2010 Cooking Club Week 27: Jambalaya

Nevyn

This is one of my speciality dishes, which gets done for events and family gatherings or bring a dish gatherings. It can be a main in it's own right or served as a starter or a side dish.

There is a fair bit of work in it so I am going to put up the ingredients and method and upload photos as I go. This tends to be a huge share dish put will freeze well, I have told family I am cooking this it will be portioned out and heavens forbid people dont' get some as I don't cook it that often.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jambalaya


The origin of the name "jambalaya" is from the combination of the French "jambon" meaning ham, the French article "à la" meaning "in the style of", and "ya", thought to be of West African origin meaning rice. Hence, the dish was named jamb à la ya. European explorers had imported rice from Asia and Africa. Enslaved African Americans already had a native name for this crop; they called it "ya". As Europeans learned the term "ya" for rice, it became included in the name of the dish.

I cook the the creole version which is also known as red jambalaya.

Ingredients.:

1lb of bacon pieces/ or ham and bacon pieces.
6 chicken breasts
1/21lb of king/tiger prawns


2 cloves of garlic
2 medium white onions or 1 large
1 large courgette
1 yellow bellpepper
1 green bellpepper
3 stalks of celery*
1 tin of plumb tomatoes
1/2 tube of tomato paste
1 catron of sieved tomatoes


2 bay leaves
Creole spice mix, by some or make your own.
( 3 Tblsp paprika, 1 Tblsp salt, 1Tblsp black pepper, 2 Tblsp cayenne,
2 Tblsp oregano, 1 Tblsp dried thyme, 1 Tblsp dried basil.)
1 bottle of sharwoods sweet chilli sauce
1/2 bottle of dark soya/whorchester sauce
1 to 2 Tblsp of chilli flakes

2 pints of chicken stock
1 kg of long grain rice
double handful of cashew nuts.
Fresh chopped parsley to garnish.

You need a large heavy bottomed pot for this as the cooking time is long.
You can rest in between stages but at the end the rice will double in size in the pot as it cooks for the last 40/60 minutes.

Traditionally a very spicey Andouille is used but that is too hard usually to get here so I use bacon/ham and then add the spices as I go.

Cut the bacon/ham into bite sized pieces and the same with the chicken breasts. Add oil to the pot and crush the cloves of garlic into it and when they are sautéed add the bacon/ham and when it's starting to change colour add the chicken. Add the entire jar/bottle of sweet chilli sauce and half the chilli flakes and the dark soya/whorchester sauce. Cook into a sticky mess but take off the heat before the chicken gets over cooked and strain the meat out and put in a bowl/container and cover with tin foil and set aside.

Next the finely chopped vegs go in the pot staring with what is called the trinity of Cajun/creole cooking 50% onion to 25% green bell pepper, 25% celery(personally I hate celery and leave it out, heresy I know) sauté the lot and then add in the yellow pepper and courgette. At this stage it going to seem like you are making a Ratatouille I used to add aubergine/eggplant as well at this stage but a few people I know are allgeric so it's gets left out but you can add it if you wish. Add in the tin of plumb tomatoes and the carton of sieved tomatoes and the Creole spice mix. Let the whole lot simmer and stew until it's reduced and the vegs are breaking down.

Then stir in the rice to the mix and add the bay leaves.
Make sure the rice is coated and is red and soaking up the sauce, when it can soak up any more start working it like a rissoto adding in the chicken stock, which means a lot of stirring. Once that is done add back in the meat and then add in the prawns. The prawns are going to be steamed with the rice and cooked that way. Add in the tomato paste or leave out if you think it is tomatoey enough. Cover and cook on a simmer, it can be left for as long as it takes for the rice to be cook or it can be left to stand and then brought to the finish as the rice seems to explodes in the pot doubling in size and it can be left on a slow cook as well as long as more stock is added.

Which means most of the prep for this can be done early in the day and then finished off.

When it's done add in the cashew nuts and stir through, making sure there is a mix of everything through the rice. Serve heaped on plates or in stew bowls or in small bowls as a side dish garnish with parsley. It goes really well with bbq ribs and can be made the day before, put in a sealed container and kept in the fridge to be eaten cold or re heated and the next day the flavours tend to have infused even more.

It take a lot of work but it's worth it, will be putting up pics later

Malari

Ah, this looks like something I could get my teeth into!

How many would the quantities above serve?

Also do you add all the measures in the creole spice mix? Does it make a very hot dish or would I need to tone it down for sensitive people (ok, me)?

Nevyn

That would make an entire pressure cook full and as for portions it depends on if you are having it as a main or as a side dish. So eaily 6/8 mains, I have found it never goes to waste esp as it freezes well.

I would add all of those herbs and spices, I have a medium tolerance for spices and chillis and haven't found it too hot, you could cut down and taste as you go but remember that you will be adding in the stock and rice and all the tomatoes which will dilute it down.

I tried to figure out a way to do a smaller version but it got to fiddly and that's how I cook it. It's going to get all eaten up anyway as we have a birthday party to morrow and all the adults will mill it.

Malari

Well I tried to approximately halve the amounts above (I don't have a pot that big!) but it's rea-hee-hee-lly hot! So if anyone knows how to cool it down, as there's a huge pot left after dinner, let me know!

Having said that, the flavours are awesome, and I'll try it again with a more cautious approach to the chilli flakes! Thanks!

Little Alex

Hi Thaedydal

I made this last night and it was lovely. I had a little bit again today and I think it was even nicer after the flavours developed overnight! I actually wanted to make a scaled-down version of your quantities, but ended up with a huge pot anyway. Ah well!

This is what it looks like:



By the way, years and years ago I used to work in Tante Zoe's and they used German Salami Company sausage instead of andouille. I used LIDL kabanossi sausage in mine.

Thanks, Thaedydal (can you tell me how to pronounce Thaedydal?)!

Nevyn

oooh thanks for the suggestion will have to get some LIDL kabanossi sausage and see what I make of it.

And ask me and I will tell you how to pronounce it, or else you could go looking for that awful podcast I did about 4 years back.

nice1franko

Have fallen behind a bit with the cooking club but will catch up.

I made this about a month ago though. Was really, really good. Bags of flavour there. I froze a bag of the sauce mix too cos I'd loads so can throw together another pot of this in no time

I forgot to take a pic of the final product but took one snap as it was cooking on my phone so quality not great.



edit: the pic doesn't do it any justice it was gorgeous and looked good plated up too.

Little Alex

This is another one that I was looking forward to and wanted to make again! This time I used a couple of different types of salami/chorizo sausages and some leftover Heinz Chilli & Lime Ketchup instead of the Thai sweet chilli.



I also made your coddle recipe a while back, Thaedydal, and it turned out very nice, too!

So, thanks again!

youcancallmeal

Gonna try and make this can't find Creole Spice mix for sale anywhere and not too bothered buying all the spices when I probably won't use them again? Would something like this work?

Little Alex

I think Thaedydal/Nevyn has left Boards.

That Cajun mix would work fine.

youcancallmeal

Little Alex wrote: »

I think Thaedydal/Nevyn has left Boards.

That Cajun mix would work fine.

Yeah I see that. I gave in made the creole spice mix in the end anyway. The jambalaya was amazing!