Gumbo

She is Uncle Elfry's Wife, our Father's Brother. For those of you not familiar with Aunt Jeanne, she's one of those original souls that you just can't get enough of. She's almost a hundred....that means she damn near perfect! Being blind since she was in her thirties, she has a lot of things to say. Here is one of them..

Aunt Jeanne served Gumbo and potato salad with shrimp salad as an appetizer and rum cake for the finish. She did not give time frames to stage this masterpiece. But I have applied my own interpretations to time frames...sssshh... keep that in mind.

Hint: Aunt Jeanne divulged a lot of secrets to me over the years and I'm grateful the Lord had a hand in that. Here a two of them: (1) She mashes her egg yolk into the mayonnaise for the potato salad, and (2) she heard the old Cajuns tell her you add vinegar to Gumbo if it comes out too slimy.

Gumbo

Ingredients

1 big onion

2 lbs. cut okra (4 lbs. if uncut)

2 cloves of garlic

2 batches of scallions

1/2 stalk of celery

1/4 cup of oil (she didn't specify what type, but I say olive and peanut)

1 quart Swanson's Chicken Broth

1 quart of water

1 lb. shrimp

1 lb. crab

24 oysters with water

Zantarain's or Tony Charchere's Creole Seasoning

Directions

Add oil on a "low heat" into a frying pan or big pot and add diced onion, celery and garlic until clear on translucent. Stay vigilant the garlic does not scorch. Slowly add the cut okra and keep stirring periodically for 2 reasons...

(1) Keep it from sticking, and..

(2) Reduce it down and prevent it from getting slimy.

I asked for how long but I never got an answer I could recognize. It may take a couple of hours to all day, a labor of love. So I shift gears.." Aunt Jeanne, is there a consistency I should be shootin' for?". All she could say is .."well, II wish I could be there with you and make it for ya"..

Stir and smother for 2-3 hours..

After a while add the broth. Keep stirring and eventually add the water.

Reduce and at some point add the shrimp and crab, cook for just a few 5 more minutes. Pull from the heat and let it come to room temperature, then refrigerate. When serving, reheat and add a couple dozen oysters with water.

Potato Salad

Ingredients

(NO PICKLES!!)

4 or 5 potatoes

Onion

Celery

1 egg

Mayonnaise

Directions

Typical: quarter and boil potatoes till tender. Boil the egg. Add chopped egg white and celery/ onion puree taken from the ingredients from the Shrimp Salad. Mix and serve.

Shrimp Salad

Ingredients

1 lb. teeny tiny "shrimps"

1 onion chopped fine

Celery chopped fine

Add mayonnaise to taste

Directions

Extra flare:

When you mince the onion and celery to a fine pulp think of Aunt Jeanne who took great length to explain to me "..people always asked me how I was able to get everything so fine since I couldn't see.."

Mince and set aside a quarter of the onion celery for the Potato Salad. Thaw or drain the "shrimp tails" and add the remaining onion and celery. Add the mayonnaise.

Make sure to take the cake out of the pan.

Rum Cake

Directions - "No big deal...get ya some yellow cake in the box , follow the directions and get you a wire and a TUPE pan. Use the wire to poke holes in the cake so when you pour the rums sauce it will get into the cake.." .

Make sure to pull the cake out of the pan before it sticks.

Rum Sauce

Ingredients

None in particular

Rum Extract

sugar

water butter

Directions

None in particular. Bring ingredients to boil, reduce until thick