Gumbo Soup

Description:
This is a Cajun soup where anything goes, I made a chicken & sausage version - basically cooked it for the whole afternoon on the slow cooker. It has a mix of herbs and spices, meat or fish, and sturdy vegetables like okras, celery, carrot, capsicum, onion. The soup can be a meal on its own, it's very heavy as it has a roux base (roux = mix of wheat flour with oil or butter). I served it with French bread (to dip in the soup), but it can be served with rice too. Some people add rice in the soup itself.

Ingredients:
1 cup oil
1 cup (wheat) flour
2 large onions
2 capsicums
1 carrot
6 ribs celery
6 cloves garlic
12 okras
2 litre chicken stock
4 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves (i couldn't get those)
3 teaspoons Cajun seasoning
salt & pepper (to taste)
1 chicken
1 salami sausage (original recipe requires Andouille sausage - I substituted with Hot Hungarian Salami)
gumbo file powder
fresh parsley

Directions:
Chicken chopped into chunks. Sausage chopped into cubes.
Season the chicken with salt, pepper and Cajun seasoning. Brown quickly in frying pan.
Take out the chicken - keep aside, brown the sausage, take out, keep aside with the chicken (discard the fat).

Make a roux of the oil and the flour. Heat the oil, slowly pour in the flour, stir and keep stirring till it becomes a dough ball and turns light brown. I make it peanut colour - some people make it chocolate (but that's tough ... ) - careful not to burn it. If it does get burnt... start again.
Take out the dough and put it in the fridge for about half an hour to let it cool off.

Meanwhile clean the vegetables and cut them into chunky pieces.
The onion in large pieces too. The garlic in slices.

Make a chicken stock (or buy ready made one - I made mine with chicken stock cubes and water).

Put the roux dough back in the pan - slowly heat and add a bit of the chicken stock. Stir till it gets to a smooth paste. Add a bit more stock, keep stirring, keep adding stock, keep stirring. Make sure at all times that you have a smooth substance. Once you have added half of the stock, it's time to add the vegetables and the chicken. Stir, add remainder of the stock, stir again and now put it in a slow cooker to let it cook for a few hours.

Before serving add the chopped parsley.

Serve hot with French bread or rice.