gumbo

[mandimoo]

I have been lucky enough to have just visited New Orleans and have fallen totally in love with the people, the food and the city. So now I want to cook Gumbo, and I want to do it in my slow cooker. All recipe's I see, say I have to cook the roux (flour/fat) outside of the stockpot for approx 20-30 min till it turns red/brown and then finish the dish in the slow cooker.

Most days I wont have the patience to do this, so anyone out there familiar with this dish who can tell me how necessary is this "roux" step?

If I just chuck the lot in the slow cooker, will I really lose much in the translation?

[treetops1]

Here's one without the roux, as it will be for thickening its maybe not neded if it's thick enough
http://www.foodnetwor...mbo-recipe/index.html

[vallaw]

You can always cook a load of roux in advance and freeze it in portions.

[Clanad]

Out of the three (actually four,but the first is little used) rouxs used, Creole cooks mostly use light or "Blond" in gumbos. Roux is just a 1:1 mixture of a fat or oil and flour, which is cooked in a heavy pan. The longer the roux is cooked the darker it becomes. Therefore, you'll find the blond roux cooked only about 5 minutes or so. The others are medium and dark and do take a lot longer to cook down... Cajuns (in and around Houma, Louisiana) prefer the smoky dark roux...