Yesterday I finally got to cook some food so I spent all day in the kitchen. My favorite kind of Sunday.

I made a dish from the Cooking Up A Storm cookbook. The dish was Chicken and Sausage gumbo.

I’m going to try to take you step by step through my process with photos below.

Ingredients:

1   4-5 lb chicken cut into serving pieces
Salt
Cayenne pepper
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups chopped yellow onions
1 cup chopped green bell peppers
1/2 cup chopped celery
About 2 1/2 quarts chicken broth
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 lb andouille sausage sliced 1/4 inch thick
1/4 cup chopped green onions (white and green parts)
2 tbs chopped fresh parsley
Hot cooked rice for serving

First I combined the oil and flower to make the roux. I stirred it very often for about 45 minutes till brown.

Here it is after about 20 mins. It’s a little darker

This is after about 45 minutes. It’s pretty dark. I probably should have made it a little darker but I was getting impatient so I moved on to the next step.

Next I added the chopped onion, bell pepper and celery.

I cooked this for about 10 minutes till the vegetables were really soft.

I added the chicken broth, stirred to blend well, then I added the bay leaf, thyme and chicken and brought it to a boil. Once it was boiling, I lowered it to a simmer and cooked it for 3 hours.

After 3 hours I added the sausage, green onions and the parsley. I tasted it to check the seasonings. I then added some cayenne pepper and some salt. Boy was it good!

I also made a seafood gumbo that I’ll give the recipe for at another time.

So my Sunday dinner consisted of 2 kinds of gumbo and some delicious corn bread pancakes.
The corn bread pancakes were good but I still need to perfect this a little bit.

For lunch today I made corn chowder. I’ve never made it before but I needed to use the corn I picked up on Sunday from the Farmers Market.
I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out. I think it will be even better tomorrow. One thing I’d probably do different next time is to either use whole milk instead of 2% or cut down on the lowfat milk and mix some heavy cream with it.

The recipe is after the photos. Note: I quadrupled the recipe because I like to have a lot of leftovers.

The picture below is step 2 of the recipe. You add the stripped corn cobs to the soup to help make the broth. They get removed after 30 minutes.

Corn Chowder Recipe

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Tonight  I made a great dish called Ficase De Pollo (Cuban Chicken Stew). I make this about once a month. It’s pretty easy to make and there’s a ton of leftovers. It’s even better the next day.

Recipe after the photo

Ingredients:

8-10 chicken thighs

3 tbs extra virgin olive oil

1 onion (diced)

1 Green Bell Pepper (diced)

5 Potatoes (largely diced)

4 Carrots (sliced)

4 packets of Sazon Goya (mexican spice)

1 28 oz Can of Tomato Sauce

2 cups white wine

2 cups of water

2 tbs cumin

salt and pepper to taste

4 cloves garlic

1 jar of green olives

Preparation

In a large pot, brown chicken and set aside.
On medium high heat, add onion, peppers and carrots to pan and cook till tender (about 10 minutes)
Add garlic and cook for 1 minute
Add Sazon Goya, cumin and stir
Add wine and cook for about 2 minutes
Add chicken, potatoes, olives and water
Cover and cook on medium low for about 2 hours.

Serve with white rice

add potatoes,

A Christmas tradition at our house is a dungenes crab feast. I always make sure I get more crab than I need so O can make crab cakes the next day. This recipe is made Louisiana style with creole seasoning and the “holy trinity”, which is onions, celery and bell peppers. So far it is the best tasting crab cakes I’ve ever had. It is better and much cheaper than you will get in even the finest restaurants. As a bonus, I show you a quick and easy caesar salad recipe. I’m getting hungry just writing this!
Recipe follows:

Note: I had 2 lbs of crab so I quadrupled this recipe on the episode

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 1/4 cup finely chopped green bell pepper
• 3 tablespoons finely chopped celery
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon sour cream
• 1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 3/4 teaspoon cayenne
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons thinly sliced scallion greens
• 16 saltines, finely ground
• 1/2 lb jumbo lump crabmeat, picked over
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

• Accompaniments: tartar sauce and lemon wedgesCook onion, bell pepper, and celery in 1 tablespoon butter in a 10-inch nonstick skillet over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are softened, about 8 minutes.Whisk together egg, sour cream, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, cayenne, and salt in a large bowl, then stir in scallion, cooked vegetables, and 1/4 cup saltine crumbs. Gently stir in crabmeat, then form into 4 cakes (2 1/2 to 3 inches in diameter). Dredge cakes in remaining saltine crumbs.Heat oil and remaining 2 tablespoons butter in cleaned skillet over moderate heat until foam subsides, then cook crab cakes, turning once, until golden brown, 8 minutes total.