathe life into your soups, your sauces, your braised meats, and so much more…
“…Into something rich and strange” Part I: The Philosophy of a Foodie
This blog celebrates all the strange and wondrous foods that our world has to offer—especially those products that have become forgotten or despised. Part and parcel of this is encouraging respect for the whole plant or animal and minimizing waste—the bones, tongue, and liver of the cow are just as desirable as the loin, the beets greens as savory as the beets themselves…
