Make this green gumbo - and a few new friends
It was eight years ago, my first time at a big food conference. The Southern-cooking maven Nathalie Dupree had taken me under her wing and was introducing me to any- and everyone she could see. We were in New Orleans, just a few years after Katrina, and at a big outdoor taste-around she hustled me over to a stand where a diminutive woman and her helpers were ladling out gumbo the likes of which I had never seen.
The woman was Leah Chase, the now-93-year-old icon behind the famous restaurant Dooky Chase's, and the ladles were full of her equally famous gumbo z'herbes. As Chase explained, the concoction is a traditional Lenten meal that has one main operating philosophy: The more greens, the better. Not more as in quantity - although there is plenty of that - but more as in the number of different types of greens. Kale, collards, mustards, cresses, radish or beet tops, even leafy herbs such as parsley. One idea is, the number of greens corresponds to the number of new friends you'll make in the coming year.
I was so captivated by the story - and by the taste - that I found Chase's recipe and made the gumbo occasionally for several years. In keeping with some versions of the recipe, I added a smoked ham hock or sausage for flavor. Once I embraced vegetarianism, I started leaning on one of my favorites, smoked paprika, to give some of the same depth of flavor.
Recently, when I looked at Thomas Head's lovely new "Greens: A Savor the South Cookbook" (University of North Carolina Press), it practically fell open onto his own version of Chase's gumbo z'herbes. I ended up combining some of my techniques with his.
Of course, you start with a roux, cooking this one to a light caramel color, not the deep chocolate brown of some gumbos, then add the "trinity" of onion, celery and green bell pepper (plus red for a little color, and the spices). I cooked the greens in vegetable broth, rather than water, and added them to the pot of aromatics. Without the meat, the cooking goes more quickly, but you'll want to taste and make sure you've dosed it all with enough salt before you ladle it over white rice.
Don't forget to count those greens before you start cooking. I went with five types, totaling three pounds. And I immediately started keeping an eye out for all those new friends surely coming my way.