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Chicken and Andouille Gumbo
Try my gumbo recipe
From the land of andouille:
½ cup unsalted butter; ½ cup all-purpose flour
Melt the butter, whisk in flour,
Cook and stir a quarter-hour
Till it’s peanut-butter hue.
Set aside. This is the roux.
1 Tbsp canola oil, ½ cup each chopped red pepper and onion, ¼ cup each chopped celery and carrot
In a 5- or 6-quart pot
Heat the oil to good-and-hot,
Celery, onions, carrots soften
With the pepper, stirring often.
½ lb andouille sausage, chopped; roux (see above); 3 cups chicken broth
Add the andouille and brown,
Add the roux and mix around,
Chicken broth incorporate,
Bring it to the boiling-state.
2 cups shredded rotisserie chicken, 1 Tbsp or less Creole seasoning, 2 tsps filé powder
Put the shredded chicken in
(Sans the bones and sans the skin),
Creole seasoning – not too much,
Filé for the thickening touch.
This is best if it is held
One day, so the flavors meld.
Ladle gumbo over rice,
Serve with buttered baguette-slice.
Recipe’s enough for four,
So it says, but they’ll want more.
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Andouille (an-DOO-ē): a spicy Louisiana smoked pork sausage.
Roux (roo): a mixture of fat and flour, cooked; used in making sauces.
Filé (FEE-lay): pounded or powdered sassafras leaves used to flavor and thicken gumbo.
Baguette (bag-ĖT): a long, narrow loaf of French bread
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Spies
The Counter-Intelligence Corps (CIC), was a World
War II and post-war agency within the U.S. Army.
Great-Grand-Pops relates to me
Of his work in CIC.
Those were scary times, uncertain,
Evil Empire’s Iron Curtain.
Cold War with the Sickle-Hammer
Had its fearsomeness and glamour.
He took part in years of strife,
Fighting for our way of life.
When we’re grown we’ll too be spies,
Gumshoes, tecs, or private eyes,
FBI or CIA,
We’ll wear suits and ties by day;
Nighttime, we’ll wear camouflage,
Masters of espionage.
State militia, Special Forces,
Sheriff’s posse, riding horses,
Infiltrating, you and I;
Drug bust at the junior high,
Break up cells of terrorists,
Fight with judo, guns, and fists.
We shall feel such grand excitement
When they’re handed an indictment!
We, good patriots and pure,
Selfless sacrifice endure.
All will praise our fealty –
We shall keep our Nation free.
Save the world through Special Ops
Worthy of our Great-Grand-Pops.
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Mary Gardner is a poet living in Florida.
Very clever, Mary. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a recipe poem. Enjoyed the second poem also, especially the fact that Great-Grand-Pops (clever title) begins and ends it.
I’m glad you enjoyed them, jd. We write what we know, and the recipe poem is a product of my many years as a housewife. “Spies” is how I imagine a 13-year-old would view the mystique of Cold War espionage. Great-Grand-Pops is based on my father, the CIC man.
I’ll have to get my son to work on the Gumbo recipe. I’ll let you know how your poem tastes. It looks delicious!
I lived through the insurgency in Saudi Arabia during the noughties. The cells were identified and gradually eliminated, but it was a scary time which I find difficult to write about. Let’s hope your ‘Spies’ poem gives me the nudge needed.
I enjoyed your poems, Mary. Thanks for the reads.
Thank you for your service, Paul. Thanks also for the kind words. I’m happy you like the poems.
I was actually living and working in Saudi during the insurgency, not part of the military. I had to evacuate my wife and kids for a year when things got bad, only for things to get worse after they came back.
Like I said, I really need to get this down poetically!
Mary, I have written a couple of recipe poems, but yours takes the cake and makes me hungry. I do plan on saving this and trying it out. Your poem about the CIC is a wonderful tribute not only to your “Pops,” but to my friends and my own career in military intelligence that included sub rosa activities.
Roy, thank you for your service! And please let me offer here my sympathies for the loss of your wife. I was so sorry to read about the circumstances of her death during the inhuman Covid protocols.
The recipe poem is sheer delight — and it makes you hungry just to read it! I am reminded of Rostand’s play Cyrano de Bergerac, where the pastry-cook Ragueneau recites a perfect recipe (in alexandrines) for almond tartlets.
Thank you, Joseph. I’m pleased that you enjoyed it.
I had to look up Ragueneau’s recitation. It’s a gem!
Thank you for the nice comments, Roy. My gumbo recipe “taking the cake” made me smile.
I’d love to read your recipe poems. Maybe recipes could be a Poetry Challenge.
Thank you your service to the Nation.
Mary, that would be an excellent challenge. I appreciate your thanks for my service to the nation.
What great food writing: makes me think of a very wholesome magic charm. And makes me hungry. Tetrameter is the perfect meter for it.
Thank you, Monika. I’m glad you enjoyed it. It’s a tasty recipe, and I hope it inspires people to try it, and to write their own recipe poems.
Mary, how wonderful to see a poetic recipe for Gumbo. I love it! After reading your admirably crafted instructions, I want every recipe I read from here on in to be a toe-tapping, rhyming delight. As for Gumbo… it was the line in a song until I moved to Texas and tasted the words… it’s now one of my favorite dishes. Mary thank you!
Thank you for the kind words, Susan. I’m happy that you liked it. Along the northern Gulf Coast, there are as many recipes for gumbo as there are cooks…but I bet this is the only one in verse. I hope you, too, will share your favorite recipes in poetic form.