A dark roux takes about forty five minutes.
Everything The Gumbeaux Guys cook starts in that pan. Gumbo, jambalaya, etouffee, red beans and rice, po boys and beignets, out of a truck registered at 4592 Midway Road.
- Food truck
- Catering
- Crawfish boils
- USDOT 4439684
The roux clock
Flour and fat in one pan, stirred, and nothing else happening in the kitchen. Every stage along the way is a different set of dishes.
Blond
About 5 minutesBarely colored. It thickens well and tastes of almost nothing yet. A bechamel stops right here and goes no further.
Peanut
About 15 minutesPale brown and nutty. Etouffee territory, where the shellfish is still meant to be the loudest thing on the plate.
Copper
About 30 minutesThe color of an old penny. This is where a gumbo usually wants to be, thick enough to coat rice and already carrying smoke.
Chocolate
About 45 minutesDark, thin and smoky. The least thickening power and the most flavor, and roughly ninety seconds away from being ruined at any moment.
Times are rough. The heat, the pan and the arm doing the stirring all move them. What does not move is that you cannot walk away from it.
The trinity goes
in next
Onion, celery and bell pepper, cut fine and dropped into the fat the roux was built in. Some kitchens add garlic and quietly call it a fourth. In Creole kitchens a tomato usually joins them. In Cajun kitchens it usually does not. The Gumbeaux Guys cook both sides, which is why both words are in the name.
Area code 337 belongs to south Louisiana. The truck is registered in the 218, at 4592 Midway Road in Hermantown, as an active motor carrier. Both of those things are true at the same time, and that is the whole business in one line.
Onion
Goes in first and takes the longest. Cooked until it stops being sharp.
Celery
The part nobody orders and every pot needs. Cut fine so it disappears.
Bell pepper
Green, usually. It is the one that makes a kitchen smell like Louisiana.
Stock, then time
Added slowly so the roux does not seize, then left alone longer than feels necessary.
The log
One pan, one direction. Stir it on and every pass you have already made stays open behind you. The entries darken the way the pan does.
Pass 01 of 04 / blond
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A boil needs a tall pot, a burner that means it, and somewhere outside to put both. This is the part that decides whether a job is a truck job or a catering job.
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Smothered means cooked down in its own liquid until it gives up. Cornbread is not a side dish in this kitchen, it is structural.
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Fried dough under a quantity of powdered sugar that looks like a mistake and is not. Order them last, eat them standing up, wear dark clothes.
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The whole reason any of this works this far north. The pot travels, the fire travels, and the food arrives where the people already are. Call or email to find out where that is this week.
The table
The Cajun and Creole repertoire the truck works from. The daily board is a subset of this, decided that morning.
Gumbo
Dark roux, stock, and whatever the pot was built on. Sausage, chicken, seafood, or an argument between all three. Over rice.
Etouffee
Smothered. A lighter roux, the trinity, stock and shellfish, spooned over rice.
Red beans and rice
Cooked down slow until the beans turn creamy without any cream involved.
Jambalaya
Rice cooked with the meat rather than beside it, so every grain takes the color of what it cooked in.
Dirty rice
Rice cooked with finely chopped meat until it goes brown. The name is honest about the look and wrong about the taste.
Po boys
Built on french bread and dressed. Fried or gravy, decided at the window.
Fried seafood
Cornmeal crust, hot oil, lemon, hot sauce on the counter.
Crawfish boil
Crawfish, corn and potatoes out of a tall pot onto a covered table. Booked ahead as catering, not sold at the window.
Beignets come out square, hot, and under more powdered sugar than seems reasonable.
The board moves with the day and the season. If you are driving out for one thing in particular, call first and ask.
Bring the pot to the room
A truck in northern Minnesota does a great deal of its work indoors and booked in advance. Give the kitchen a headcount and a date and there is enough to work with.
A crawfish boil is its own project. Tall pot, burner, a table to pour it out on, and enough notice to get the seafood this far north. Ask early rather than late.
- 01 Backyard parties and family gatherings
- 02 Work lunches and office events
- 03 Weddings and receptions
- 04 Graduations and open houses
- 05 Holiday parties
- 06 Crawfish boils, booked well ahead
Find the truck
Stops and hours move around. Two numbers and an address will always get you to the right answer faster than driving out and hoping.
Ask what is on today
(337) 281-7835The quickest way to find out where the truck is parked and what came out of the pot this morning.
Book a date
thegumbeauxguys@gmail.comBest for catering, headcounts, boils and anything that needs a date written down.
Where it is based
4592 Midway RdHermantown, MN
An active motor carrier, USDOT 4439684, working Hermantown, Duluth and the surrounding area.