Paramount Gumbo

5 cans diced tomatoes

1 large diced onion

4 stalks celery, sliced and diced

1 green pepper, diced

1 cup rolled whole grain barley, soaked overnight in 2 ½ cups water

1 lb. cooked diced chicken

1 lb. sliced and halved polish sausage

1 lb. frozen okra (not breaded)

1 Tbs. Chili powder

½ tsp. Cayenne powder

1 tsp. Creole seasoning

1 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Black pepper

1 to 2 tsp. gumbo file powder (optional)

2 bay leaves (remove before eating)

1 lb. cleaned, deveined shrimp without tails

(This recipe fills a 7 quart slow cooker or crock pot.)

Soak barley in crock pot overnight.  Turn on high, on morning of the day you fix this.  Add tomatoes, onion, celery, green pepper, chili powder, cayenne powder, Creole seasoning, salt, pepper, chicken and thawed okra.  Let gumbo cook for 3 hours, on high, stirring every hour.  (If you need to hold gumbo for several hours:  lower temperature now, to low setting.)  1 hour before serving add diced sausage.  Let gumbo cook another hour.  During the last ½ hour of cooking, add shrimp.  This will thicken up the longer it cooks so you may need to add a little tomato juice or another can of tomatoes.  This is one of those recipes where everything tastes even better the next day!  We use the barley in the gumbo as it cooks but another way would be to leave it out of the gumbo.  Then cook whole barley instead of rice; ladling the gumbo over the top of the barley.  If you choose to do this, then the gumbo would have to be thickened with a simple roux.  Happy, healthy whole grain eating!