Gumbo - and Games!

Aside from the obvious benefits of this amazing trip (the privilege of working with Marc, the travel opportunities viz-a-viz surfing and The Best Camping Trip Ever), the highlight has been the amazing friends we have made in Val and Mike. We just "clicked". We shared so many good times, and they both bent over backwards (or, should we say, climbed walls) to make me (and later, Sean) feel welcome and included.


Making good friends while travelling is the kind of souvenir that lasts a lifetime.


So, Val and Mike, this one's for you two.


One of the many things we have in common is our love for, appreciation of, and enjoyment of cooking, good food.


During a foodie conversation early in the piece, I mentioned how I had become increasingly aware of America's unique culinary offerrings, and added that I had always been fascinated by the concept of "gumbo".


("Gumbo" itself is one of those evocative words, isn't it? I mean, "gumbo" rhymes with "mumbo", and "jumbo"........... it conjours up all sorts of images. For me, it used to make me think of something between claggy, gooey green soup, and Dumbo the elephant. But maybe I'm just strange).


Sensing my combination of enthusiasm and ignorance, Val and Mike magnaminously invited Sean and I over for dinner during my final week in Santa Cruz. Mike committed to dedicate all of his spare time during said week to the careful and loving concoction of Authentic Gumbo a-la Mike.


Right up front, I'm going to say that making gumbo is NOT a minor undertaking, either in terms of the extent and expense of ingredients required, or the preparation time. We were both awed and grateful.

So now it's..........

COOKING CLASS TIME!!!

For those similarly ignorant to me, a tutorial a-la Mike:


"Gumbo is one of three variants of popular “soup over rice” style dishes made in Louisiana.  Étouffée is gumbo with a lighter roux; caramel colored rather than “two shades less than burnt”.  Étouffée also uses butter at the end of the recipe for an extra luxuriousness.  Jambalaya uses most of the same ingredients as gumbo and étouffée, but swaps the roux-base for a spicy tomato-based sauce.  Originally gumbo was served after straining the all vegetables out (can you imagine!?!) and without rice; just a spicy meat and broth soup.  Adding rice made the expensive soup go farther.  And even today, while most gumbos don’t strain out the vegetables, they do chop them fine so that they disappear texturally from the dish.  If you look online for recipes there are tons of them and lots of opinions.  My 2 cents of what should be in a gumbo is this: savory notes from vegetables, potent spice from garlic, sausage and pepper, rich flavor of a dark roux, the “full” flavor from clam juice and shrimp broth, and the pleasing mix of textures from shrimp and properly sized cuts of vegetables and sausage."


Do you begin to get a sense of the extent of preparation involved here?


Maybe some pictures would help (thanks Mike for both photos and captions!)

Here is all the stuff chopped up and ready to go:

That's a LOT of chopping. Note especially the andouille sausage - I hope I can find this is Australia. It's amazing.

Next, preparation of large prawns (hats off, Mike, I always loathe removing their poo-tubes!):

Here  is the roux before cooking (just flour and oil) + dry ingredients that get added later:

And here is the roux after cooking (still just flour and oil, but much darker):

A quick run to Safeway en route to Mike and Val's equates to Sean's and my sole contribution to this amazing concoction:

And now, presenting..........................*drumroll please*....................................................

MIKE'S GUMBO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's a "mood" shot*

Mike is triumphantly serving his gumbo; Sean is looking super-keen:

* "mood" = excuse word for "blurry"

The remainder of the prawns ready to be added to second helpings - all round!

This is another entry where I need Taste-Internet to fully share the experience with you.

Suffice to say, it was SO good, that I'd describe it if I could. We almost licked the pattern off the bowls. Spicy, fresh, fragrant, rich.............

*thunk*

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Excuse me. I just fainted from the sheer memory of how outstandingly good Mike's Gumbo tasted.

*wipes drool from keyboard*

After the gumbo had been consumed and the subsequent near-catatonic state of ecstasy had somewhat subsided, we weren't quite in the mood to contemplate dessert. Respect for the gumbo deemed that we waited awhile. 

So we got stuck into some board games. Val and Mike are the MASTERS when it comes to board and card games. Over the month I was in Santa Cruz, they introduced me to about 10 new games.

I'd forgotten just how fun games can be! Especially with Val, whose competitive streak, while similar to mine, is far more hilarious. Here is a hypothetical example:

Val (to Mike, during team game involving both partners needing to have matched written responses):                            Honey, why did you write that?!

Mike (defensive):                 I thought you would have put down "cucumber" for sure.

Val:   Cucumber?                  Why would I write "cucumber" as something to buy at a mall?

Mike (rationalising):             Well, you bought all those cucumbers the other day.

Val (frustrated):                   Honey, this is MALL, not SUPERMARKET! I mean, WTF?!?!

Mike:                                      Hey, I wasn't to know. I was just trying to think what you'd

                                                likely write.

Val (incredulous, seriously frustrated): Honey, I love you, but seriously, WTF?!?!

Mike (capitulating):             Gah!!! Okay, sorry!

Val (reassuring):                   It's okay. Good job, honey. Good job.

Actually, this hypothetical is a bit unfair on Mike. In reality, it was Sean who listed "Woolworths" (and ONLY "Woolworths") as a likely store one would find in a mall. I just couldn't remember any actual examples from Mike and Val, because I was too busy lying on the floor laughing hysterically and trying to remember how to breathe.

This is a picture of Sean and my favourite game from among the many to which we were introduced. It's called "Spot It!", it's deceptively simple in concept, and it's absolutely hilarious to play. Mike may disagree, as we tended to victimise him somewhat.

For those in Australia, fear not, we ended up buying the last available "Spot It!" in Santa Cruz (thanks to Mike arranging to have it held) and will soon be bringing it to a dinner party near you!

When it came to dessert, our chocolate cake was a relatively feeble offerring in comparison to the grandeur of gumbo, but it was nonetheless tasty (chocolate is never a bad thing).

I think here Val is lovingly outlining to Mike her case for a larger slice of cake.

It was 1am before we could tear ourselves away.

Thanks again, Val and Mike, for an amazing evening, for the insanely wonderful gumbo (and the subsequent photos and recipe), and most of all, for the gift of your friendship.