The weather has had fits and spurts of cooling, but it looks like New Orleans is finally in for a long stretch of brisk weather. As the rain clears out of the region, cold air will move in, finally providing that missing “fall feeling” for Louisiana residents.
What does that mean for many in the region? It’s gumbo weather! Plenty of people across the gulf south are going to fire up their tried and true (often handed down) gumbo recipes, but it can be easy to accidentally mess up all that hard work. Burning your roux, overcooking your sausage or rice, the risks of mucking up your gumbo are everywhere. Chef Mark Falgoust of the Mardi Gras School of Cooking in the French Quarter has plenty of tips to both spice up the flavor of your gumbo recipe and avoid messing it up for yourself and your guests. Falgout grew up fishing on the banks of the Mississippi River & graduated Delgado’s culinary program. He’s very enthusiastic when it comes to all the flavors of gumbo.
“You want to skim your gumbo. A lot of people don’t know that you have to do that. Skimming gives it a cleaner taste. The fat separates from the roux and rises to the top, and if you don’t skim that off it muddles the flavor of everything else and it’ll give your mouth a greasy feel,” Falgoust points out. He also recommends using a whisk instead of a spoon to stir the flour for your roux. “It just gets in there and moves the flour particles around more thoroughly than a spoon will,” Chef Falgoust adds.
One of the most common mistakes people make is burning their roux, and Falgoust has help for those folks. “You want your roux to be dark … just a little bit lighter than milk chocolate. Keep it moving, keep stirring it, but most importantly, have your trinity cut already! If you don’t have your trinity ready when the roux gets the right color, the roux can tend to overcook. If that happens, it can ruin your entire gumbo and you’ve done a whole bunch of work for nothing,” Falgoust warns.
“If I do a chicken stock at home, I like to add chicken feet, turkey wings and turkey necks, and call it a poultry stock,” Chef Mark recommends for extra flavor. “You want to use chicken thighs as opposed to chicken breasts. Chicken breast meat gets stringy and dry. Boneless, skinless chicken thighs are the way to go,” Falgoust says. “I also use bouillon powder instead of bouillon cubes, because it just integrates better, it’s easier to measure and you don’t have to wait for it to break down,” he also recommends. Chef Falgoust has worked in well-known local establishments like Commander’s Palace, Herbsaint, Peristyle, Cochon, and Grand Isle. While that’s an impressive resume, he attributes his ability to teach to the four years he spent preparing wild game at his duck camp. Needless to say, he knows his stuff, and his tips should be able to help both seasoned veterans of the gumbo game and newcomers alike.