Jambalaya to Feed the 5000

Last night I had one of my get togethers with Jamie and Elisa. I had decided to make jambalaya, which is not only tasty, but fun to say, Rich even has a song about it. My recipe was mostly based on a Gumbo recipe from BBC Good Food and my experimentation learned from much research I did on the recipe. Jambalaya for those not in the know is a Louisiana Creole dish which has it's base in the Spanish paella. There are a few types of jambalaya which is why recipes can vary so wildly as you can see here.

The recipe is pretty meat heavy and can be very spicy, I made mine to a medium level but had Tabasco on the table for those heat seekers. Here is the recipe I used but I doubled the amounts for 4 and so I would have leftovers. I also took out the onion, added lots more cayenne pepper, paprika and Creole spice. I also  chopped Toulouse sausages, for an extra meaty garlic flavour and obviously a couple of mugs of rice. The rice took about 30mins to soak up all the liquid so I left it with the lid on whilst it did with the occasional stirring. Although it is slightly more time consuming than I would prefer a week day meal the taste is worth it. Smoky, spicy very meaty and very comforting. This would make a great easy dinner party piece as it is very easy to double the quantities.

Jambalaya mid prep

The great thing about jambalaya is that you can get a little creative with what you put in, to some extent. A lot of Louisianan recipes include seafood as well. I was really pleased with how mine turned out, even though I have made it once or twice before, it was just the right amount of spice. Everyone had seconds and there was a heap left for me to have for lunch today, delicious.

Jambalaya

The Leftovers!

Hopefully this will have inspired you to try experimenting with your own jambalaya or gumbo style recipes. With fish this will definitely be a lighter and more Summery option. Next review is from Rich on Planet Pizza which should be up tomorrow.