Jambalaya!
Recently I had a cornbread craving. It came out of nowhere, and there was nothing I could do but make some. The only thing I really like to eat with cornbread is jambalaya, DUH! Lucky for me, my husband can whip up a batch in no time and it always tastes amazing.
I can't say that I'm a real connoisseur of southern food, growing up in Oregon, I wasn't exposed to it all that much. The first time I ate at Montage, Portland's kind of famous, semi-authentic "cajun" restaurant, I was 16 and "vegetarian." (I was never a very well educated vegetarian as a teenager. I'd eat stuff like chicken soup with all the chicken picked out. I never really read anything about it until college. Ha!) I did try the alligator, because hey- how often do you get a chance to try alligator, for crying out loud? I wasn't that impressed. Like chewing on a fishy-chicken-flavored rubber eraser, kind of.
Anyway, I ate at that restaurant a few times over the years and developed a taste for jambalaya, but I never attempted to make it myself. The flavors are so bold and complex, you don't really think that it'd be easy to cook, but it totally is.
Another one of those "anything goes" recipes, jambalaya can be made to suit anyone's taste, even a vegetarian. Let me be frank, though. I was vegetarian for about 10 years (admittedly not the best one ever) and I've never tasted a vegetarian jambalaya that could compare to a meat version. Sorry, guys. I don't care if you find the fanciest vegan andouille sausage you can, good luck replicating it.
Here's Jason's recipe:
You'll need:
Large handfuls of diced:
Onion
Celery
Red bell pepper
Garlic (chopped fine. As much as you want. I don't know, a palmful?)
1 Chicken breast
2 links of andouille sausage (chopped)
handful of scallions
1 cup of rice (Jasmine! Also, remember my post about brown rice? DON'T USE BROWN RICE. Come on. White is more delicious.)
2 cups of chicken broth
1/2 a can of fire roasted tomatoes (I recently discovered these and I'm obsessed. Great for Spanish rice, too!)
Chili Powder (a tablespoon? more?)
Salt & pepper to taste
1 bay leaf
First, heat the chicken stock and keep warm.
Saute the chopped veggies & garlic in some olive oil and butter. Throw in the andouille and rice, and stir until rice begins to lightly brown. Add chicken, let it hang out for a minute. Then add the fire roasted tomatoes, the hot stock, stir well, and cover for 15 minutes or so.
Hey, have you ever had honey butter? Holy crap, I have to admit I hadn't until last year sometime! When I was a kid, we were strictly BUTTER BUTTER. But now that I've been introduced to honey butter and cornbread, I don't know if I can ever go back. Dude, it is kind of a no brainer. Use a fork to mash some honey into some butter. It's a to-taste sort of deal. Try to keep yourself from slathering it all over your face because it's so amazing.
I have to admit that I'm way too lazy to make cornbread from scratch. We used the boxed kind from Trader Joe's.
Jason was SUPPOSED to add canned green chiles, frozen corn, and grated cheddar to the batter, to make the ULTIMATE CORNBREAD, but he forgot. We had plain cornbread, but guess what? WITH THE HONEY BUTTER IT TASTED LIKE CAKE FROM HEAVEN.
This recipe served us both a hefty-sized dinner (though we did have accompanying salads) and gave me enough leftovers to have some for lunch with my toddler son the next day. Yum!
I can't say that I'm a real connoisseur of southern food, growing up in Oregon, I wasn't exposed to it all that much. The first time I ate at Montage, Portland's kind of famous, semi-authentic "cajun" restaurant, I was 16 and "vegetarian." (I was never a very well educated vegetarian as a teenager. I'd eat stuff like chicken soup with all the chicken picked out. I never really read anything about it until college. Ha!) I did try the alligator, because hey- how often do you get a chance to try alligator, for crying out loud? I wasn't that impressed. Like chewing on a fishy-chicken-flavored rubber eraser, kind of.
Anyway, I ate at that restaurant a few times over the years and developed a taste for jambalaya, but I never attempted to make it myself. The flavors are so bold and complex, you don't really think that it'd be easy to cook, but it totally is.
Another one of those "anything goes" recipes, jambalaya can be made to suit anyone's taste, even a vegetarian. Let me be frank, though. I was vegetarian for about 10 years (admittedly not the best one ever) and I've never tasted a vegetarian jambalaya that could compare to a meat version. Sorry, guys. I don't care if you find the fanciest vegan andouille sausage you can, good luck replicating it.
Here's Jason's recipe:
You'll need:
Large handfuls of diced:
Onion
Celery
Red bell pepper
Garlic (chopped fine. As much as you want. I don't know, a palmful?)
1 Chicken breast
2 links of andouille sausage (chopped)
handful of scallions
1 cup of rice (Jasmine! Also, remember my post about brown rice? DON'T USE BROWN RICE. Come on. White is more delicious.)
2 cups of chicken broth
1/2 a can of fire roasted tomatoes (I recently discovered these and I'm obsessed. Great for Spanish rice, too!)
Chili Powder (a tablespoon? more?)
Salt & pepper to taste
1 bay leaf
First, heat the chicken stock and keep warm.
Saute the chopped veggies & garlic in some olive oil and butter. Throw in the andouille and rice, and stir until rice begins to lightly brown. Add chicken, let it hang out for a minute. Then add the fire roasted tomatoes, the hot stock, stir well, and cover for 15 minutes or so.
Hey, have you ever had honey butter? Holy crap, I have to admit I hadn't until last year sometime! When I was a kid, we were strictly BUTTER BUTTER. But now that I've been introduced to honey butter and cornbread, I don't know if I can ever go back. Dude, it is kind of a no brainer. Use a fork to mash some honey into some butter. It's a to-taste sort of deal. Try to keep yourself from slathering it all over your face because it's so amazing.
I have to admit that I'm way too lazy to make cornbread from scratch. We used the boxed kind from Trader Joe's.
Jason was SUPPOSED to add canned green chiles, frozen corn, and grated cheddar to the batter, to make the ULTIMATE CORNBREAD, but he forgot. We had plain cornbread, but guess what? WITH THE HONEY BUTTER IT TASTED LIKE CAKE FROM HEAVEN.
This recipe served us both a hefty-sized dinner (though we did have accompanying salads) and gave me enough leftovers to have some for lunch with my toddler son the next day. Yum!
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