Yesterday in the farm box from Riverdog Farm I got four green peppers. Green peppers are not my favorite peppers by a long shot — I love red, yellow, orange and even purple peppers, but green ones? I think someone made a mistake….
The only way I can think of to get excited about green peppers is to cook Cajun food. In Cajun country, they call green peppers, onions and celery the holy trinity (capitalizing it would be blasphemous) and put them in everything except dessert. Mom expressed a wish to have a little more room in the freezer before Thanksgiving so we decided to have a look at what was in there. Don’t you hate it when you read that someone has whipping cream and brandy lying around? Not around here: I found the shrimp shells that I had been saving for stock, along with one small piece of cooked fish for future bouillabaise. The only other meat in there was sausage. O.K. We’d have sausage gumbo.
First up I roasted the last three small tomatoes sitting on the counter. The farm had a frost this week so there will not be anymore fresh tomatoes unless my Sun Golds ripen on the vine before it rains or freezes here. Tomatoes were late this year and have compensated by lasting into mid-November. Goodbye fresh tomatoes. See you next June or July.
As the tomatoes roasted in the oven where I was baking Krista and Jess’ gingerbread baked oatmeal, I diced
2 green peppers
2 small onions
2 stalks of celery and
1 bulb of fennel (just because I had it)
Before I sauteed the vegetables I chopped
fennel stalks and leaves
and put them in a big pot of water with
shrimp shells and leftover fish fillet.
Then I sauteed the vegetables in olive oil. When they began to brown I added most of
1 small can tomato paste (also a refugee from the freezer) and
1 pint frozen chicken stock.
I strained the shrimp and fennel stock into the vegetables, tomatoes and chicken stock and considered Cajun seasoning. While I thought about it I added
1 Tbsp hot paprika
dried thyme (I stripped several branches)
a few grinds of black pepper,
Then I set to making a roux:
I cut 3 sausages into coins and browned them in the former stock pot, before adding them to the gumbo. To the sausage drippings, I added
1/2 cup flour
3-4 Tbsp olive oil
I patiently cooked the roux to the color of peanut butter, adding some water, liquid from the gumbo, or chicken stock when it stuck, scraping the pan as best I could. I probably added another 3 Tbsp of chicken stock all told.I added the roasted tomatoes to the gumbo and squeezed the juice from half a lemon. I let the roux cook in the gumbo for a few minutes while I started rice — white rice because it was almost lunch time. My picky brother Bryan came through the kitchen about then and said, “Do I smell lasagna?” I said, “Gumbo, but it has a lot of the same ingredients as lasagna” (sausage, onion, tomato).
When the rice was done I got Bryan a tiny bowl of gumbo to try.
He said, “It tastes kind of like beef stew.”
Huh. Well, it has onions, celery and a touch of tomato paste, I guess. Anyway, he ate it and we ate it and it is good.
This gumbo is a fine example of how I cook most of the time, inspired by an ingredient I don’t like much to create a dish from a cuisine I do like. Green peppers compel me to cook Cajun food. What was in the freezer (shrimp shells, chicken stock, leftover cooked fish, tomato paste and sausage), in the refrigerator (fennel and celery) and on the counter (tomatoes and onions, half a lemon) provided the other ingredients. Karen of Carolina Locavore recently referred to this as “vegetable triage.” I didn’t use a recipe except to check the oil and flour ratio for the roux (which I then did not follow: it said 1:1 for flour and oil). I let my memory guide me in terms of what goes into gumbo: many fancy cooks make gumbo, but the people I worked with at Berkeley Rec would make gumbo with turkey backs and neck bones if that is what they had — a lot of gumbo comes about because you are using this and that. You can’t go wrong with a fish or chicken stock, a good dark roux and the holy trinity.
Food notes: If I had had a can of clams in the pantry that would have gone into the gumbo. If I had had shrimp in the freezer, or chicken, it would have made it into the pot, too. I drew the line at cooked bacon — Mom said I would have to taste it and I decided to pass. I didn’t add bay leaf or Tabasco (but I could have if I weren’t too lazy to go pick a bay leaf from the backyard). Gumbo gets hotter as it sits, so I kept the spicing moderate — if you like it hotter, go for it, use andouille sausage, or pass the Tabasco at the table.
Political Note: Like many other people I watched the videos of Officer Pike using pepper spray on demonstrators at U.C. Davis. The spray was a fierce orange-red, fired at point-blank range on nonviolent people. I was shocked to see this. I commend officers who did not engage in or condone such behavior and the protesters who remained nonviolent. Save the peppers for Tabasco, which should only be eaten voluntarily, not sprayed down people’s throats as they participate in peaceful assembly.
Photo note: If any of you artistic types out there know how to square up a photo of a painting, I’d surely appreciate some tips.
