Cooking from the Garden

Our good friends Ned and Ray arrived for tea (a real tea party, complete with home-made lemonade, tea sandwiches, and cookies), bearing a basket of produce from their garden.  They live out in the country, on 11 acres, so it's quite a garden.

I decided that much of this bounty should reach the table in a single tribute to the season -- which I made up as I went along.  It turned out as a kind of Chicken Gumbo.

First I chopped or cut up everything.  Ned and Ray's zucchini got sliced; their green and hot peppers got seeded and chopped, the okra got topped and tailed, the tomatoes chopped.  I added a large chopped onion, several minced cloves of garlic, and a few stalks of chopped celery.

First the chicken (skinless and boneless thighs) were sauteed in olive oil until brown, then removed.  The onions were browned in the same pan, then joined by the garlic, celery, and peppers.  When the chopped vegetables were softened, I deglazed the pan with 1 cup of red wine, added the tomatoes, zucchini, and okra, and put the chicken back in.  Everything was seasoned with salt and pepper and thyme.  After it came up to a simmer, it was covered and cooked for 20 minutes, then sprinkled with chopped parsley and served over white rice.

Some afterthoughts:

Cajun - If I had really been making a Gumbo, I wouldl have started with a roux instead of olive oil (flour and oil, blended and slowly browned -- 15 or 20 minutes of constant stirring).  I might have browned and added some spicy sausage to go with the chicken.  I would have used Cajun spices instead of thyme -- and probably a teaspoon or more of Tabasco to heat things up. 

White wine (or chicken stock) would have left the colors of the vegetables less muddied than the red wine did -- a good idea when you're presenting a garden basket of produce in a pot.