What's for dinner?

Butter is one of my favorite ingredients and I use an absurd amount in a week. I do not use a lot of vegetable oil except for making play-dough. Olive oil is another story. Tonight's dinner begins by warming vegetable oil in my favorite LeCreuset. InstaPots and crockpots are all the rage, but I love my dutch oven! 

When the oil makes it first pop, I add the flour, turn down the heat and stir. And stir. And stir. And stir. I also smell. Color only takes you so far and it's easy to scorch your roux. Yep, you, making a roux! If you can wait out the timely process (20 to 30 minutes for a beginner), the roux will reward your whole creation. You'll get to a butterscotch color and feel a little antsy about burning it or how long it is taking. Wait it out. Then comes a peanut butter color, and if you can wait just a couple more minutes of it on low heat you'll have a milk chocolate color and a robust flavor.  I added my onions first because I love the way they smell while cooking and my kids like them nice and translucent. Next, red peppers and celery (though the tradition calls for green peppers as part of the trinity), I am a west coaster AND want my kids to eat it, so I use red peppers. Let the vegetables soften while stirring so the roux does not burn. I added smoked sausage at this point and let it heat up. Then came the vegetable broth (it's what I had on hand and I am not about to follow Emeril's recipe to a T because I don't have time to make my own chicken broth while also making the roux and taking care of a toddler because I barely have time to finish my coffee). I tossed in two bay leaves and garlic, let it all cook for two hours. If you picked a great smoked sausage, there will be a ton of flavor and you don't have to go nuts with salt or other spices...certainly, if you are feeding it to kids, skip the cayenne pepper. You can always season your own with Crystal's hot sauce, cayenne or Ghost Pepper, if you want. 

After two hours, I smash 1/4 cube of butter with an equal amount of flour and then thicken the gumbo. While the gumbo thickens, start the rice. We like a sticky jasmine rice.

Here's my kid friendly recipe:

2/3 cup vegetable oil

2/3 cup flour

5 cups broth (I use vegetable paste rehydrated with boiling water)

2 cloves crushed garlic

1 medium yellow onion

1 red pepper

2 stocks of celery

1 smoked kielbasa sausage (chopped into small bite size quarters)

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup flour

2 bay leaves

gumbo file for serving, if you want.