I was raised on the holy trinity, although I did not know that it was called that until a couple years ago, as my mother’s roots are in the deep south, Mississippi and Louisiana. To this day, I am still partial to a good ol’ green bell pepper although the other peppers are nice for a variation. Interesting choice of seasoning with the fennel, lemon, and paprika. I did not see the videos of U.C. Davis as I have not turned on the television or wandered the internet in the last couple days, but I’m sure there are rouge police taking advantage of the situation to act inappropriately.
What would you have seasoned it with, Nancy?
Oh I don’t know, with the fish fillet thrown in, it might make a difference as I’m not sure how that alters the flavors (my dad won’t eat “naked fish” so we grew up thinking fish fillets are supposed to battered and deep fried, never put fish in anything except tuna in a noodle cassarole) so just generally speaking, when I cook almost anything with meat or the “trinity” it also gets garlic, cayenne, and black pepper, then what else depends on what it needs. It interests me to see how other people season things; I try to imagine the flavors.
The fish fillet was only used to make stock, so your Dad would not have seen it unless he was peering fixedly at the steaming stockpot.
It’s good to hear that it’s not just me that dislike’s green peppers I thought it was because I live in Ireland and a lot of fruit and vegetables taste like nothing after traveling thousands of miles to reach us.
On a separate note try hanging up your paintings to take the photo or sitting it on a shelf, it will also give it more light if it is upright.
Thanks, Ciara. I have never liked green peppers, cooked or raw. Cajun food has so many flavors that I don’t taste them as green peppers in it.
When I can photograph outside I tape paintings to a white wall and that lessens the “trapezoid effect.” It’s when I have to shoot them inside that I have trouble with them — light is already a problem, shadows are murder. Maybe I’ll try taping them to a window, which puts maximum light behind them — I’ve never tried that. Because they are works on paper, they won’t stand on a shelf.
Green peppers can be tricky, they have such a distinctive flavour, I often use them in Asian cooking. I love the idea of them in the Gumbo (I just love that word too!)
In Cajun country they would tell you you can’t make gumbo without them, so here’s to the Cajuns who conquered the green pepper.
I, too, am no a fan of green peppers. Their flavor is too strong for my tastes. I’ll always substitute red or yellow peppers, unless, of course, it’s Cajun. Gotta go with the trinity or people will talk!
I’m with you, John, all the way.
Thanks for another doable recipe, Sharyn. I love green peppers and like lots of spice (although my last batch of black bean soup with the habanero pepper in it couldn’t even be toned done by two tablespoons of peanut butter).
Glad you like it, Bob. Watch out for those habaneros. You can add heat in small increments so that things don’t get too hot for you: most soups, stews and gumbos get hotter as they sit — hotter on day two than day three, etc.
I agree about green peppers, not my favorite but they do work in the “trinity” and have a special place in gumbo, shrimp creole and certain chili recipes.
I don’t think I’ve ever put them in chili. My parents used to put them in spaghetti sauce — not my fave.
We are alike on two counts here…I’m not fond of green peppers either and I love to pull together dishes by what I have on hand. I too have been pulling things from my freezer and frig to make room for the holiday. This was a great way to use the green pepper. There is alot of Cuban cuisine here in Florida and they do use green peppers in their cooking so I think of Cuban dishes for green peppers!
You’re right, Linda. I think Cubans and Puerto Ricans put them in sofritto, which they put in a lot of different things. We don’t have a lot of those cultures on this coast. But if you find something fabulous I’m sure you’ll post it if you haven’t already.
brilliant! I love the contents of your freezer- sounds like mine at the moment, although I can add 4 frozen water lolly pops that my children made in desperation. I love the sound of cajun gumbo.
We don’t have any lollipops in there. The worse thing is when the label falls off something I have saved for stock and I have a frozen lump of indiscriminate origin. I just added a packet of lemon peels yesterday — fortunately, I can recognize those.
What a wonderful recipe! It looks like a bit of work but sounds well worth the effort. Thanks. Does your computer or photo editor allow you to “crop” your image? This is how you would square up your photo. P.S. Love this painting.
Thanks, Jane. I can crop, but I can’t crop other than in fixed squares — in other words, I can’t just shave a little off one side and I can’t crop in slanted lines. I think the problem is the angle(s) at which I am taking the photos.
The recipe isn’t difficult — you just have to have time to make stock out of your shells and trimmings (or bones if you make it with poultry). You can make the stock while you saute the other stuff.
Glad you like the painting!
You’re inspiring me to make some gumbo. Like you said, it’s not hard, but a little time consuming. The effort is well-rewarded, though.
Thanks, Daisy. The good thing is that you can put practically any meat, fowl or fish in it, as long as you start with a decent stock and the “holy trinity.”