This article has been published in the December 2010 issue of Town Favorites Magazine. You can visit the Town Favorites website at http://www.townfavorites.com/, follow them on Twitter @TownFavorites, "Like" them at Facebook.com/TownFavorites, and find their magazines at over 150 restaurants and businesses around Baton Rouge! Pick up a copy today!
Jay Ducote shows off a pair of gumbos at The Chimes
Geaux Get Some Gumbo!
by Jay D. Ducote
There is certainly no shortage of Baton Rouge restaurants serving delicious bowls of gumbo this winter, so often times the only real challenge is determining which gumbo is best for you. I recently took a miniature tour aboard the “Gumbeaux Express” to see what local establishments are offering. One thing’s for sure, no two gumbos are ever alike! The tricky thing about gumbo in south Louisiana is that everyone seems to prefer whichever style of gumbo their grandma made. It is culture, tradition, and memories on which our fundamental love for gumbo is developed. Due to this, we can sometimes be hard pressed to find a restaurant version that lives up to our expectations. Still, with so many great chefs and authentic Louisiana restaurants in our great city, somebody out there has to be cooking a pot of gumbo “like grandma makes it!”
The first stop aboard my Gumbeaux Express tour occurred at Dempsey’s on Jefferson Highway. Chef George Gugich and manager Daniel Hatcher met me inside on a cool, rainy day to serve up a sampling of both their seafood gumbo and their chicken and andouille gumbo. George has been cooking gumbo his whole life and continues that passion at Dempsey’s. The Jefferson Highway location is the newer version (opened in July 2009) of their other location on Coursey Boulevard (13 years old and still going strong). Josh Armand, the chef at the Coursey restaurant, has been there since they opened the doors when Josh was 16 years old. The two restaurants have the exact same menus, so you can decide on your own which to visit! At the Jefferson Dempsey’s, George cooks up giant 35 gallon batches of gumbo to feed their loyal patrons. Each batch features everything made from scratch, begining with three gallons of flour and two gallons of oil to make the roux.
Dempsey's Seafood Gumbo
In addition to the medium-dark roux, Dempsey’s adds nearly 40 pounds of vegetables to each batch of gumbo. They use the same roux for both gumbos, which isn’t something you see very often… but why mess with a good thing? Dempsey’s customers rave about everything on the menu, so my anticipation heightened before my first taste of gumbo this winter. The seafood gumbo had a reasonably thick base with a good amount of spice. The bowl contained plenty of shrimp and okra with a little bit of crab mixed in as well. The chicken and andouille gumbo featured a surprisingly smoother texture and a noticeably smoky flavor from the chicken and sausage. The roux seemed to compliment the chicken and andouille flavors a little better, but both bowls were incredibly tasty and left my full stomach feeling very satisfied.
Chicken and sausage gumbo at Dempsey's
The next arrival gate for the Gumbeaux Express came at Drusilla Seafood. General Manager Brad Zito welcomed me in and chatted with me about the restaurant. Brad’s father Jimmy has owned Drusilla Seafood since 1991, though the restaurant has actually been around since 1982. Chef Sonny Creel makes the seafood gumbo that is a year-round staple on the menu. He begins with a classic dark roux made from butter and flour for a richer flavor. Sonny prides himself in his home style gumbo and classic Cajun taste. The Holy Trinity of Cajun cooking, onion, bell pepper, and celery, are all sautéed in butter before being added to the roux, which is then combined with fish and chicken stock. Sonny adds crab claws, crab meat, and shrimp to the gumbo to finish it off with plenty of substance. Sonny told me that the restaurant will typically go through 30-50 gallons of seafood gumbo every week. They make it daily in five gallon increments to keep up with demand. As you might expect, Sonny said that when the temperature drops outside there is a significant increase in demand for gumbo. It certainly is a cold-weather Cajun favorite!
Drusilla Seafood's gumbo features a dark roux
Before taking my first bite of Drusilla’s gumbo, I asked Sonny how the restaurant fared after the oil spill and how their gumbo sales were affected by the tragedy in the Gulf. He told me that seafood in general moved slowly for a little while after the oil spill both because some ingredients got a little pricier and harder to procure and because diners were a little weary to trust the seafood. Fortunately for all of us along the Gulf Coast, things in the restaurant scenes seem to be on the path towards recovery. It will certainly take more time to get everything back to how it was before the spill, but at least we can enjoy our seafood gumbos during the Holidays! Drusilla’s gumbo is really highlighted by the rich, dark roux that serves as the foundation of flavor. It provides enough heat and a slightly nutty flavor that actually goes very well with all the morsels of shrimp and crab. I particularly enjoyed the crab claws that are featured in the gumbo.
