Gumbo! Can Earl Campbell get along with perch?

I don't have any andouille sausage. Andouille is hard to find in Florida. Ah, but I do have some Earl Campbell's Hot Links!

Made in Waelder, Texas, which is located west of the center of the Houston-San Antonio-Austin triangle, Earl Campbell's Hot Links are a spicy sausage that will pass as a good substitute to andouille. But this is primarily a seafood gumbo I'm working on today.

I've said it before, it bears repeating, I often use sausages as a secondary meat, sometimes like a seasoning - the way you would use bacon bits. This is more of a secondary meat than a seasoning, though. Think of it as the "supporting actor" role in a movie. 

Here's most of what's going in the pot: 

There's more than 12 ounces of perch fillet going in the pot. I'm only using one link of Earl Campbell's Hot Links. 

I didn't get it in the picture, but there's about an eighth of a chunk of whole onion going in, too. Chopped up, of course.

From the produce section at the supermarket, I bought a single  container of okra. Chop it up!

Boiling water. I believe it was six cups for the box of Zatarain's Gumbo Mix with Rice.

Funny thing is the recipe on the box does not mention or take into account all this okra and the whole can of diced tomatoes. Heck! No way I'm making gumbo without okra and diced tomatoes.

I'm slicing a sausage link up and slicing perch fillet into bite-size bits and thinking, all that okra and diced tomatoes is going to add water content. It might dilute the seasonings in the gumbo mix. 

So I added two tablespoons of starch, a handful of rice and I added three shakes of soy sauce and six shakes of red pepper flake. I also took one dried guajillo pepper and shredded that in; this is more for flavor than heat - the red pepper brings the heat.

It all worked out fine, except for one thing. the gumbo mix with rice fell into the water in one clump. I expected it to pour out of the box, but it went blump! (That may not be a word, but that's the sound I heard.)

So, now I'm stuck working this clump like I would mole - stirring, mashing with the cooking spoon, around and around, over and over. Eventually, I got it all separated. 

Seafood and sausage gumbo in the pot

The fish goes in last. That way it doesn't overcook.

This makes a lot of food! I easily had enough for six. 

My daughter Shasta told me a story about how you can't make a little bit of gumbo. Her sister-in-law made a pot. It was too much for her family, so after a couple days, she took the pot to Shasta.

Shasta's family had gumbo for a few days, then she took the pot back, and it still had gumbo!

Gumbo's great. And I was in the mood for it. But unless you want to eat it all week or freeze some of it for later, you may want to throw a party.

Gumbo~!

Buen provecho!