Coming up this Tuesday, November 13th (Dad's Birthday!), I will put what I know about cooking to the test.
At one point, for the blink of an eye, I created a catering company that centered around foods like chicken salad, spaghetti and simple sandwiches for events and businesses. It was a good time and I learned a lot, but got away from my love for wine and beer. Now, I have a chance to bring it all together.
In a few weeks, I will go up against this town's best. They are going to come up with some delicious food. Many will be complex, some simple. I'm going to come up with a hybrid of this: MY version of Creole Gumbo.
In Louisiana, most of the gumbo will be divided into two categories: Creole and Cajun. For those of you that don't know, Cajun is more chicken and andouille sausage based. Creole is more seafood based (There is also a dish known as gumbo z'herbes, vegetable based for lent). What I want to do is almost combine the two.
Now I love both versions of the gumbo, but there are aspects that I would like to "enhance." Please, nobody from New Orleans hurt me for what I'm about to write: I love the tomatoes and okra combination of Creole gumbo. I also love the chicken and andouille aspects of Cajun gumbo. That, with a little spice know how, combine for the gumbo that I love to make. Why added spice? Because in this cooler time of the year, if you don't take advantage of adding a little heartwarming spice to a hearty dish, well in my opinion, you are just missing out on opportunity.
Now this blog is supposed to be about wine, but it won't happen this time. Gumbo (or many soups/stews for that matter) doesn't exactly pair well with wine because of the viscosity of the stew. Maybe a prosecco or sparkling wine would do nicely, but I would like to recommend something to you that people from the Bayou have known for years: Schwarzbier. This beer is essentially a blackened lager, and if you are from Louisiana, you simply know it by this name: Dixie Brewing Company Blackened Voodoo Lager. There is a catch... with the exception of the andouille sausage, I want everything coming from South Carolina, so I will use our version which is Charleston's own Westbrook "Dark Helmet" Schwarzbier.
For more information on this event, copy and paste the following link to your browser:
http://pdfoodie.com/wordpress/2012/10/13/flavors-of-florence-celebrity-chef-competition-promises-to-be-a-winner/
Wish me luck in this and if you have a creative name for my hybrid Gumbo, leave a suggestion in the comments area. Thanks!
--Cheers!!!
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