I met Melissa Martin at one of her early Mosquito Supper Club events in New Orleans years ago. The cajun brunch included shrimp jambalaya, leaf lard chocolate chip cookies, and, of course, gumbo. Martin grew up in the watery world of Terrebonne Parish, downriver and outside the city’s protective levees, and her Mosquito Supper Club cookbook offers an insider’s look at a world that’s rapidly disappearing.

She writes that “gumbo is the tie that binds in South Louisiana. It symbolizes family, a shared table, local ingredients, patience, and the subtleties of culture and tradition.” Martin also notes that there’s no one true gumbo, and that the soup “intersects different countries’ culinary traditions and is emblematic of the nations whose people became the building blocks of Louisiana.”

Some cooks make gumbo with a flour and fat roux, others insist that gumbo must include okra. Martin’s mother Maxine made her everyday chicken gumbo with neither, but used slow cooked onions for a deep, rich flavor. This version borrows Maxine’s technique but adds a few nontraditional ingredients to make a hearty stew that combines South Louisiana gumbo with my favorite chicken soup.

Image via mosquitosupperclub.com