DUCKMAN’S GUMBO

Al Afton

• Take 1 whole chicken, cover with water (about 4 quarts) and boil until the meat falls off of bone (about 1/2 hour). Remove bones and skin, and leave chicken meat in broth and save.

• In a large iron skillet, combine 1 cup oil and 3/4 cup of flour, cook at medium high and stir continually until it browns. This is what Cajuns call a roux and forms the basis of many of their foods.

• Once the roux is made, add 2 cups of chopped white onions, 2 cups of chopped green bell pepper, goose meat (cut breast and leg meat from 2 geese into bite-sized pieces), 1 lb. of smoked sausage (cut up in bite-sized pieces) and cook it all for 10 min or so, and then add all of this to chicken stock in large gumbo pot.

• Season with Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning (green can) (about 3 tablespoons; use this instead of salt), black pepper (about 2 teaspoons), cayenne pepper (2 teaspoons), and Tabasco (1 tablespoon). You will have to experiment with the amounts of seasoning because I like mine spicy, probably more so than most "northerners" like it. After seasoning, bring to a boil while stirring, and then let simmer for couple of hours.

• Add 2 cans of Delmonte Cajun style stewed tomatoes, 1 lb. of sliced frozen okra, boil for 15 minutes, add little more water if necessary (I don't like it too thick) and simmer until ready to eat. After it has simmered a bit, taste the liquid to see if more spice is needed. If you do add more spice, simmer a little bit more.

• About 5 minutes before eating add a teaspoon of Gumbo file' (finely ground sasafras leaves) and stir well. To serve, place cooked white rice in bowl (cook rice during last simmer) and cover with Gumbo. ENJOY.

• Leftover gumbo freezes well. Take a frozen batch to the duck camp if you do not have time to spend cooking. It gets better as it ages (spicer too!). You can also substitute the smoked sausage with 1 lb of shrimp or crawfish tails

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