Jambalaya

Pronounced: juhm-buh-LI-yah, jam-buy-LI-yah

A versatile Creole dish that combines cooked rice with a variety of ingredients including tomatoes, onions, green peppers and almost any kind of meat, poultry or shellfish. It’s thought that the name derives from the French jambon, meaning “ham,” the main ingredient in many of the first jambalayas.

Ingredients:

12 medium shrimp, peeled, deveined and chopped
4 ounces chicken, diced
1 tablespoon Creole seasoning, recipe follows
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
1/4 cup chopped celery
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
3 bay leaves
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon hot sauce
3/4 cup rice
3 cups chicken stock
5 ounces Andouille sausage, sliced
Salt and pepper

Preparation:

In a bowl combine shrimp, chicken and Creole seasoning, and work in seasoning well. In a large saucepan heat oil over high heat with onion, pepper and celery, 3 minutes. Add garlic, tomatoes, bay leaves, Worcestershire and hot sauces. Stir in rice and slowly add broth. Reduce heat to medium and cook until rice absorbs liquid and becomes tender, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes. When rice is just tender add shrimp and chicken mixture and sausage. Cook until meat is done, about 10 minutes more. Season to taste with salt, pepper and Creole seasoning.

Muffuletta Sandwhich

The muffuletta sandwich has its origins at the Central Grocery in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

According to Marie Lupo Tusa, daughter of the Central Grocery’s founder, it was born when Sicilian farmers selling their produce at the nearby Farmers’ Market would come into her father’s grocery for lunch and order some salami, ham, cheese, olive salad, and either long braided Italian bread or a round muffuletta loaf. In typical Sicilian fashion they ate everything separately sitting on crates or barrels while precariously balancing their meals on their knees. Her father suggested cutting the bread and putting everything on it like a sandwich, even if it was not typical Sicilian fashion. The thicker braided Italian bread proved too hard to bite and the softer round muffuletta loaf won out. Shortly thereafter, farmers that came for lunch began merely asking for “muffulettas”

Ingredients:

• 1 loaf Muffuletta bread (or Italian bread)
• 1 cup olive mix
• 1/4 lb sliced ham
• 1/4 lb sliced mortadella
• 1/4 lb sliced Genoa salami
• 1/4 lb sliced provolone
• 1/4 lb sliced mozzarella

-Olive Mix

• 3/4 cup pimento-stuffed olives
• 1/4 cup pitted Kalamata olives
• 1/4 cup giardiniera (Italian pickled vegetables)
• 2 lg. pepperoncini
• 3 – 4 pickled onions
• 2 Tbsp. capers
• 1 md. clove garlic, chopped
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• A couple of grinds of blackpepper
• 2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil

Olive Mix Preparation:

1. Drain all ingredients.

2. Place all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped.

Muffuletta Preparation:

1. Cut bread in half horizontally.

2. Spread half with olive mix then layer on meats and cheeses.

3. Cover with top. (Note: Ideally the sandwich should be made an hour or more in advance and then tightly wrapped in plastic wrap to enable juices to soak bread.)

4. Slice into quarters and serve.

Seafood Jambalaya

 

 

It is no great secret that I love to cook and eat “Cajun” food.  One of my favorites is Jambalaya.  “Clean the Swamp Jambalaya.”  It contains a little of everything….

Ingredients:

3 tablespoon vegetable oil

2/3 cup Tasso (a seasoned and smoked ham), diced

1/2 cup Andouille Smoked Sausage, diced

1 1/2 cups onions, chopped

1 cup celery, chopped

3/4 cup green bell peppers, chopped

2 bay leaves

2 tablespoons, plus 1 1/2 teaspoons creole spices

1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic

4 cups tomatoes (about 4 medium size), chopped

3/4 cup tomato sauce

2 cups seafood stock

1/2 cup green onions, chopped

2 cups uncooked rice (preferrably converted)

1 pound peeled crabmeat, crawfish or firm-fleshed fish filets (cut into bite-sized pieces), or any combination of your favorite seafood, that equals 1 pound

1 1/2 dozen oysters in their liquor (medium size) (about 10 ounces)

1 1/2 dozen peeled medium shrimp (about 1 1/2 pound)

 

Preparation:

Drizzle the oil on the Tasso, Andouille, onions, celery and bell peppers; and evenly mix each with your hands.  Heat a 2-quart saucepan over medium heat.  Add the Tasso, Andouille and sauté until browned, about 5 to 8 minutes, stirring frequently.  Add the onions, celery and bell peppers; sauté until tender but still firm, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally and scraping pan bottom well.  Add the bay leaves, Creole Spices and garlic.  Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring constantly and scraping the pan bottom as needed. 

