food & dining
Gimme Some Gumbo
friend recently bought me
a bag of fresh okra. That
sounds like an odd gift — but
she knows me and is aware that I am
always on the hunt for unique ingredi-
ents and innovative ways to use them.

The gift coincided with a damp, cold
spell, so gumbo suggested itself. There
are many diff erent types of gumbo, but
the main fault line is divided into Creole
and Cajun. Creole gumbo contains
tomatoes, dark roux, okra and shellfi sh,
while Cajun gumbo eschews tomatoes,
and usually contains chicken. Both
generally integrate ham and sausage.

Granted, many of these ingredients
would not be found in a kosher kitchen,
but using some of the techniques
and elements of a traditional gumbo
adapted to kashrut produced a
delicious meal.

The recipe is not diffi cult, but it
does involve several steps and is a bit
labor-intensive. The upside is that it
makes quite a lot and freezes well, so
this will feed a large crowd, or provide
many future meals to a smaller group.

We served this with a simple salad
and a loaf of crusty semolina bread.

Gumbo Makes about 1 gallon
Chicken and broth:
3 pounds bone-in chicken pieces
(breasts/thighs) 1
1 1
carrot, cut into chunks
onion, quartered
stalk celery, cut into large
chunks 1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Water Roux:
½ cup vegetable oil or margarine
½ cup fl our
Vegetables: 1½ pounds okra, cut into ¼-inch
slices 1 cup onion, chopped
½ cup celery, chopped
½ cup green pepper, chopped
¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped
½ cup scallions, white and green
parts, chopped
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
(to taste)
½ teaspoon salt
Meat: 1½ pounds andouille turkey sausage
(or other spicy, smoked sausage)
sliced into ¼-inch discs
Chicken from stock pot, cut into bite-
sized pieces
Soup: 3 quarts chicken broth
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
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Finishing seasoning:
1 tablespoon Worcestershire
sauce 1 teaspoon (or more) Tabasco
sauce Salt/pepper/cayenne pepper to taste
To serve: cooked white rice and
chopped scallions to garnish
In a large stockpot, place the chicken
and broth ingredients, and cover them
with water. The recipe calls for 3 quarts
of stock, but if there is extra freeze
it and use it in soup — spare chicken
stock never goes to waste!
Bring it to a boil, then lower the heat,
cover and simmer until the chicken is
cooked, about 40 minutes.

Remove the chicken pieces from the
pot and, when they’re cool enough to
handle, remove the skin and bones; set
the meat aside, and return the skin and
bones to the stock. Continue simmer-
ing to enhance the fl avor of the broth.

While the stock simmers, make the
roux. In a large pot or Dutch oven,
place the oil and fl our. Mix with a whisk
or wooden spoon, and heat it over
medium. Continue stirring until the
roux turns a golden brown and gives
off a nutty aroma. This forms the basis
of the gumbo, so don’t rush this part! It
takes about 15 minutes.

When the roux is done, add the
vegetables and seasonings. Stir to coat,
and sauté until the veggies are soft.

The okra may get stringy during the
sauté process; continue cooking until
it is no longer stringy. Add the sausage
and chicken; stir to coat. Strain 3 quarts
of chicken stock, and add it to the pot.

Add the tomatoes and stir.

Bring it to a boil, then lower the
heat and simmer for 1½ hours, stirring
occasionally. Add the fi nishing season-
ings, taste and serve.

For each serving, ladle the gumbo
into a bowl, top it with a scoop of
cooked white rice (about a half-cup
per bowl) and garnish with chopped
scallions, including both the white and
green parts. ■
Keri White is a Philadelphia-based
freelance food writer.

Photos by Keri White
A Keri White



arts & culture
Jewish Arts Options
Abound in Coming Weeks
Rita Rosen Poley at Temple
Judea Museum
Jon Marks
W ith the Super Bowl still more
than a week away, how can you
spend your free time before settling in
to watch Jalen Hurts and the Eagles
take on Andy Reid’s Chiefs?
Well, there are plenty of options on
the local arts scene — and with Jewish
content, no less.

You have everything from a Tu
B’Shevat-centered exhibit at the Old
City Jewish Arts Center to an extension
of Jonathan Horowitz’s thought-pro-
voking exhibit at the Weitzman National
Museum of American Jewish History to
three local artists who did works in a
series at the Temple Judea Museum at
Keneseth Israel.

And many of them won’t cost you a
dime. Here’s the rundown:
Old City Jewish Arts Center:
“Celebration of Trees” exhibit
Feb. 1-26
said. “Sometimes people are scared to
go out. They know our natural habitat
is to go to the trees and nature. Coming
to our exhibit is a moment of therapy
and calmness.”
Besides that, the center is sponsor-
ing “First Friday,” where you can
congregate around the corner on
Market Street for an art walk beginning
on Feb. 3 at 5 p.m. You can visit shops
and galleries throughout the neighbor-
hood over the next few hours before
returning to the center at 9 p.m. for a
free Shabbat dinner.

For more information, visit
ocjac.org or call 215-627-2972.

Weitzman National Museum of
American Jewish History: “The
Future Will Follow the Past”
Jonathan Horowitz’s exhibit, whose
work combines aspects of health, race,
gender and antisemitism, opened at
the same time the museum reopened
last May and was supposed to close
in December. But due to its popular-
ity and relevance, it will remain open
through year’s end.

“We felt we couldn’t pass up the
opportunity to have the conversation
continue,” museum curator and Director
of Exhibitions and Interpretation Josh
Perelman said. “It’s bringing in contem-
porary art to refl ect the past. The
issues it raises continue to escalate in
their intensity. As a history museum,
how can we learn from the past to
inform our future?”
The Weitzman is open Fridays
through Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For more information, visit
theweitzman.org or call 215-923-3811.

in a series.

“Each of these artists has taken a
diff erent approach to what is a work in
a series,” museum director and creator
Rita Rosen Poley said. “In addition, we
have complemented the exhibit with
works from our permanent collection.”
Pieri’s series includes 22 tapestries
of the Hebrew alphabet. Soslowsky
did a series on Jewish identity, while
Adler joined forces with K.I. Rabbi
Emeritus Lance Sussman on a new
Purim megillah. She painted all the
illustrations, while he wrote the text.

The exhibition runs from now through
March 15, with a grand opening on
Feb. 12 from 1-3 p.m.

For more information, visit
kenesethisrael.org/temple-judea- museum or call 215-887-8700, ext. 416.

Theatre Ariel: “Amsterdam”
Theatre Ariel is known for its salons in
which actors perform the reading of a
play in an intimate setting. Written by
Israeli Maya Arad Yasur, “Amsterdam”
is the story of an Israeli violinist living
in Amsterdam who receives an unpaid
gas bill from 1944. A discussion with
the cast follows the reading.

Later this spring, Theatre Ariel will
present Marshall Botvinick’s “To Reach
Across a River” about a Chasidic
woman dealing with infertility who
wishes to adopt.

Salons will be performed on Feb. 18
in Bala Cynwyd, on Feb. 19 in Old City
and on Feb. 25-26 in Wynnewood.

See Arts, page 31
Photo by Jon Marks
Temple Judea Museum at
Keneseth Israel: “Seriously:
This exhibit features 18 artists ranging Works in Series”
in age from 18 to 99, each of whom has
a handful of pieces on display in com-
memoration of Tu B’Shevat.

“Going to nature is very therapeutic,”
center director Rabbi Zalman Wircberg
Three local artists — chair of the
Museum Artists’ Collaborative Marlene
Adler, Diane Pieri and Drexel University
student Dan Soslowsky — have inter-
preted how they perceive their work
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM 19