The Chimes' seafood gumbo
I knew this tour would not be complete without a trip to The Chimes. The gumbo at the Chimes is consistently rated among the very best in Baton Rouge, so I had to go make sure that my opinion hadn’t changed from back in my college days when I was a regular at three to four different tables and bar stools. I grabbed a seat at the bar of The Chimes on Highland Road at the North Gates of LSU and ordered up a bowl of both their duck and sausage and seafood gumbos. The manager, Wade, and the chef, Harry, both came out and talked gumbo with me for a bit. The seafood gumbo came closest to replicating what I remember both my mom and Maw Maw making as a child. The gumbo is loaded with the Cajun Trinity as well as a plethora of okra. It also features plenty of shrimp, a few crab claws, and a lighter, more liquid base than any other gumbo that I tried. Chef Harry called the roux in the seafood gumbo a “blonde” roux made with butter. The seafood gumbo had a nice kick from the vegetables and spice but certainly not an overpowering heat. It really had a great mix of flavors.
Duck and andouille gumbo at The Chimes
In a totally different direction but equally delicious gumbo, the duck and andouille sausage at The Chimes is sure to evoke some sort of emotional response. The in-house hickory smoked duck pairs with Richard’s smoked Cajun sausage to provide a much thicker, darker, and unique gumbo than any other that I found. This gumbo was created to “stick to your ribs” as it is hearty in consistency while bold and intriguing in flavor. It is prepared with an oil-based dark roux and also contains some extra rendered down fat from the sausage to make it even more rich, smoky, and satisfyingly decadent. As with the seafood gumbo, Louisiana products are used throughout the recipe to support local food producers and ensure that authentic flavor.
There are so many more places that I could have gone to try gumbo, but I can rest well knowing that I hit up three well deserving establishments with their own versions on classic Cajun gumbo. Each creation that I got to try tasted fantastic and I’d be happy to eat any of them again. Do yourself a favor and grab a spoon and make your own Gumbeaux Express tour this December. Your stomach won’t regret it!
Jay D. Ducote is the author of the blog Bite and Booze, which chronicles his culinary and indulgent cultural experiences around Baton Rouge, South Louisiana, and the world. It can be found at www.biteandbooze.com. You can also reach him by email at jay@biteandbooze.com, like the Bite and Booze fan page on facebook.com/biteandbooze, and follow him on Twitter @biteandbooze.
Thanks to Eric Ducote of BRBeerScene.com for taking all the pictures for this article.
Jay's Bay X: Winter Games turned out to be a roaring success despite the absence of our dear friend Chetan, who happened to be frolicking around on the other side of the globe instead of living it up at Jay's Bay with his boys. We dearly missed Chetan, but his spirit stayed with us as his picture from our high school days joined us everywhere we went.
John, Tyler, and the Spirit of the Sweet Indian Prince
Most of what happens at Jay's Bay stays at, well, Jay's Bay. However, this being a food and drink blog, I thought it would only be right to feature some of the wonderful food that got cooked up over the New Year's weekend. Thursday evening brought New Year's Eve and, along with it, an amazing fish fry.
Hushpuppies in the Oil and Slap Ya Mama Battered Catfish Filets
For any of you who have never had Slap Ya Mama fish fry I suggest you try it, and soon. They make an amazing blend of corn meal and spices that adds just the right amount of flavor to season the fish without overpowering it. Tyler and Lauren helped me cut the fresh catfish filets into strips. We then dipped them in whisked eggs and milk, followed by giving them a coating them in Slap Ya Mama fish fry, before dipping them into the hot oil. The fish turned out crispy, moist, and delicious. To add to the fish we also fried up a couple batches of hushpuppies. The guys from Texas brought some jalapeño hushpuppies and I found a bag of homemade corn balls at Southside Produce back in Baton Rouge so we did a little taste test. I liked the jalapeño spice from the Texas puppies but the Louisiana spheres had more overall flavor and pizzazz. They definitely won the show so I'm glad that I found them at the local produce stand.
Jay Doing the Frying, Showing off the Feast, and some Remains of the Finished Products
New Year's Day brought on my efforts to try to watch football... and gumbo! I brought everything that I needed from the bayou to the bay so that I could make a duck, chicken, and sausage gumbo for the gang. The ducks were killed during our duck and goose hunt near Jennings, La. You can click here to see the blog post and video from the hunt.
