Cast Iron Cookware Shop Ponders the Origin of Gumbo

Posted by Doyle Bailey for Cast Iron Cookware Shop

The delicious mixture of soup served over rice called gumbo is enjoyed across Louisiana, and especially in Natchitoches, Louisiana. Wherever Saints fans gather and tailgate, you will find gumbo.  Natchitoches and the Cane River area is the center of Creole Culture for many.  Could it be here that the Creole recipe originated? If not here, where? (Give us your response to this question).

The answer for many may depend on which ingredient you like most. For our family it is not gumbo without okra.

Of course, like most Louisiana recipes, the ingredients you use will depend on what’s in season and what’s in your cupboard.

Gumbo as we know it is a  product with contributions from:

• Africans
• Creoles
• the French
• Choctaw tribesmen
• the Canadian immigrants who came to be called Cajuns
• Spaniards
• Italians
• and even Germans.

“Its name is generally agreed to derive from ki ngombo, the term for okra in the Central Bantu dialect of West Africa, the homeland of many of the slaves brought to colonial Louisiana. Okra stews, served with rice, were a staple food among those slaves. And okra is the main thickening agent in many (though not all) varieties of gumbo. So it seems reasonable to conclude, as many culinary historians have, that the dish itself also bears some African heritage.

Nevertheless, a debate about gumbo’s precise origins has raged for decades, framed by Louisiana’s legacy of colonialism and complicated by the vast range of gumbo-preparation techniques practiced by the different peoples who make up the region’s complex ethnic fabric. Most gumbos achieve their thickness, color, and texture partly from the use of a roux, the mixture of flour and oil employed by French cooks as early as the 14th century. This French technique has sometimes been used to bolster the theory that gumbo derived not from African okra stews, but from French bouillabaisse. Another theory contends that gumbo originated with Native Americans. That idea draws support from the use of the ground sassafras called filé powder as a thickening agent in some gumbos. According to this account, filé was introduced to the French by the Choctaws, whose word for sassafras was kombo.”

By Miss Cellania in Food and Drinks

Miss Cellania casts light on the subject but cannot answer the question of the origin of gumbo. Neither can we. Share your thoughts by commenting below.

What we can state with certainty is that nothing cooks a good creole gumbo like a cast iron dutch oven. If you do not have one, you should delay no longer. Order yours today and make an investment in delicious cooking and in a pot that you will pass on to your children and grandchildren. Cast Iron Cookware Shop offers a selection of pre-seasoned, enameled and camping dutch ovens.  Click {here} to see more.

If you would like to visit and tour Natchitoches and the Cane River Creole Area, you need to contact Tour Natchitoches with Barbara.

Click {here} for more information.

Barbara will see that you enjoy the enchanting sites of this French Colonial City with an affordable, and adventure tour and have adequate time to enjoy some fabulous French Creole Gumbo.
The French Came To Natchitoches in 1714. Now It’s Your Turn.

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Take a Tour and a Taste in Natchitoches, Louisiana: “C’est si bon”

Posted by Doyle Bailey for Cast Iron Cookware Shop

My wife Barbara and I like one-dish meals.  Our business with Tour Natchitoches with Barbara and the Cast Iron Cookware Shop keeps us busy with less time to cook. It is easy to toss your ingredients into one cast iron dutch oven, cook it for the required time and you are ready to serve it. This applies to soups, rice-based dishes, gumbos, jambalaya and casseroles. Many of these dishes cry out for cornbread and nothing makes cornbread like cast iron cornbread pans.

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Since we live in the Natchitoches, Louisiana area, we love Cajun and Creole cooking. Barbara’s family comes from both cultural heritages. Gumbos are a Creole specialty. The word gumbo means okra (of African origin).  Gumbo is like a thick stew and we think you cannot make it without okra as well as other vegetables, such as tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, and celery. Meats can include chicken, sausage, ham or seafood like shrimp or crawfish. Most gumbos start with a dark roux (a flour-fat mixture used in both Creole and Cajun cooking) to thicken the sauces for gumbo. A healthier alternative is flour-vegetable or olive oil mixture. If you visit Natchitoches, Louisiana, you are invited to Tour Natchitoches with Barbara and enjoy the historic French Creole Plantations of Cane River and the sites of this French Colonial City founded in 1714 (the oldest in the Louisiana Purchase Territory). For information on Tours {CLICK HERE}.

