Gumbo

On Wednesday, during my class, we were suppose to make two soups with a partner, using old, frozen products, and have at least one classic cut in the dish. I was dreading dreading dreading this class like you would not believe. I paid $600 for lab fees that would go to fresh ingredients, not old crap you are trying to get rid of. Ok, I understand that in a restaurant, you always use the old stuff first, but I'm paying to cook, I'm not getting paid. That's really what bothered me. Also, on Monday, in my actual Soups and Sauces class, we made like three different soups. I WAS DONE WITH SOUP! DONE FINISHED THROUGH! My partner had already started on making a chicken curry soup, which actually sounded good. I looked at the cart full of products, and ham and okra caught my eye. Then, I saw some chicken and mirepoix (Mirepoix-carrots, celery, and onions), and I thought, alright, time to make some craptastic GUMBO!
I chopped up half a green bell pepper that my partned didn't need and the mirepoix into small dices. The okra was so incredibly slimy that I had to rinse under cold running water for 20 minutes, even after then it was still a litttle slimy, but I guess it adds flavor and I TRIED OK? I then chopped the ham and the chicken. I through it all in a pot and sauteed it until the chicken was done. I deglazed the pot with some white wine. Since we ran out of REAL chicken stock, I secretly made chicken stock using chicken base (SHHHH don't tell me teacher). I made a combination of spices, such as cayenne, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, and pepper. I add it to the pot and coated all the yummies. I then add about a Quart and half of chicken stock and 1 cup of heavy cream. I then added about 6 drops of Tabasco sauce. The broth was still soupy and thin so I borrowed another group's roux (Roux- equal parts of fat and flour) to thicken it. FAIL. So I made a slurry (Slurry- equal parts cornstarch and cold water) to get it thickening. I added a crapton of that and brought it to a boil. It thickened up perfectly and had a nice shine to it. I quickly cooked some rice and through it all in a bowl.
In my class we have contests. I have never placed in any of them, and I didn't really give to flying (you know), and I knew my teacher would tell me mine was horrible. He went around to everyone and told us his criticism. Mine was all very good. He then told third place. Wasn't surprised to not hear my name. He ten second and first place were really close. He then said someone else's name, again not surprised. And then first place "The gumbo, Madison". I was in shock. I won and I was super happy. I thought using these crappy ingredients would ruin the dish. That's when I realized that it doesn't matter what you are working with, it is about how you treat the ingredients and bring out the beauty in each of them. I could have not cared and not let everything cook well or long enough. But, I knew that I still cared enough to put out a good dish and respect what I was doing. That is how I put out a good dish, even if I hadn't gotten "First".
Just remember, respect and care for ingredients makes a delicious meal.

Ok ready for the recipe? I still barely measured anything, hopefully I get it right.

Faux Gumbo

Ingredients:
-1 medium onion, small diced
-2 carrots, small diced
-3 celery stalks, small diced
-1 green bell pepper, small diced
-1 frozen bag of okra
-2 roma tomatoes (Wasn't in what I made, but I wish it was), diced
-1.5 lb chicken breast, diced
-3/4 lb of ham, diced
-Half a cup of white wine
-1 tbsp of cayenne, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder
-2 Quarts(64 0z) of chicken stock
-1 cup of heavy cream
-6-10 drop of Tabasco sauce (depends on how spicy you want it)
-Slurry, 1/4 cup of cornstarch and water, stir right before adding,
-1 cup or rice, 2 cups of water, 1 tbsp of butter (should be enough)
-Chopped chives, for garnish, optional
-Salt and Pepper, TT

Directions:
-Cook rice.
-Saute mirepoix, peppers, okra, tomatoes, chicken and ham together in a deep pot. When done cooking, let it sit in the pot for five minutes on low and then add white wine. Let the wine reduce, another 10 minutes while stirring occasionally. Then add half of the blended spices and coat all the sauteed yummies.
-Add stock and cream. After blended, add Tabasco sauce. Add the rest of the spices to your tasting. Salt and pepper. Add more pepper than salt. It's a little thin, right? Add the slurry in, and bring to a boil. If it isn't thickened to your liking, repeat process.
-Let simmer until the rice is down.
-Ladle soup into a bowl and pour a spoonful of rice over. Chop chives and place all over the soup.
-Serve and Enjoy!

Remember cook with love and respect, and you will get a delicious meal.

"Shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. There's uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That- that's about it."
-Bubba, from Forrest Gump