Language of the Blues - Edmonton Blues Society

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Ya-
John Michael Crow Rebennack so I took one of my real names and put it into a form that
-
think it would get diluted and lost in the mainstream, and I respect them for that. On the
some Saint Christo gris-
Songs:
Gris-Gri - Dr. John (Mac Rebennack)
- Bessie Brown
G U M B O
. This fragrant, chocolate-
colored stew gets its richness from roux- flour cooked in fat until it acquires a dark color
and complex, nutty flavor- and its name from the Bantu word kingombo, which
means okra. 211
Okra is the African vegetable that is a primary ingredient of gumbo. Other ingredients
may include chicken and andouille sausage, and plenty of cooked rice. For a seafood
gumbo, substitute crawfish, shrimp, and fish fillets for the chicken and sausage. New
Orleans Voodoo Queen Marie Laveaux reportedly served bowlfuls of delicious gumbo to
keep practitioners fortified during the intense dancing and drumming ceremonies held at
Bayou St. John.
Okra originated in Ethiopia and was brought to the North America by African slaves. It
was quite popular down South by the 1780s. Meanwhile, some slaves who had escaped
were taken in by Native Americans, from whom they learned to use ground green
sassafras leaves as a spice. Many of these slaves were recaptured and returned to their
plantations. They brought with them the use of sassafras, which Louisiana slaves called
- a soup of okra pods, shrimp, and powdered
sassafras leaves. 212
Cooking tip: To prevent cooked okra from being disgustingly slimy, wash the okra pods,
towel dry them, and leave them out for an hour or so to dry some more. 213
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