With $600 borrowed from a local beer company, jazz musician Edgar “Dooky” Chase started Dooky Chase’s Restaurant in the historic Treme neighborhood of New Orleans in 1936 during the Depression. Since its opening, it has been a fixture in black New Orleans, making traditional and Creole style soul food dishes. The original location could be described as nothing more than a street corner stand that sold lottery tickets and po’boy sandwiches. By 1941, Dooky Chase’s became a local bar and grill selling typical down-home New Orleans food across the street from its original corner sandwich stand location. Edgar Chase spent more time working on his professional musical career while his wife and later his son, Edgar “Dooky” Chase, Jr., helped grow the business.
Dooky Chase’s Creole Gumbo Recipe
Ingredients
4 hard-shell crabs, cleaned
1/2 lb. Creole hot sausage (cut into bite size pieces)
1/2 lb. smoked sausage, (cut into bite size pieces)
1/2 lb. beef, cubed
1/2 lb. smoked ham, cubed
1/2 cup peanut oil
4 tbsps. flour
1 cup onions, chopped
3 qts, water
6 chicken wings, cut in half
1 lb. shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 tbsp. paprika
1 tbsp. salt
1 tbsp. file powder
2 dozen oysters, with liquid
1/4 cup chopped parsley
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. ground thyme
Directions
Put crabs, sausages, stew meat and ham in a 5-quart pot over a medium flame. Cover and cook in its own fat for 25 minutes. Heat oil in skillet and add flour to make a roux. Brown until golden. Add onions and cook over low heat until onions wilt. Pour onion mixture over the ingredients in a large pot. Add water, chicken wings, shrimp, paprika, salt and file powder. Bring to a boil and cook for 30 minutes. Add oysters, parsley, garlic and thyme. Lower heat and cook for 10 minutes more. Serve over rice. Serve 8 to 10.
(Los Angeles Centennial February 10, 1999)
