Alligator gumbo

Last night I hosted my first official guest in the new place, so I pulled the alligator filet and alligator sausage out of the freezer, left over from our trip to New Orleans last summer, and made--what else?--alligator gumbo.

(Why alligator gumbo? Because I already had all of the ingredients on hand.)

I used this gumbo recipe, substituting alligator meat and alligator sausage. I used turkey broth, since that's all I had; shrimp or fish broth would be ideal, but vegetable broth would work okay too. I also used basmati rice, which again is technically incorrect, but who cares? It's what I had available.

The alligator gumbo was delicious, and not nearly as exotic as it sounds. Because gumbo is so heavily spiced, I would have been  hard pressed to identify the meat as alligator if I hadn't known. Which means plain old chicken-and-andouille gumbo is just as good.

Fun wine fact: viognier goes best with alligator gumbo.

Another fun fact: homemade chocolate ice cream makes an excellent dessert afterwards.