I shared my favoritePaula Deen Gumbo Recipea little while ago here on the blog as I visited my son's 4th grade class and taught someRegional foods of America. That lead to me searching the world over for some freeze dried okra so I could convert the recipe into a shelf-stable meal! Yup. I found it! Now, mind you, you don't need to use the okra. I think that it is remarkable. I've heard both sides of the okra debate. Some can't live without it. Some think it is "of the Devil." I'm with the former in my gumbo. I think it adds just a really cool depth. The freeze dried version of this gumbo cooks in 5-7 minutes. I've added instant rice to the mix so it will be thick. You can adjust the heat according to your family's tastes but I like mine hotter than my kids so this is a mild recipe and I just keep some hot sauce around for me. I've included the links to ingredients in the recipe so if you're not sure where I normally find somespecialtyitems, click on the ingredient. Most of my powdered sauces come fromFirehouse Pantry. They're really fast with shipping and excellent with customer service.
Chef Tess Louisiana-Style Chicken and Rice Gumbo with Okra
1 cup Freeze-dried Chicken(one can make 12 quart-sized meals)
1 cup instant rice
1 cup freeze-dried Okra(optional)
1/3 cup Freeze-dried sausage(optional)
2T cornstarch
1/3 cup dehydrated onion
1/2 cup Freeze-dried bell peppers
1/4 cuptomato powder
2T powdered butter
2TWorcestershire Sauce Powder
2T dehydrated parsley flakes
1T dehydrated minced garlic
1 tspBuffalo Wing Sauce Powder
1 1/2 tsp chickenbullionpowder (optional)
1/2 tsp Hickory Smoke Powder
To prepare meal: Add 4 1/2-5 cups boiling water to the meal mix. Simmer 5-7 minutes until rice and vegetables are tender. Yield 6 cups prepared gumbo.
Yes...this is what thefreeze-dried Okralooks like! Isn't that just crazy?! I had to stop myself from eating it just like popcorn! Love it. Love.
Special shout-out toNorth Bay Tradingfor this one! I ordered it and got it within 3 days so it was a really fast turn-around on the shipping. I got the 1 lb bag...and it was about 2 gallons full of okra. I always forget how lightweight freeze-dried food is!
Vacuum Packing meals:
In the past, as today, I've been very frank about the food safety of these meals. Please be very careful to use an oxygen absorber for these jars OR a vacuum packing machine. With the use of the freeze dried meat they are not optional. They are for your safety. Now... theOxygen Absorberis a one time use. I've given tutorials for using those in many of my posts.Wikipedia says: "Anoxygen absorberis a small packet of material used to prolong theshelf lifeof food. They are used in food packaging to prevent food color change, to stop oils in foods from becomingrancid, and also retard the growth of oxygen-using aerobic microorganisms such asfungi...Oxygen supports the growth of microorganisms and causes changes in color and rancid odors in packaged foods. Plastic packaging is less able to exclude oxygen from packaged foods than are the older glass and metal containers. Oxygen absorbers absorb oxygen and effectively reduce the aerobic environment to 0% oxygen. Thereforeaerobic bacteriaand fungi are unable to grow in this environment. This will extend the shelf life of a food product for years. The advantages of oxygen satchels versus vacuum packaging are that the food products are not crushed or squeezed, as some products are of high value and are fragile, and its simplicity of use."
Many people have asked about using aFood Saver Vacuum Sealer. In the past I've said that this is a good idea but not really gone into the simple basics on how to use this machine. You can thank The-Mega-Mom and the Pansy Man (aka my mom and dad) who sent me this newFoodSaver®V3835 Vacuum Sealer Kitfor Christmas last year. I don't know why it took me so long to post this tutorial. Forgive me. It is a really easy tool.
The FoodSaver comes with a retractable hose attachment that can be used with their jar attachments.
Do FoodSaver®Jar Sealer attachments work with all mason jars?Food Saver Vacuum SealerJar Sealer is designed for Ball® and Kerr® brand wide-mouth and regular mason jars. Wide-mouth Jar Sealers can only be used with wide-mouth jars. Regular Jar Sealers are only for regular mason jars.
They have aLid Sealer Accessory Kitthat has attachments for both wide and regular mouth jars as well as stoppers for bottles.
The rubber seal on the inside looks like this...
The retractable hose fits in the top of the attachment.
Put your mason jar lid on top of your jar (not the ring, just the metal lid),
and then fit the entire vacuum lid unit over the top of your jar lid.
Obviously this isn't a picture of the Gumbo...but this is how it works.
Turn on the sealer using the "attachment"mode. It will vacuum all the air out of the jar and shut off automatically when all the air is out of the jar. Label the jars clearly with cooking instructions. I personally prefer to tighten the metal ring onto the jars after they are sealed. This just makes them more secure for transport.
If a meal has a lot of powder ingredients, you can still use the jar attachment.
I personally prefer to cut a coffee filter down to fit inside the jar or you can also use a cupcake liner.
ThisFood Saver Vacuum Sealeris really simple tooperate. There are many different models. Just make sure that the one you use for meals in a jar is designed to use the hoseattachments.
There you go! Make some gumbo!
Always My Very Best,
Your Friend Chef Tess
