Oktoberfest Gumbo! (w/ PICS)

Figured I'd share a new cook with everyone as I've made a lot of gumbos over the years, but this is the first time I married it with meat from the egg, an Oktoberfest theme, and damn if it isn't the best Gumbo I've ever made or had.  Absolutely fantastic.  Here it goes...

I usually make my Gumbo with pulled chicken, store bought smoked sausage and a third meat.  Often a seafood like shrimp or fish, sometimes not.   I'm throwing a big Oktoberfest Oyster Roast party tomorrow and figured a good gumbo would keep everyone warm on a cold night.  Instead of my usual trio, I went with Smoked Pulled Pork, Smoke Bratwurst and Oysters.  And I threw in a couple smoked pork chops from the Amish market for good measure.

Started out by making a dark brown chocolate colored roux to which I added the holy trinity of onions, bell peppers and celery.  That roux took a while, but I had a lot of it because I'm making a huge portion of gumbo -

After the veggies softened for a while I added the chopped up smoked pork chop and a good bit of chicken stock and water, bay leaf, cayenne and some hand mixed rustic rub.  (that is the main seasoning, which I added throughout).

I drove to a couple stores to get fresh made brats, but couldn't find them anywhere.  I was hoping the Amish market would come through but these Johnsonville ones taste just fine.  Those are the smoked chops from the market, though.  Those are good...


While doing this I was also finishing up my meats.   First I smoke 2 pork shoulders (14 lbs before cooking) - here they are after and pulled -

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As usual, the pulled pork off the egg was fantastic.  I slow cooked it at 225-250, let it rest a bit, pulled it and then added it right in to the gumbo.  Well...I ate a little.  Okay, a lot.
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While the meat was resting, I smoked some bratwurst.  I have never done that before, but it came out really nice.  Into the pot those went as well!
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I had now exceeded the size of my large pot and I didn't want to spread it between two, so I moved this into my 20 quart electric roaster.  Not my choice for cooking a stew, but I did all the heavy work in the pots anyway (roux, initial simmer, etc) and this ended up working okay.  It is also what I'll be serving from tomorrow.

This all simmered on low for a few hours, adding things throughout the day.  When done I added a couple jars of preshucked oysters and their juice.  They won't add any noticeable flavor to this rich stew, but I like having them in there.  Seems wrong to leave them out!
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The flavor is fantastic.  Really nothing like I've had before.  There is a definite traditional gumbo taste from the roux and such, but the smoke flavoring is fantastic.  As I usually use store-bought smoke sausage, it doesn't have near the quality of the smoke flavor that you get from doing the meats in the egg.  Very nice mixture of flavors with nothing overpowering anything else.  The pork stayed very tender, the brats held together and those oysters are succulent.

Tomorrow I'm going to serve it over a spoonful of rice with some green onions and hot sauce on the side for folks to add as they like. File powder of course.  Maybe I'll run out and get some fresh crusty bread to go with it.  But tonight I'm having a few tasting bowls just like this one.