Salmon Gumbo

Today Marcel kindly shared his lunch with me and another        
co-worker.  We enjoyed Marcel’s “Fish Stew” or Low Country folk called it  “Gumbo”.  This Gumbo was made with Salmon, spinach, carrots, mushrooms and I don’t know what all else – It was very tasty!

This amazing Fish Stew/Gumbo can be served as a soup or over some rice – OK –  let’s have Marcel tell you in his own words how it's done.....

In Africa the cooking is mostly what you will call adaptive cooking. That is there  nothing such as using weight but a lots of tasting. The goal is that the end result must be very sweet and delicious and as you cook you add spices, tomato, pepper, onions, mushrooms, in quantities to meet that goal depending on the size of the family. You can therefore have many variations of the same food. Since I cannot find the same ingredients as in Africa, I have to use alternatives. Remember cooking in Africa takes a long time. For instance there a type of food I can cook with meat and tomatoes and other ingredient that can last about a month without being refrigerated bit It takes hours to cook. Though Africa is characterized as a starving continent people know taste and dislike food that are not delicious.

For this salmon stew/sauce it’s a recipe I came up with ad hoc something very common in Africa

1. Clean it well with lemon/lemon juice and Bragg Apple Cider Vinegar.
2. I baked it to avoid the fish disintegrating during the long cooking
3. Put a little oil in the pan and add onions to remove what is called the crude taste of the oil
4. Progressively add fish, water, two types of sauces onion, mushrooms, ginger, garlic and other sweetening spices. No salt or pepper used in this case (just me)
5. Spinach at end

I can talk more about this later but above is the main.