Save time to savor Natchitoches meat pies or Cajun Shrimp Gumbo. Cajun Shrimp and Okra Gumbo Cajun Shrimp Gumbo Ingredients: 1/3 cup bacon drippings                     1 teaspoon minced garlic 3 lbs. okra, cut into 1/2″ rounds       1 stick unsalted butter 2 1/2 tablespoons Cajun seasoning   1 lb. andouille, 1/4 ” slices 2 cups finely chopped onions            1 lb. med.shrimp, peeled 6 cups chicken stock                             1/4 cup finelychopped green onion 4 cups vegetable stock                           6 cups hot, cooked rice 2 cups peeled and chopped tomatoes Preparation:

1. Heat the bacon drippings in a 7 quart cast iron Dutch Oven over high heat until smoking. Reduce the heat to medium-high, add 3/4 of the okra, and cook about 3 minutes occasionally stirring.
2. Stir-in 1 tablespoon of the Cajun seasoning and continue to cook for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently.
3. Stir in the onions and cook until soft (about 5 minutes), stirring and scraping the bottom of the dutch oven to keep it from scorching.
4. Stir in 1 cup of either stock and cook for 5 minutes, keeping the bottom of the pot scraped.
5. Add the tomatoes and cook for 8 minutes. Stir and scrape often.
6. Stir in another 2 cups of the stock, cook for another 5 minutes. Continue to stir often to avoid burning.
7. Turn heat to high and stir in the remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons of Cajun seasoning and the garlic. Add the butter, cook and stir until the butter is melted, scraping the bottom of the dutch oven well. Add the remaining stock and bring it to a boil, stirring occasionally.
8. Add the sausage and, after the cast iron dutch oven returns to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 45 minutes.
9. Add the remaining quarter of the okra and simmer for 10 minutes more.
10. Add the shrimp and return to a boil. Remove from the heat. Stir in the green onions. Mound the hot rice in the center of a bowl and ladle about 1 1/2 cups of the gumbo from the Dutch oven around the rice.

(Recipe from Cast-Iron Cooking for Dummies, from the Lodge Manufacturing Company)

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Listen And The Plantations On Cane River In Natchitoches, Louisiana Will Tell You Their Story

 

Posted by Doyle Bailey for

Cast Iron Cookware Shop

and

Tour Natchitoches with Barbara

“They huddle close upon this tarnished field,

In dusty gray companionship. But once

Life surged about them, throbbing fast with song”

(Lois Kingsley, Slave Cabins)

 

 

One mile to the north and 12 miles to the south of where Barbara and I live are slave cabins. At Magnolia Plantation there were 70 at one time. At Oakland Plantation there were not so many. I have often wondered which cabin was the home of Oakland’s accomplished blacksmith Solomon Williams and his wife Laide. When you visit Oakland, you can still see the augers and drill bits this true craftsman designed.

Solomon Williams also made hinges, pad locks, iron pots  and most of the hardware used on the Oakland Plantation. The iron pots used for cooking, washing clothes, scalding pigs, making lye soap and more, were made on the plantation in the blacksmith’s shop. Not all the songs sung on the plantation came from the fields. Many voices would have been heard in songs around the daily tasks of keeping the plantation, literally a colony of people, operating to survive and produce cash crops.

The enslaved people who lived on the plantations had remarkable skills, and perhaps due to their enormous suffering, a beauty of soul and spirit not often seen. They lived lives and told stories that deserve to be told still. If you will go to where they lived, slow down and listen, perhaps you will hear.

When Barbara and I cook in cast iron cookware, which we do on almost a daily basis, we feel we are in touch with an amazing line of Southern cooks who give true meaning to expressions like “soul food” and “comfort food” to say nothing of incomparably delicious food. If these pots could talk, what a story they would tell!

Oakland and Magnolia Plantations are now part of the Cane River Creole Historic National Park on the Cane River in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana.

