Gumbolaya is a mix of Jambalaya and Gumbo and it is dee-licious! But the trick of making it? The roux! The darker the roux, the richer the flavor. Our “Creole napalm” began a bubbly blonde mess and transitioned to medium caramel, then to brown and then (finally!) to a beautiful brick mahogany. The saying is, “when it turns mahogany, cook it for ten minutes more” and that’s exactly what we did.

The recipe for Gumbolaya came out of necessity and a bit of creativity. In the week between Christmas and New Year I was with my friend Lisa, who is an unbelievable cook herself. It turned out we didn’t have enough ingredients for gumbo or the right ones for jambalaya—so we improvised!