Cooking with Beer: Arrogant Prawn Gumbo

Here's a recipe I got from Beer Advocate magazine. (You can subscribe here...) It's almost worth the subscription price for the recipes alone.

The ingredients:

1 qt chicken stock
2 lb prawns
22 oz of Arrogant Bastard

4 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
2 ea andouille-style sausage, sliced
5 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 yellow onion, chopped
1/2 ea yellow, red and green bell pepper, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2-6 tbsp Cajun spice blend
2 bay leaves
1 jalepeno pepper
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp tomato paste
2 Roma tomatoes, diced
2 tbsp Louisiana-style hot sauce
3 cups rice
3 green onions sliced thin

Directions:

In a medium-sized pot, add the chicken stock, the shells from the prawn and the Arrogant Bastard. Simmer 30 minutes.

In a Dutch oven, over medium heat, add olive oil and butter. Add the sliced sausage and and stir until the meat has browned. Remove the sausage and set aside.

Add the flour to the oil and whisk to a loose paste. Turn the heat to low and brown the roux for about 20 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add the onions, peppers and celery and saute until vegetables are fully cooked, about 15 minutes. Add some of the Cajun spice. Then add the bay leaves, garlic, tomatoes and tomato paste and cook for another 5 minutes.Add hot sauce and strained stock Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium. Add the sausage and Cajun spice to taste. Cook for 10 minutes. Add the prawns. Bring back to a boil, then remove from heat and cover, letting sit for 5 minutes.

Serve over rice, garnished with green onions.

A few notes:

* I didn't use andouille, I used a locally produced hot link sausage.
* I didn't use yellow onion...this is Georgia. Vidalia, of course.
* I made my own Cajun seasoning from spices on hand
* No Dutch Oven (yet) so I used the heaviest stainless steel pans I could muster.

After I was done cooking, I went to get an IPA to have with the meal...but could find none in my fridge. I had forgotten to check what I had on hand and had assumed that I had some on hand (as I usually do).

So I hit the beer closet to see what I had on deck and got lucky...a bomber of Stone Cali-Belgique IPA, which had the body and bitter hops to stand up to this hearty gumbo.

The recipe was a good one. I had never prepared the stock, or the roux for that matter, in such a deliberate way and it seemed to make a world of difference. I was thick, hearty, spicy and more complex tasting than any gumbo I've ever made before. It's a lot of work but I'll definitely be using this recipe again.