New Englander's Gumbo and Skillet Cornbread

New Englander's Gumbo

1 bell pepper
1 large white onion
2 ribs celery
1 zucchini
1/2 cup oil (canola)
3/4 cup flour
1 can clams
2 cans crab
1 lb frozen shrimp
1.5 cups cooked rice
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
cayenne pepper to taste (1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon)
1/2 teaspoon arrowroot powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon thyme

Chop the vegetables fine. Using the oil and flour, make roux. (Stir roux constantly or it will burn.) Add vegetables, clams (with clam liquid), and spices, barring thyme. Mix well. When vegetables are tender, add 3 cups hot water, tomatoes, and thyme. Simmer for five minutes. Add shrimp. Simmer for about half an hour. Add crab. Simmer for five minutes. Add rice. Simmer five minutes. Serve.

Revamped Skillet Cornbread

1.5 cups cornmeal
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup oil (canola)
1.5 cups milk
1 egg

Heat oven to 425 F and heat an oiled pan in in the oven. Mix dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients. Mix well. Pour into hot pan. Bake 20 minutes or until golden brown and it passes the knife test.

*

Now, this gumbo - or an earlier version of it - was the first recipe I ever found and then cooked on my own. I was ten years old, just discovering the internet, and well involved in the Redwall fandom. I don't know if it's still true, but at the time, food was a huge part of the Redwall fandom and we often exchanged recipes and talked about cooking such. I decided I needed to try this. A form of this gumbo was someone's take on the "Hotroot Soup" from the Redwall books. I spent half the day making it and used every pot in the house. I was terribly proud. I served it to my family and my dad suggested that we order pizza. I was incensed and ready to cry and begged them to try it. It immediately became a family favorite.

The cornbread recipe is also a slightly evolved version of another recipe I printed off the same Redwall fansite back in the '90's. Breads are important in the Redwall books, though, as it takes place in England, I have my doubts that they would consume cornbread. Relevance aside, this also quickly became a family favorite.

I wish the fansite I got these recipes from was still up and running, but it vanished years ago. It was run by a group of very dedicated fan who had higher ideals about how to roleplay rodents on 1990's-style message boards. (I've always been a snob. If you were in that fandom about twelve years ago and were snubbed as not roleplaying well enough or having poor, that might well have been me.) Sadly, it has vanished into the ether, but I do have some of their recipes that I have been playing with and adapting for over a decade.

Thank you, Redwall fandom, for making me love cooking. I owe you much.

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