Monday, September 13, 2010

Gumbo 'n' Cornbread

Although I was raised in the Mid-South, gumbo's really a deep, deep South thing. It's far more popular in New Orleans and parts of Southern Louisiana. To be honest, I'm not sure I've even tried meat gumbo. It often contains seafood, and my family just didn't eat seafood at all. But since I'm writing a Southern cookbook, gumbo is mandatory, right? That's why I developed (and am re-testing) this Tempeh Gumbo:

That's fresh okra you see, paired with cubes of sauteed tempeh and some stewed tomatoes. And that's all fine and good, but the real secret to a tasty gumbo is the roux. The combination of flour cooked in fat is essential and it's gotta be cooked for quite some time. Lots of standing over the stove and stirring constantly. For tips on how to roux, check out this old post from roux-master Kittee Kake.

I paired my gumbo with a warm, split Hush Puppy Corn Muffin (another tester for the cookbook) topped with tomato marmalade:

Let's talk about that marmalade! I buy it at the Memphis Farmers Market. It's homemade by Carolyn Dodson-King, an awesome lady who makes adorable aprons (I have two from her!) and homemade jams and jellies. The tomato marmalade is one of my faves, but it's hard to come by a jar as it goes quite fast:

Last week, I purchased a jar of zucchini marmalade from Carolyn, but I'm waiting to get through my tomato jar before I open it. I've never even heard of zucchini marmalade, but it sounds amazing. I'll keep y'all posted on that.

10 comments:

Babette said...

I seriously can't wait for your cookbook to come out!

Gumbo is so yummy and that muffin looks perfect!

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Anonymous said...

Mmm! I'm from LA and I love me some gumbo! It's funny, I just learned in my African American History class that the word Gumbo comes the African word kinngombo, meaning okra. Neato, huh?! I'm new to the vegan blog world, but for the past 2 weeks, your blog has been my fav out of all the vegan sites...your recipes really hit home...go girl!

Mihl said...

I have a jar of tomato jam in the fridge, which I bought in Portugal. I had no idea what to do with it. Thank you for this post!

Unknown said...

The hush puppy and tomato marmalade looks amazing! I'd be all over that ;)

Annie said...

I love everything about this post!

Anonymous said...

I made gumbo not too long ago and it was really yummy, but I think it would have been even yummier with tempeh. Can't wait to try your recipe sometime! I've had seafood gumbo in the past. Some of them were good, but some were way too fishy-tasting for me.

River said...

*WANT* That is one rad looking gumbo. Tomato marmalade? Zucchini marmalade? Interesting stuff, I can't even picture what something like that would taste like!

PaganAngel said...

My future mother-in-law is Argentine and makes a "dulce de tomate" that may be similar to what you buy. It's a bit sweet for me, but I guess you can adjust the sugar to how you like it. If you're interested, I'll get the recipe from her, I don't think it's too much more difficult than cooking tomatoes in sugar.

Monique a.k.a. Mo said...

Why have I never heard of tomato marmalade before?!