Tasty Gumbo and Collard Greens

K & I often stroll over to the Farmer’s Market on 3rd St and have fun trying all the different ethnic foods. It’s truly a treasure trove of wonderful good eats! One place we keep on coming back to is the ‘Gumbo Pot.’ This wonderful place offers mouthwatering dishes such as gumbo, jambalaya, po’boys, and other great Cajun foods. Well, one rainy day at home with nothing to do, we decided to try our hand at making our own gumbo. We paired it with our homemade collard greens (delicious!) and cornbread. We really liked what we came up with and the dish was very filling. The recipe requires a lot of ingredients and may seem like a lot to do…BUT…it’s worth it and your stomach will be thanking you! So, are you feeling ambitious today? Craving good ol’ cajun food? Want to impress someone? Bored? Give this one a try!

p.s. don’t forget to add in a dash of hot sauce when enjoying this tasty dish

Seafood Sausage Gumbo

Things you need:

• 1 Ham hock
• Sausage (kielbasa or andouille) 1-2lbs; slice sausage
  Shrimp – 1-2lbs
  Bacon – 6-8 slices, diced
  Garlic – 2 cloves
  Onions – 1 Large
  Green Peppers – 1 Medium
  Celery – 5-8 stalks
  Canned Whole Tomatoes – 3/4 can
  2 cans of beef broth
  1 can of water
  Salt
  Pepper
  Thyme
  Oregano
  Red Pepper Flakes
• hot sauce

*After much research, we found out that there are many ingredients you can use to thicken the gumbo. We stuck to making a roux as our thickner.

What to Do

First begin by boiling a ham hock in beef broth and water.

Boil then simmer for at least 45 minutes. The meat should be soft by now and the broth should be infused with ham flavor.

Fry the bacon and save the drippings.

Create the Roux with the bacon fat and save it for later use. The roux is made by browning the flour into the bacon fat over medium heat–be careful not to burn it! Use equal parts flour to bacon fat. You should end up with a caramel color like roux.

Dice the veggies. Saute onions, garlic, green peppers, and celery for 5-10 minutes until softened. We didn’t really put too much color on the vegetables.

Add the canned tomatoes and the Roux.

Add in the sausage now with additional of the seasonings (salt, pepper, herbs).

Add in the beef broth prepared earlier.

Add in a good 5-6 dashes of hot sauce. Bring to boil and simmer for an hour. Twenty minutes prior to serving, add in the shrimp (you don’t want the shrimp overdone). Serve over rice.

DONE!

Collard Greens

what you need

• Collard Greens
• 1 Ham Hock
• Water
• 1/4 can tomato ( you can use the rest of the can that you didn’t use from the gumbo recipe)
• Salt/Pepper

What to Do

First begin by boiling a ham hock in water.  Bring to a boil and cook on a low temperature until the ham is really tender (about 1 hour).  Take the ham out and shred the meat into little pieces to be added later into your greens.

Next add your collard greens into the ham hock/water solution.  This should flavor your greens heavily with pork flavor goodness! Add your tomatoes  and shredded pork and cook on a low temperature for 10-15 minutes or until the solution is 3/4 reduced. The greens should be very very tender.

Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.

Enjoy!