Last night I did a benefit for Environment for America, called Gumbo for the Gulf.
There were about 20 people. I used Susan Spicer’s recipe for duck & Andouille sausage gumbo – but I made it with chicken thighs and a local Andouille – this is Wisconsin, after all. I left the okra out, too.
I made vegetarian red bean & rice – they were a little spicier than the gumbo. I was worried about burning myself when I was browning the roux – everyone says it’s like lava. But it was the beans instead. After they were cooked, I was moving the beans off the stove with an old oven mitt, that had been burned itself and run through the wash so that the hand was nothing but a loop – that looped on the stove grate, and the beans sloshed over the top of the pot, my hand, and all down the fronts of the drawers under the cooktop, and splat on the floor. I ran my hand under cold water and no harm done. The rest was the kind of spill that took a long time to clean; had to open all the drawers and wipe the edges & use paper towel to get the beans up off the floor.
I used wrapped brunch leftovers to make a lagniappe – mushroom pastry. And sorta bananas Foster for dessert – bananas fried in butter and brown sugar, and served over ice cream.
Posted from my iPhone
