I feel like the luckiest gal in the world. Well, at least in the food world that is. Last week, while attending a conference in New Orleans, I got to hang around with the likes of chefs Paul Prudhomme and Emeril Lagasse.

Here is Emeril Lagasse - demonstrating how to make an étouffée recipe.

One night I sampled gumbos at a wonderful event called the Gumbo Giveback Party – a fund raising event for the Crescent City Farmers Market. The market reopened in two locations after the hurricane and started providing the city with local, fresh food, artisanal goods as well as a warm friendly town square. There were duck gumbos, crayfish gumbos and vegetarian gumbos to sample and more but my favorite was Chef Paul's Chicken and Smoked Sausage Gumbo.

  I'm standing next to Chef Paul Prudhomme 

Chef Paul's recipe takes more than 2 hours to make and so I shortened it a little by starting with a cooked rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. I also substituted smoked turkey sausage for the andouille sausage that was in Chef's Paul's recipe.

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup flour

2 tablespoons Chef Paul Prudhomme's Meat Magic

1 cup finely diced onions

1 cup finely diced green bell pepper

3/4 cup finely diced celery

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped (1 teaspoon)

1 box (48 oz) chicken stock (6 cups)

1 rotisserie chicken, skinned, boned and meat shredded

1 pound smoked turkey sausage, sliced into thin slices

Salt

Pepper

2 cups hot cooked white rice

1. In Dutch oven heat oil, flour and meat magic seasoning over high heat, whisking constantly, until this mixture (which is called a roux) is dark red-brown, about 4 minutes, being careful not the let it scorch. Remove the pan from the heat and immediately add the onions, green pepper and celery, stirring constantly until the roux stops getting darker. Place the pan over low heat and cook, stirring constantly and scraping the pan bottom well, until the vegetables are soft, about 5 minutes.

2. Stir in the chicken stock and continue to cook, stirring constantly, until the roux is dissolved. Stir in chicken and sausage. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

3. Ladle gumbo into soup bowls and spoon a large spoonful of rice over the top of each serving.

6 servings