Jambalaya

[Dennis]

I have been volunteered to cook up some jambalaya for a party for a southern boy and his new wife. Any good recipes, suggestions, sources, spices? On the web there are as many recipes as people in Louisianna it looks like. I was thinking chicken and andouille and staying away from shrimp.

Dennis

 

[Crunchnumbers]

I've used a couple of Emeril Lagasses receipies that are pretty good. I've always used shrimp. It also depends on the season and if you can get fresh shrimp. As for the sources of andouille and spices, any good grocery store should have them, but I've noticed, the farther north I go, the harder they are to find.

Bob

 

[mark the shoeshine boy]

send me thermos full....that sounds so good....

mark the shoeshine boy

 

[rtaylor61]

Dennis,

I'll see if I can contact my Aunt...she USED to live south of New Orleans.

Randy

 

[mrob]

Definitely use the andouille--and go over to Dr. Beef at the Goodrich's Shop Rite off Harrison near campus for it. Dr. Beef is a genius with sausage--and his meat is w/o a doubt the best in East Lansing.

Use fresh spices if you can, instead of a packet, but no matter how you make it it will be great with good quality sausage. If adding shrimp, just toss it in at the very end so it doesn't overcook. If you're making it for a crowd, you could either omit the shrimp and stick with chicken, or have the shrimp on the side so it doesn't get rubbery.

Mmm... jambalaya. . . .

 

[htownmmm]

Definitely use shrimp- but only in the last 5 minutes.

For that close to authentic experience, you need a dutch oven( csat iron) if possible. I just fixed a 7 quart pot last saturday and it went out the door like B & B ers @ simpson brush free giveaways( hint, hint).

Use butter to saute your onions, green pepper, and celery( the trinity), fresh tomatoes(plentiful this time of year), and good quality ingredients and they'll be lining up for more.



Marty

 

[Creslin]

If you do use shrimp then put them in the last five minutes as Locutus said. Here is a neat trick though. Peel the shrimp raw and boil the shells to make a shrimp stock. Use as much of that stock as you can when adding liquid for the rice. Helps to get a real shrimpy flavor infused in the rice.

 

[crispy]

Check out your local bookstore and try to find a Paul Prudhomme recipe for it. His stuff is awesome.

 

[rschul2]

My family has a recipe for cooking 60 pounds of jambalaya and it is damn good . Better than anything Emeril peddles. And for what its worth....his cajun cooking ain't worth a damn . Unfortunately, you can't scale down the recipe....just doesn't taste the same, and we use a huge cast iron pot....you can't really use anything else. My bet would be to see if you can get Randy Taylor's aunt's recipe. Seeing as how she lived south of New Orleans, I'm sure she has a good recipe.

 

[rtaylor61]

Unfortunately, I can't reach my aunt. Well, that's not exactly right. I won't contact her. She has a granddaughter who is in the final stages of brain cancer. I did not know that the situation was so advanced. Since she is not at home, I'm going to let her focus on family at the moment. Maybe in the future.

Randy

 

[Dennis]

Just checking in from a relatives connection on a Sunday (I'm not a shave geek or anything...). I'll dig into the suggestions posted - good ones all. Thanks for checking Randy - much appreciated. THnaks too for the suggestions Mitch on the andouille - I will definitely look into it. I dug around foodtv and pulled some recipes. I will probably go with an amalgamation of those and put a test run together first. I'll post what I come up with. Tomatoes required? I thought that was New Orleans only thing...

Dennis

 

[Dennis]

I just got back from the library. I checked out a Prudhomme book but there were only two recipes one of which was vegetarian and the other a cabbage based jambalya. I copied the meat based one though for the process they used in general which was very detailed. I also looked around and found some old 1940s-1060 creole and cajun cookbooks in the stacks. These were a riot to look through with the very general od time descriptions and and general ingredient lists with rough amounts. There was a recipe from Dunbar's in a chamber of commerce cookbook that was interesting that I noted (I think I will leave out the cloves...). I will make a meld of all of these recipes I am looking at and do a test run. This has been fun so far.

Dennis

 

[Dennis]

Ressurecting this thread for an update. The jambalaya was a smash success and just plain excellent. I amalgamated info from many recipes and then went to work. I ordered a cast iron pot from Amazon but it was backordered and did not ship in time so this was done in an All Clad dutch oven.

