this post is 100% inspired by
mb2u 's
scathing critique of Bobby Flay trying to make gumbo on a tv show from the Food Network. i didn't see the show as i've been cable-free for about 4 years now. couldn't be happier, honestly. so, with the full admission that i couldn't pick Bobby Flay out of a lineup... i'm about to dump on him.
HE TRIED TO PUT STUFF IN THE ROUX BEFORE THE ROUX WAS COOKED!
now, i am not a cable watcher, but i am a prodigious consumer of (mostly written) content from the intartubez. so i know there are some gumbo recipes out there which are inedible, even though i haven't had to prove this to myself by cooking and then being unable to eat them. i know this because i recently had to adapt my gumbo recipe to make it all-seafood for my dad. in the process of adapting it, i did some research on how other people make all-seafood gumbos, and some of those heretics left me in a gobsmacked rage. the heathens had omitted the PRIMARY and UTTERLY NECESSARY step in gumbo-cooking. FIRST, MAKE A ROUX.
i am not joking, people. this is like the Hippocratic Oath: First, do no harm. except it's gumbo, and all the more serious, as a result. a doctor screws up and it costs you your health. a gumbo cook screws up and it costs you your immortal soul, and maybe all your tastebuds.
i got so lathered up about this topic that i thawed out my emergency stash of gumbo and ate it for lunch. so sometime next week i will make a gumbo and, in accord with the Thibideauxic Oath, i will: First, make a roux. i will not use boxed or bottled roux-mix. i will not add stuff to my roux when it is half-cooked. i might, in honor of my grandfather, make it with butter... but that's a whole other oath... and a whole other blog post FIRST, MELT A STICK OF BUTTER.