Add the tomatoes and cook about 7 minutes, stirring frequently.   Add the tomato sauce and cook for 7 minutes more, stirring often.  Stir in the stock and bring to a boil.  Then stir in the green onions and cook about 2 minutes, stirring once or twice. 

Add the rice and seafood; stir well and remove from the heat.  Transfer mixture to an ungreased 13×9-inch baking pan.  Cover pan with aluminum foil and bake at 350°F until rice is tender but still crunchy, about 20 to 30 minutes.  Remove from the oven.  If you still have liquid in the pan bottom, let pan sit a few minutes, still covered, to allow rice to absorb the liquid.  Remove bay leaves and serve immediately.

To serve, mold rice in an 8-ounce cup and place 2 cups on each serving plate as a main course and 1 cup as an appetizer. 

 

Cajun Eggs Benedict with Andouille And Crawfish Hollandaise

Ingredients:

• 11 eggs
• 4 dozen crawfish or crawfish tail meat
• 4 English muffins
• Two 8-inch links of Andouille sausage

Hollandaise

• 1/2 pound of salted sweet cream butter
• 3 ounces white wine
• 1 onion
• 1 red or yellow pepper
• 1 celery stalk
• 1/2 ounce Tabasco red pepper sauce
• 1/2 ounce lemon juice
• Crawfish meat

Cajun Benedict: Cook Andouille sausage by baking in oven at 375 degrees for ten minutes each side. Split down center and cut in half. Meanwhile, steam crawfish and remove tails for use (save one or two whole for garnish on each plate and save broth for poaching eggs). Poach 2 eggs for each serving in the remaining broth. Serve 1 piece of Andouille over the toasted English muffin.  Top each with a poached egg and Crawfish Hollandaise.

Crawfish Hollandaise: Melt 1/2 pound butter in small sauce pot and set aside to cool. Small dice 1/2 red pepper, celery stalk, and 1/2 onion. Using a few Tablespoons of the melted butter, sweat down (saute) the diced vegetables until softened. Separate 3 egg yolks into a stainless mixing bowl and add white wine. Heat over medium flame while whisking rapidly until ribboned. (In order to keep eggs from scrambling, keep the bowl turning and scrape all sides of the bowl as you whisk. The egg yolk and wine emulsion should not smell scrambled. On electric cooktops I recommend using a double boiler. This is slower and safer than direct heat. Allow the emulsion (sabayon) to cool for a minute or two before proceeding.) Check the temperature of the melted butter. To proceed, it should be warm but not hot to the touch, 90 to 110 degrees. Slowly incorporate the butter in a thin stream while whisking rapidly. Stir in the vegetables when they are also warm but not hot. Stir in Tabasco sauce and lemon juice. Finally whisk in a good amount of diced crawfish meat.

Chef’s Note:  As a suggestion serve in a small bowl some cheese grits topped with green onion.

Serves: 4

Cajun Red Beans and Rice

With my wife hailing from Louisiana it was a necessity that I learn to cook “Cajun.”  Before I could begin cooking, however, I had to learn a few things such as:

• The Trinity = Celery, Onion & Bell Pepper
• Cayenne Pepper in just about everything
• Roux = The Beginning

With all of this in mind here is a Cajun specialty “Just For You.”

Ingredients:

4 cans red beans
1 can Rotel tomatoes (Original)
1 Red onion chopped semi fine
4 Green onions
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 stick salted butter
1 carton chicken stock
2 tbsp chopped garlic
2 tsp Sea salt
1 tbsp Tony Chacheres cajun seasoning
1 pound package Andouille sausage
1 13oz package smoked beef sausage
1 Bell pepper
2 Stalk celery
Long grain rice

Preparation:

The Roux – The Roux is the very beginning to this South Louisiana favorite; so here goes!

In a large pot over medium high heat add the flour and butter, and stir stir stir with a wooden spoon until the flour turns a caramel color.
Turn down the heat to medium and add the chicken stock and whisk until fully incorporated.

Add the beans and their liquid to the pot and stir then turn down the heat to low.
Dice up the onion, celery and bell pepper, (3) green onions and add to the pot.
Stir everything together and cover.
Simmer over medium heat for 1 hour

While the beans are simmering, cut both kinds of sausage into 1/4″ slices and set aside.
After the beans are done simmering, add the sausage and simmer 1 more hour.

Cook 1 1/2 cup rice according to the instructions on the package and add to the beans after simmering.

Stir in the rice and add water if needed, then taste for spice and add more if needed.

Serve in a bowl and garnish with the last green onion.