Teal or Poule D'eau Gumbo

Title: Teal or Poule D'eau Gumbo
Yield: 1 Servings
Categories: Stews, Creole 

Ingredients: 

------------------------------------ROUX------------------------------------
      3 tb Shortening
      1 lg Onion
      2 tb Flour
      2    Toes garlic
      1    Bay leaf
      1 pn Thyme
           Parsley
           Salt and pepper to taste


-----------------------------------GUMBO-----------------------------------
      2    Poules d'eau or teal; up to
           -3
           Shortening for sauteing
      2    Dozen oysters with water
           -(optional)
      4 c  Water; up to 6
           File powder
           Cooked rice
 
  Add flour to shortening. Cook over low heat. Stir constantly, to avoid
  scorching, until very brown. Add onions, garlic, bay leaf, thyme, parsley,
  salt and pepper.
  
  Skin poule d'eau or teal, wash, cut up, salt and pepper. Fry lightly and
  set aside. Make basic roux, add poule d'eau or teal and water. Simmer for
  about two hours or until tender. If using, add oysters and oyster water (be
  sure and pick over them by hand for pearls and bits of shell, and strain
  the water.) Add file individually when ready to serve. Serve over rice.
  
  Note: do not add file to a rapidly boiling pot or it will string (file
  means thread). If you wish to season the entire pot, bring the temperature
  down to a bare simmer, remove some liquid, let it cool and stir in the
  file; then stir the mixture back into the pot. Do not bring it to a rolling
  boil again.
  
  from "New Orleans Lenten Recipes: A Multi-Ethnic Sampling" by Elaine Abboud
  Mowad and Jean Sarrazin Sears, published in 1970 by the Louisiana Folklore
  Society. The booklet contains recipes passed down from generation to
  generation by word of mouth.
  
  printed in The New Orleans Times-Picayune, March 2, 1995
  
  Posted to MM-Recipes Digest V4 #192 by Linda Place
   on Jul 17, 1997