As near as I can tell, for many of you this meal is a semi-regular pot that you’re all too familiar with. Some of us obviously live in a cave.
I clearly live in a cave.
The more I read the recipe, the more I fumbled with the recipe in the isles of the two grocery stores I had to visit, the more I readied the ingredients, the more I chopped and compiled, the more I watched the stuff boil, the more excited I got. Which means by dinner time I was a nervous happy wreck.
onward …

First off I would like to thank my wife for requesting it. Then I need to give my dear sister a hug for sending forth Chuck Taggart’s Gumbo Pages.
I’ll post the recipe at the end of the article. Suffice it to say this is a very easy recipe and recommend it to anyone who hesitates to make cajun dishes.
First off you need to find some decent smoked sausage, andouille if you can find it. At the same time dig around for a ham hock or shank portion. Just one will do. Nab a 1 pound bag of blackeye peas as well. You probably have the other things at home already. But if you don’t grab yourself a bell pepper, an onion, fresh parsley and a few jalapeno peppers (I didn’t cause my wife can’t stand the heat).

Pull out a decent sized dutch oven, cast iron or other wise. Cut the sausage in 1/2 inch slices and brown a bit. Pull them out and set aside.

Wash yer peas (don’t have to soak these) and dice up your goodies.
Chuck didn’t mention when to add the parsley. Since I figure most fresh thin leaved herbs disappear after 20 to 30 minutes, I figured it was added at the end. But as you’ll see, I add a touch anyway, for color.

Dumb in the rest of the vegies and so forth to brown a bit in the sausage flavor. Maybe about 5 minutes or so. Then add everything else (keeping most of the parsley for the end).

My dutch oven clearly would only take 10 cups of water, Chuck said 10 to 12. He was right.
Man, that is one large pot full. I hope this boils down. The cooking time is only 1 hour, so we’ll see.

Looking great eh? You bet. The flavor was all right there, very very very tasty. And perfectly seasoned (just enough salt).
Checkit though. I didn’t have the heat on high enough. I got to an hour and it was clearly not reduced enough. So I knocked it up a bit. Maybe to a solid medium or so. This pushed it to 1.5 hours and even so the beans weren’t mushy. So, my advice is to keep it at a rolling little simmer. If the center of the liquid is the only thing moving, it isn’t enough.
Got that? Read it again. That paragraph above.
Listen, most bean dishes can simmer for hours if not days. But not these little buggers. Even the bag they came in said cook for an hour. So let’s keep that flame up a bit hey.

fini
Go see Chuck for his recipe – Black-eyed Peas