1 pound pork sausage/kielbasa (Koegels - local maker)
1 pound andouille (Dr. Beef - thanks Mitch!)
~2.5 pounds chicken thighs

I sliced the sausages about 1/4 inch on a bias and fryed them in
the dutch first over medium heat to bring out some oil and then over high heat. When those were browned, I moved the sausage to a towel lined bowl and added the chicken thighs and browned them. I set these aside as well to rest. Then

2-3 onions, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
~8-10 cloves garlic, minced

I sauted the onion and celery in some of the oil for the meat, scraping up all the good stuff that was carmelizing on the bottom. I added the garlic later so it would not burn and then added

Fresh thyme, minced
Fresh basil, minced
White pepper (Penzeys)
Black pepper (Penzeys, Tellicherry fresh ground)
Red pepper (Penzeys, again)

I put everything back in together (ie all the meats) and cooked it over medium-med low heat to meld together. I cooled it down, put some Saran over the mix, popped the cover on and stuck it in the fridge. The next day, I added about 5 1/2 cups of a mix of homemade chicken stock and store bought (Swansons low sodium in the box) to the pot and brought to a boil. I added maybe 1 1/2 pounds of Mahatma rice, brought it back to a boil while stirring to keep anything from sticking, dropped the lid on it and let it go for about 25-30 minutes without touching it. Cracked the lid, and it was a site to behold - perfect rice, perfect brown color, meat done perfectly and the chicked shreded easily. The groom put this in the top 3 jambalayas he ever had, and that was coming from a Louisianna boy.

Dennis

 

[ratcheer]

I used to be an expert at jambalaya, but I haven't done it in some time. I mostly learned from watching Justin Wilson's TV show for many years. Lets see what I can remember. It is a fairly simple dish, but there are hundreds of variations.

A good basic recipe is to start with onions, celery, and fresh parsley. Saute them in olive oil until the onions start to turn clear. Then add your meats (but not shrimp, at this stage) and brown them, too. If you do decide to use shrimp or other seafoods in the future, they need to go in no earlier than the last 15 minutes of cooking.

When everything is starting to caramelize (getting very brown and sweet), add red or white wine, garlic, creole seasoning (which contains plenty of salt), Tabasco sauce, and maybe even some Worcestershire sauce. Deglaze all the brown stuff in the bottom of the pan to get those wonderful flavors up into the mixture.

Bring this now very liquid mixture to a slight boil. You need at least two cups of wine and water for every cup of rice you are going to add. One cup of rice is enough for a fairly large skillet. Add the rice, stir everything together, cover the skillet with a well-fitting lid, cut the temp to a simmer, and let it go for one hour. Do not remove the lid until the liquid has boiled away.

When it is done, the rice should be fairly, but not impossibly, stuck to the bottom of the pan. Serve immediately. It goes great with a green salad and a nice table wine (not cheap, but not expensive, either).

Let me know how it turns out.

Tim

 

[ratcheer]

Oops, sorry, I posted before I read the entire thread. Now I see that you have already mastered it.

Great going!

Tim

 

[MasonM]

I should preface this by stating that I was born in Louisiana.

The real secret to jambalaya and pretty much any other food IMHO is to not use a recipe at all. Nothing that I cook ever comes out exactly the same way twice, but it's (almost) always good.

What you listed here sounds like a winner to me although I would definately have used some crawfish and/or alligator.

 

[Dennis]

I should preface this by stating that I was born in Louisiana.

The real secret to jambalaya and pretty much any other food IMHO is to not use a recipe at all. Nothing that I cook ever comes out exactly the same way twice, but it's (almost) always good.

What you listed here sounds like a winner to me although I would definately have used some crawfish and/or aligator.

Thanks Mason. I would have added some crawfish but, a couple things. I am in Michigan - quality seafood is hard to get, they are/were out of season when I checked about shipping, and lastly, it was going to sit around in a chafing dish for a couple hours and I did not want seafood to go funky or off, so I stuck with just sausages and chicken.

Dennis

 

[AACJ]

snip....

What you listed here sounds like a winner to me although I would definately have used some crawfish and/or aligator.

I'm suprised no one else mentioned crawfish or alligators but I would include them in mine if I made it.

 

[MasonM]

Thanks Mason. I would have added some crawfish but, a couple things. I am in Michigan - quality seafood is hard to get, they are/were out of season when I checked about shipping, and lastly, it was going to sit around in a chafing dish for a couple hours and I did not want seafood to go funky or off, so I stuck with just sausages and chicken.

Dennis

Quite understandable and I certainly wasn't being critical. I will only eat fresh; never frozen. I won't even eat seafood unless I am on the coast.

By the way, am I the only one who finds the term "fresh frozen" a bit absurd?

 

[MasonM]

I'm suprised no one else mentioned crawfish or alligators but I would include them in mine if I made it.

Absolutely! I do enjoy some good mud bugs.