Spicy Meat Gumbo

My friend Mark came over for dinner last Tuesday and as he's a strapping lad and fellow meat-lover, I knew this recipe would fit the bill: Spicy Meat Gumbo.  It’s from Jamie Oliver’s “Jamie’s America”, which is divided into six chapters, each one focussing on recipes from a different American state or area (New York, Louisiana, Arizona, Georgia and the Wild West).  This is from the chapter on Louisiana and is a rather soupy meat stew, served with rice.  Jamie is very pedantic about ingredients but in case you’re put off by his list of commands recipe below, you should know that:

• Tesco do mixed packs of free range chicken drumsticks and thighs (£3.50 for around 7 pieces), so don’t stress yourself hunting around for them separately.
• One of those little packs of ready-cut bacon lardons work brilliantly in place of the suggested bacon.
• Chorizo also works well (good luck with finding andouille outside of London) but don’t forget to skin it before you slice it.
• Chicken stock cubes dissolved in hot water works perfectly well in place of the chicken stock (use a decent brand though and don't forget to use less salt as stock cubes are very salty).
• Dried bay leaves instead of fresh are fine.

Spicy Meat Gumbo (serves 6-8)

4 chicken thighs, skin on, preferably free-range and organic

4 chicken drumsticks, skin on, preferably free-range and organic

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Olive oil

400g smoked sausage, such as andouille or fresh chorizo, thickly sliced

4 rashers of smoked streaky bacon, the best quality you can afford, roughly chopped

1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped

1 green pepper, deseeded and chopped

1 yellow pepper, deseeded and chopped

4 sticks of celery, trimmed and finely chopped

3 heaped tablespoons of plain flour

6 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped

1 kg sweet potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped

6 sprigs of fresh thyme

4 fresh bay leaves

1.5 litres chicken stock, preferably organic

A small bunch of fresh curly parsley

4 spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced

1. Season the chicken with salt, pepper, paprika and cayenne.  Put a large pot on a high heat, add a little olive oil and fry the chicken, sausage and bacon for around 15 minutes, or until golden brown and crispy.  Remove the browned meat pieces to a dish, leaving behind what looks like a scary amount of fat – don’t be tempted to discard any of it as you’ll need it to make the roux.
2. Turn the heat down and add the celery, onion and peppers to the pan.  Slowly stir and fry these for around 10 minutes, until they have softened.  Now for the roux.  Add the flour to the veg and stir thoroughly.  In order to give the roux maximum flavour, you have to take your time with this stage and make sure that it’s gently browned and everything is cooked evenly.  You should cook it for at least 10 minutes (and up to 30 minutes if you have time), stirring every now and then.  Jamie suggests that dark is good here (not burnt obviously) and says “peanut butter colour is a good starting point” (just as well as the book doesn’t come with a colour swatch).
3. Once your roux has achieved the Jamie-approved hue, add the garlic, sweet potatoes, browned meats, thyme and bay leaves and stir and fry for a further minute.  Pour in the hot chicken stock, bring to the boil and then pop a lid on the pan and turn the heat down and leave the gumbo to simmer for around 45 minutes.  When it’s done, the sweet potatoes will be soft and have thickened the gumbo slightly.  I did as Jamie suggested and fished out the chicken pieces and shredded the meat off the bones with a fork, discarding the skin and bones, before returning the meat to the pan.
4. Taste the gumbo and season if necessary.  Roughly chop the parsley and stir it in, before ladling the gumbo over bowls of cooked white rice (Basmati every time in this household – Uncle Ben can keep his American rice).  Scatter over the chopped spring onion before serving. 

Tabasco is a sound addition to this, I think, as despite the title, the gumbo is savoury rather than hot.  Don’t be tempted to miss out the spring onion, it does add extra flavour and crunch as well as a splash of colour.  This would be a really good dish to cook when you’ve got large numbers of people to feed.  It’s very hearty and bolstering and, if I’m honest, could never be put in the category “diet food”.  Mark and I went for it properly and followed it with all-American cherry pie and vanilla ice-cream.