Step one for the gumbo was to roast to the chicken and ducks for a few hours to get them cooked to the point that I could pull the meat off the bones. The night before I cooked the gumbo, Tyler helped me liberally season the birds inside and out with fresh sea salt, cracked black pepper, cayenne, onion powder, garlic powder, and thyme. We let them sit in the fridge overnight and then in the morning I covered them in foil on a roasting pan and put them in a 350 degree oven for an hour and a half to two hours. I let them cool for a while after pulling them out of the oven until the temperature lowered enough to get my hands dirty. I pulled off all the meat from the birds and placed the shredded chunks of goodness into an appropriately sized mixing bowl. All of the skin, fat, and bones from the poultry were placed into my large stock pot to be rendered down even more for the stock. I also poured a little bit of the liquefied duck and chicken grease into a sauté pan for later.
Two Ducks and a Chicken after Roasting, Stock Simmering in the Pot
While I messed with the avian proteins, Tyler graciously cut up my vegetables. He diced two medium yellow onions, two green bell peppers, and 4 stalks of celery (known as the Holy Trinity of Cajun cuisine). I also had him press six or seven cloves of garlic to mix in with everything. All the vegetables and garlic were blended together in another large mixing bowl. I took several handfuls of the vegetable medley and added them to all of the chicken and duck leftovers in my stock pot. I then added about 3 quarts of water (that's a guess) and let the stock simmer for another couple of hours while I watched football on TV. It was New Year's Day, after all, and the Tigers were playing. That's all I'll say about that!
When the football game ended I returned to my wild game in the kitchen to get the full gumbo in the pot. I turned the burner off on the stock and removed the lid to let it cool. I then heated the sauté pan that I put a little extra duck and chicken fat in and added the remaining onion, bell pepper, celery, and garlic to start cooking it down. The veggies were stirred while the stock cooled until the onions started to turn clear. Fortunately there was no shortage of large bowls and pots at Jay's Bay. I poured the stock through a strainer into another pot. The strainer collected all of the bones and skin segments for me. However, it also had all of the cooked down vegetables that I placed in with the stock, and I didn't want to waste that flavor. After shaking out all of the liquid, I placed the strainer over the trash can and started picking through the solid remains. The bones and skin that I found were moved to the trash can while the rest of the tender meat that fell off the bones, as well as the soft and translucent Trinity morsels, made their way back the pot.
Back at my now empty, original stock pot, the time had come to add all of the ingredients together. I started with the freshly cooked down vegetables and garlic, then added all of the de-boned meat that I had placed in the fridge. Oh, and don't forget the two pounds of Manda Cajun sausage the John sliced up for me. All of that was covered with the stock that I had previously strained into the other pot. I added more garlic powder, onion powder, salt, black pepper, and cayenne, threw in a couple bay leaves, a few shakes of gumbo file, and several heaping tablespoons of previously made roux, stirred the pot real good, and let everything simmer for a few more hours while we sat by the fire that Chad and Ashley made outside and told stories. When the time was right the gumbo got served over some fresh Louisiana rice that I also picked up at Southside Produce (where all of my vegetables came from) and some potato salad on the side.
The finished product tasted amazing:
Jay's Bay Video: Duck, Chicken, and Sausage Gumbo and Fireworks!
Now I'd like to share a brief booze story. There was plenty of booze flowing throughout the weekend including several types of bourbon and whiskey, unique flavored vodkas, and an assortment of St. Arnold's beer out of Houston. However, for NYE, Katie and company brought a couple bottles of sparkling wine to celebrate the occasion. Having seen several celebrities open Champagne and sparkling wines with a knife or sword on TV, I thought that this would be a perfect time for me to give it a try. It took an old heavy knife out of the kitchen drawer and went out to the back porch with my buddies. Taking the back end of the blade, I struck the bottle just under the rim. Success! The cork, along with a portion of the glass from the neck of the bottle, shot off into the yard like a baseball shoots off of Albert Pujol's bat. Liquidy delight bubbled out of the opening that I created, and we were ready to toast 2010!
Jay with the Cut-Off Sparkling Wine Bottle, Bottle and Toasting Glasses Ready for Midnight
I love Jay's Bay. There aren't many annual or semi-annual trips that I look more forward to. Getting together will all my old high school buddies has never let me down, although I do wish Chetan could have been there. I'd like to give a special thank you to Chad, Ashley, John, Lauren, Tyler, and Katie for the great weekend at Jay's Bay and all your help and friendship along the way. And Johnny, if you are reading this, I'd love for you to come next summer as well! Until then, have a great 2010, and I'm sure there will be plenty more Jay's Bay trips in the future!
