Teal Or Poule D'eau Gumbo

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Title: TEAL OR POULE D'EAU GUMBO
Categories: Stews, Creole
Yield: 1 Servings

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3 tb Shortening
1 lg Onion
2 tb Flour
2 Toes garlic
1 Bay leaf
1 pn Thyme
Parsley
Salt and pepper to taste

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2 Poules d'eau or teal; up to
-3
Shortening for sauteing
2 Dozen oysters with water
-(optional)
4 c Water; up to 6
File powder
Cooked rice

Add flour to shortening. Cook over low heat. Stir constantly, to avoid
scorching, until very brown. Add onions, garlic, bay leaf, thyme,
parsley, salt and pepper.

Skin poule d'eau or teal, wash, cut up, salt and pepper. Fry lightly
and set aside. Make basic roux, add poule d'eau or teal and water.
Simmer for about two hours or until tender. If using, add oysters and
oyster water (be sure and pick over them by hand for pearls and bits
of shell, and strain the water.) Add file individually when ready to
serve. Serve over rice.

Note: do not add file to a rapidly boiling pot or it will string (file
means thread). If you wish to season the entire pot, bring the
temperature down to a bare simmer, remove some liquid, let it cool
and stir in the file; then stir the mixture back into the pot. Do not
bring it to a rolling boil again.

from "New Orleans Lenten Recipes: A Multi-Ethnic Sampling" by Elaine
Abboud Mowad and Jean Sarrazin Sears, published in 1970 by the
Louisiana Folklore Society. The booklet contains recipes passed down
from generation to generation by word of mouth.

printed in The New Orleans Times-Picayune, March 2, 1995

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