Gumbo, Okra, and a Tale of Cultural Complications

Omg. No. You did NOT just put okra in my box. What am I supposed to do with it? Well, dear friend, you may actually dislike okra, I will admit that can happen. But, what I likely think is true is you THINK you dislike okra. You may have heard it's horrible, and just adopted that idea. You may have tried to cook it and experienced its... thickening ability... and been turned off forever. It's hard to love, I get that, but let me bend your ear for awhile, coax you into trying one more time, then if you still hate it, that's just fine.

This is an okra plant. I know, I know. I once heard a lady tell a story where she just loooved okra. She grew a bunch of plants in her backyard and was dismayed to come out and find her beloved plants denuded. Turns out her neighbor thought she was growing Marijuana. Even the police didn't believe he was that dumb until he hurt himself jumping her fence. Lord knows what that itchy stuff that causes skin rashes does when you try to smoke it...Anyway, it's a nice looking plant.

It also has really nice looking flowers. I wish my phone took nicer pictures, but I give that up to have a sturdier drop/run-over-proof phone. 

Gumbo doesn't seem like a very exceptional dish. If you've lived in California all your life, you probably haven't developed preconceived notions about it, and probably not really ever tried it. This is not true if you live in the South. Gumbo is a dish rich with as much tradition as taste. I've hunted up some interesting articles and linked them for your further reading if you should be interested. I've pulled the interesting things out if I only have 5 minutes of your attention. Click Here for a cool PBS page if you've only got 2 minutes.

Gumbo is a food deeply rooted in place. The way you even begin the dish owes a lot to mixed cultural heritage. Food 52 looks at the way Louisiana was colonized to understand gumbo:

"The state was originally colonized by French and Spanish settlers, and gumbo may have been a direct descendent of the French seafood soup bouillabaisse. The presence of roux, or flour-based thickener, is also distinctly French -- although gumbo roux is much darker than the French variety, having been prepared with flour that is browned in oil or fat of some kind. Spanish settlers contributed sofrito, the combination of onion, garlic, peppers, and tomatoes cooked in olive oil. In Cajun and Creole cooking, an iteration of this -- celery, bell peppers, and onions -- is known as “the Trinity,” and with the addition of garlic it becomes “The Holy Trinity.” The name “gumbo” itself is derived from the West African word for “okra”, which is an ingredient found in many versions of the dish. Native American Choctaws added filé (ground and dried sassafrass leaves) to the mix, which is frequently used in gumbos instead of or in addition to okra."

What I wonder about the name: gumbo- did it come from Africa with the Moors when they entered Spain, then to the U.S. with colonization? Or was this a tradition transported via slavery? The south has obvious connections to Africa via slavery and This National Parks Service Site notes that:

"Congo Square, near the future site of New Orleans Jazz NHP, was one of only 2 areas in the United States where African drumming, singing, and dancing was permitted during the mid-eighteenth to nine-teenth century."

It makes you wonder...

Not all gumbo is created equal however. As much of a mixing pot as it is, people have their "own" gumbo and believe it to be the best. Lousiana's Folk Life informs us that you can tell where a person is from by the what they put in gumbo and they way it's served. (I'm going to go out on a limb and say a big NO to potato salad):

"Although people in all parts of South Louisiana make meat and sausage gumbo thicken with filé, seafood gumbo thickened with okra is more common along the coast, where seafood is more plentiful. If you make duck, venison, or squirrel gumbo, you most likely have a hunter in the family. If you put a scoop of potato salad in your gumbo before serving, you likely have some German influence. If you make the much less common, meatless gumbo z'herbes for Lent, you are likely Catholic and your family has been in Louisiana many generations. You are less likely to find this in many of the Cajun and Creole cookbooks so readily available now. And if your family wants to extend the gumbo, you might add boiled eggs."

This National Parks Service Site also seems to be making a somewhat cryptic argument that New Orleans Jazz music is as tied up in gumbo as okra is. I didn't see any recipe or links to anything other than soundbites... maybe you're better at the internet than I am, so poke around or just get a visual recipe from them for "Jazz Gumbo". 

PBS  notes that the peppers used to make the dish spicy themselves have a story:

"In the 1840s, hundreds of Louisianans went off to fight in the Mexican War. They returned with Mexican pepper seeds and a passion for heat. Adding green peppers to sauces and to meats kept foods from spoiling in the era before refrigeration. Eating pickled and raw peppers is still a popular Louisiana bar-room contest."

Gumbo seems to be a metaphor for itself: a great mix of ingredients and cultures that when brought together, are better for it. Though, gumbo wasn't universally celebrated. Before the Cajun craze in the 80's, it was thought of as "poor food" or "ethnic food" with some seriously negative, seriously racial connotations. The Atlantic explains the origin of the word "Creole" used synonymously with Cajun to describe the kind of cooking that gumbo falls into: 

"The word evolved from crioulo , a Portuguese term applied to slaves of African descent but born in the New World. Later, the definition expanded to include people of European descent born in the New World, as well. In French and Spanish Louisiana, and especially after the territory became part of the U.S., "Creole" came to signify people of all ethnicities (except Native Americans) who were "native" to Louisiana--especially French-speaking New Orleanians of European descent and the free people of color whose numbers and influence in the city were unusual when compared to the rest of the South."

Wherever it came from, however it was formed, one thing is true: gumbo is delicious. One thing is also kind of true: there are few wrong ways to make gumbo. Whatever you do, don't snub okra just yet. Give it a try!

Below is an obvious adulteration of the dish. I have not yet covered vegetarian gumbo because it is not traditional. Not eating meat is a modern luxury. We have access, even if we're poor, to high quality proteins that can substitute meat in sufficient quanities. This was not always the case, especially in the south. If you were poor, you were probably eating squirrel or rabbit gumbo, or shellfish gumbo depending on where you lived- probably drug home from a day's hunt. But here, I give you the option. Make it veggie- use veggie stock, miso, heck- even tofu! Make it seafood- use seafood stock, shrimp, shellfish, and whitefish! Make it savory and southwest inspired- use chilies, chorizo and corn. Just because you know and understand the history of this dish does not mean you are bound to it! Enjoy!

Vegetable Gumbo

2 Spring onions, diced

3 Bell Peppers, diced

4 Ribs Celery, diced
4-7 cloves garlic, smashed

Okra, sliced

6 C stock

1 basket cherry toms, roasted

1 ½ tsp Cajun seasoning

Salt to taste

Heat a thin layer of oil in a dutch oven until oil shimmers. Add onions, garlic and peppers and slightly brown. Add all  the rest of the veggies and cook until some color develops. Slowly add stock allowing pot to deglaze. Add cherry tomatoes and seasoning and cook until veggies are done and soup has thickened. Serve over cooked rice.

Variations:

Add chilies-roasted, fresh, rehydrated

Add sausage to the pan with the veggies

Add seafood at the end

Add other veggies! Corn, roasted tomatillos, squash!

Make your own Cajun seasoning! Save $

Make it veggie- use veggie stock and add miso paste for umami flavor