For Information on Plantation Tours in Natchitoches, Louisiana Click Here

For Information on Cast Iron Pots, Pans, Skillets and Dutch Ovens, Click Here.

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The ABCs of Natchitoches, Louisiana Cooking in Cast Iron Cookware

Posted by Doyle Bailey for Cast Iron Cookware Shop

Not everybody in Louisiana cooks with cast iron cookware, just those Louisiana cooks who want their food to taste great and their cookware to last for generations.

Visitors to Louisiana may feel as if they are in another country. You do not have to have a visa or show a passport to enjoy our food but maybe an ABCs of Louisiana cooking will help:

Andouille: is a Cajun smoked sausage, used in gumbos, jambalayas and other dishes and gives the food a special flavor. Be on the lookout for it and you will be rewarded.

Bisquits: are popular for breakfast throughout the state and are frequently eaten with jellies, jams, syrup or honey. They are also a favorite with fried chicken.

Bread Pudding: is a dessert made with stale bread (do not let this bother you) in a sweetened custard, often served with a whiskey or rum sauce. It is particularly popular in South Louisiana.

Catfish: is a great favorite and is eagerly eaten with great gusto throughout Louisiana. Many restaurants offer you the choice of baked, broiled, fried or blackened catfish, either whole or in fillets.

Cornbread: what can I say about this “bread of life”? There are many versions available, some even slightly sweetened.  It goes great with red beans, rice and sausage or just about anything else.

This is your invitation to visit Natchitoches, Louisiana, the oldest City (1714) in the Louisiana Purchase Territory. It will be our pleasure to arrange a tour of this enchanting French Colonial City and tours of French Creole Plantations, walking/driving tours in the historic downtown, shopping and all the Louisiana foods posted here plus many more in wonderful restaurants. Natchititoches has exceptional Bed and Breakfast Inns. Go here for more information.

Want to cook like a Louisiana cook in cast iron cookware?

You can make great gumbo, jambalaya, and red beans in a cast iron dutch oven. It travels well and you can take it camping with you or get a cast iron camping dutch oven with feet to set right on a bed of coals.

A castiron skillet or fry pan work wonders to prepare your cat fish or even to make cornbread. If you want more crunchy crust, use a cornbread wedge pan or a corn stick cornbread pan.

For making biscuits, you can bake them in your camping dutch oven with its special lid that allows you to place coals on the top hence getting the oven effect for baking. Or you can use a drop biscuit pan to bake your biscuits.

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Cast Iron Cookware and Accessories for Your Camping Kit

Posted by Doyle Bailey for Cast Iron Cookware Shop

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Here is a recipe for your camping enjoyment:

1. Choose a campsite for sports and outdoor recreation.

2. Mix-in your camping with your hobbies and interests (fishing, hunting, hiking, canoeing, scuba diving, photography, bird watching, biking, etc.)

Choose something different and truly unique. Come to Natchitoches, Louisiana. It is the oldest City in the Louisiana Purchase Territory (1714) pre-dating New Orleans. Tour Natchitoches with Barbara can help with your arrangements.

3. Add cast iron cookware, including a camping dutch oven

and skillet, to your camp kit.

4. Make your camping and backpacking easy with a one dish castiron cookware pot. No one wants to spend too much time on K. P. duty when camping.

5.Blend-in fun activities for your children to safely use a S’more Maker and a Pie Iron Sandwich Maker.

5. Place an order for the camp cookware you need from Rome and Lodge to complete your kit for a successful and happy camping experience.

Filed under activities with children, Camp Cookware, camp cookware accessories, camp dutch oven, Camping, cast iron camping cookware, cast iron camping dutch ovens, cast iron cookware, cast iron dutch ovens, cast iron fry pans, cast iron pizza pans, cast iron skillets, Lodge Cast Iron Cookware, Lodge cookware, pie irons, rome industries, rome pie irons, S'more Makers, sandwich makers, skillets, skillets/fry pans, tour natchitoches with barbara | Tags: accessories, Camping, cast, castiron, cookware, iron, louisiana, Natchitoches, tours | Comment (0)