Simple is what I am always looking for, but so many things that look to me like a piece of cake…turn out to be a croquembouche (that’s a different story). A pretty picture or an interesting story about the journey a recipe has made before it ends up in my hands easily sells me. I’m off to the grocery to get the ingredients…I can do that!
The next recipe that I am going to post on the Cooking page is one titled Gumbo Zeb (a greens gumbo). It comes from Crescent Dragonwagon’s book. (I know, the name has stopped you. She and her husband were flower-children who renamed themselves when they got married rather than submit to the usual name-changing custom. I’ve probably given you too much information. Would it help to say she is also a prolific author of beautiful children’s books?) Anyway, the Dairy Hollow House Soup & Bread cookbook was given to me by my sister-in-law, Wanda, a terrific cook and dear sister. Little did I expect that a cookbook author from New York City, now living in the Ozarks of Arkansas, would have anything really useful to say about gumbo, but her wonderful history of gumbo and her story about Gumbo des Herbes (Gumbo Zeb) sold me into trying it, and I’ve been making it ever since.
Basically, the recipe is for a gumbo base. The quantity is large enough so that you can cook one batch and have the makings for three or four pots of gumbo in your freezer. There are several steps to this recipe, so don’t let it scare you off. Once you’ve made the base and frozen the containers, it’s easy to have gumbo whenever you want it. You simply add chicken stock to the base, and you’re done.
But is anything really that simple? I guess you have probably figured out that I don’t get my chicken stock from the grocery store.
