What I Ate: Vegetable Gumbo and Biscuits

Last night I made an entirely seasonally inappropriate meal, but for some reason I was in the mood for a cozy warm dinner despite the oppressive heat.

We had vegetable gumbo with biscuits.


I loosely followed this recipe I found on allrecipes.com, but in true Gordi fashion, I mixed it up so much it hardly was recognizable as the original. These are approximations of the ingredients I used.

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups frozen chopped okra
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 3/4 cup chopped celery
• 3/4 cup chopped carrot
• 1/2 cup chopped yellow zucchini
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 1/2 cup uncooked rice
• 2 cups water
• 1 can stewed tomatoes 
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika

1. Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in a small saucepan over medium low heat, and whisk in flour. Whisking constantly, cook 5 to 7 minutes, until a golden brown roux has formed.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large, heavy saucepan over medium high heat. Stir in okra, onion, celery, carrot and garlic, and cook 10 minutes, or until tender.
3. Thoroughly blend roux into the vegetable mixture. Stir in water, rice, tomatoes, parsley, salt, thyme, cayenne pepper, pepper, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes (until rice is cooked through), stirring occasionally.
4. Add chopped zucchini and cook for 5 minutes more, just until zucchini is tender.

I meant to make a soup, but it turned out to be more of a stew, so I would suggest increasing the water. The flavor was nice, and it was quite a hearty soup. (Disclaimer: the measurements on nearly everything is an estimate. I tend not to measure things when I cook. It adds to the adventure.)

While the stew was simmering, I made biscuits.

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons chilled butter
• 3/4 cup buttermilk

Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. Cut in the butter and mix with a fork until it resembles a coarse meal. Add buttermilk and mix just until all the dry ingredients are mixed in. Press out on a floured surface, flattening to about 1/2 inch thickness with fingers. Cut biscuits (if you're me you use the rim of a drinking glass because you don't actually have a biscuit cutter), place on ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 450 degrees for about 11 minutes. 

The recipe supposedly makes 12 biscuits, but I only managed to squeeze out 10. I didn't press out the dough enough I suppose. One other thing to note is that I actually do measure when baking because I don't understand baking well enough to mess with the ratios of ingredients. So these measurements are exact.