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Marie in Rochester has got some overheated (spicy) gumbo on her hands, and needs to tone it down a notch for those of her guests tonight who may be a little tongue-tender. She suspects that, since she has already cut the spicy ingredients in the recipe, the sausage is the culprit. How can she put out the fire?

Option 1: Add More Volume
The most sensible option for turning down the heat would be to add more of everything else in the recipe except for the spice, and namely the milder-flavored ingredients. This will, however, increase both the volume and the cost of your dish.

Option 2: Add More Rice
If you have already mixed in the rice and it is still too hot, you may add more rice, or perhaps divide the gumbo into two portions and add rice only to one of them, and let your guests know there are a ‘hot’ batch and a ‘hotter’ batch.

Option 3: Serve Over Rice
If you haven’t mixed the rice with the okra stew yet, do not and keep them separate. Serve the rice at the table in bowls. Let your guests know that they should serve themselves a small spoonful of gumbo on their rice to start, especially if they are sensitive to heat.

Option 4: Gumbalaya
How else can you add more elements to the dish, especially some sort flavor-absorbing starch, to draw away some of the heat without ruining the authenticity of the gumbo? How about making gumbalaya?!

Gumbalaya is a hybrid dish featuring elements of both gumbo and jambalaya. It may change your game plan, but it can certainly satisfy your guests with an exciting Louisiana-style medley of ingredients, and perhaps even become a fun topic of conversation. To incorporate jambalaya as part of your dish, just add cooked tomatoes. Cooked tomatoes are acidic and are very helpful in tempering spiciness.

Option 5: Lastly, serve it with whole milk dairy (with fat). A glass of milk can be very helpful in subduing the spicy burn.