Ok. It's chilly outside and time for some comfort food. I got to get home from out of state a little early today and happened to have a pound of Gulf shrimp, a pound of smoked sausage and some previously grilled chicken in the fridge...

Do I make Jambalaya or Gumbo? Well Gumbo keeps better so Gumbo it was...

Fried up the sausage in a little oil, got it brown and removed it from the pan. Added about 1/4 cup of butter and about 3/4 cup of flour and stirred all that fat and flour together until it looked like chocolate and smelled like popcorn.

Meanwhile Mrs. Irish is chopping up a vidalia onion, a bell pepper, and a few stalks of celery. So once the roux is done I throw all that in there and stop the roux from cooking. Then I pour in a box of Beef bone broth and add 1/4 cup of Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper, red pepper flakes, parsley, and a couple of bay leaves and some garlic.... Oh and a can of tomatoes and about 2 cups or so of frozen chopped okra. (I usually fry up the okra in bacon grease, but tonight I wanted to get this done.)

I let all that cook while we have a beer or two and talk.

Then I start the rice and let it cook for about 20 minutes.

When it's almost done I put a little olive oil on the griddle and season and grill some French bread.

While that's cooking I put in some File gumbo into the pot and add the shrimp Mrs. Irish has been peeling. I let that go for about 5 minutes or less.

Pull everything off and serve over the rice and garnish with a little chopped green onions and a little Tabasco sauce.

Beautiful.

me and a couple buddies got together under my barn Saturday night and made a big pot of gumbo and had a few beers. Love some gumbo.

Thanks. I tasted even better than it looks. God I love Cajun food. Hell, I love all food!

Hard to beat some Gumbo.

Man that looks great. Love gumbo also. But I can't seem to make it right the couple of times I tried it.

4 bowls of gumbo and 10 or so beers makes for an interesting bathroom schedule the next day...

Looks wonderful. Can’t do shell fish here so it is chicken and sausage when I make it, but that looks mighty fine!!

You're just over in Pelham, we should get together one night and I'll show you how I make it while you cook it. Heck if LSU fans can make it, it can't be too hard! Right?

A couple of key things. Get the roux dark. I have my gas stove on medium and use about 2 parts flour to 1 part oil or butter. Beef broth helps make it darker and richer. Same goes for the 1/4 cup of Worcestershire sauce. The File gumbo at the end really seems to tighten everything up at the last.

Speaking of shell fish, When I have some fresh oysters, that's when it is best, I chop them up and throw them in there and it gives it a nice earthy flavor. I think next time I'm going to put in about a table spoon of fish sauce (Maybe start with a teaspoon. That crap is strong ) and see how that does. I think the fish sauce may do the same thing.

That's quite a brew but oh so worth it.

Let me know, have truck will travel.

Nice.