We tried making a pot last night for dinner and it was semi-successful, certainly edible, but the wife didn't seem to care for it. Can anybody make a good batch of this shit and share a secret or two? We tried it with andouille sausage, shrimps, crab meat and okra. It worked for meh, but it was maybe a little too bland. What should I do next time?

cayan pepper

Does it have to be authentic? Buy a box of zateran's (sp) and cheat.

I like this stuff:
http://www.google.com/products?sourceid ... CCIQzAMwAw

did you cook the roux until it was a caramel color?

It may have been a bit lighter than that, maybe gravy colored. But I was hongry and maybe started adding other shit too soon.

I do that a lot for a quick jambalaya.

take the time to get it a dark caramel color. it makes all the difference.

I don't think roux is supposed to be "gravy colored". That's the base of flavor for the entire pot. If you don't cook it long enough, there's nothing you can do to save your gumbo.

It was cooking and I was stirring it, but it wasn't changing much. The wife could've fucked it up. She doesn't like to follow recipes to the tee like I do.

yeah...i just said that. thanks.

Alton did an episode on this and explained how hard it was to get the roux right. He ended up cheating and making his roux in the oven, I think. Prolly worth looking for on You Tube. All of the Good Eats episodes are on there.

Did you use some file' powder on the finished product? That makes a huge difference in taste.

I think the problem was getting a woman involved. This sounds like man's work.

I didn't know anything about that. I just mixed in cayenne pepper, black pepper, and salt at the end like the shit called for.

Women mess up a lot of things.