TJ Kong

Ingredients:

1 onion
1 red bell pepper
3 celery stalks
500 g chicken thighs
125 g chorizo in one piece
6 tablespoons oil
3 full tablespoons of flour
2 chicken bouillon tablets
3 tablespoons Cajun seasoning (see my own recipe)
1 zucchini
3 spring onions
1 / 2 bag of parsley (or 30 g)

Preparation:

Chop the Onion, bell pepper and celery stalks. Cut the chicken breasts into chunks and slice the chorizo.

In s skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of oil and gently fry the chorizo for about 3 minutes. Remove the chorizo from the pan. Fry the chicken in the pan (in the chorizo fat) until it’s lightly browned. Crumble the bouillon tablets into the pan, add half of the cajun seasoning and 3/4 litres of water. Boil chicken for about 30 minutes.

Now on to the most important part: making the cajun roux. Put 4 tablespoons of oil and 3 full tablespoons of flour in a heavy saucepan. Take a wooden spoon and stir until a smooth paste is created. Keep the heat fairly high and keep stirring. After a few minutes the roux begins to colour. The temperature of the oil is now far beyond the second degree, so beware of splashes! The colour changes from vanilla, to corn, to coffee latte. Keep stirring, reducing the heat a bit. After the coffee latte phase the roux begins to develop a nutty flavour….. you are almost there. Keep stirring until the roux is brown. Now it might even begin to smoke a little bit. Decide for yourself when you stop. The die-hards will continue to dark chocolate-brown. In any case: in the end it goes very fast and the difference between success and failure (= burning the roux) is a matter of seconds! Moreover, the internal heat is so great that turning off the gas won’t help. The secret is: the darker the roux, the more flavour it has.

At the moment your roux is the right colour add the chopped onion, bell pepper and celery. Stir a few times and let it gently simmer for about 10 minutes.

Then, while stirring, add the bouillon with the chicken, as well as the chorizo and the other half of the cajun seasoning. Clean and dice the zucchini, cut the spring onions into rings and chop the parsley. Add these to the gumbo as well and let it simmer for another 15 minutes. For a luxurious version add some crayfish or prawns.

Traditionally the gumbo is served with rice…..I prefer pasta shells (or farfalle).