Just as this week’s Fat Tuesday/Ash Wednesday is a moveable feast, jambalaya is an interchangeable dish. Like jazz, another culturally famous New Orleans contribution, jambalaya leaves room for improvisation, changing with the cook’s skill, training and pantry. The Sauctorium, home to 100s of cookbooks and 1000s of recipes that call for everything from frog legs to a vegan variation with green beans – which is a stretch I little hot sauce and ice cold beer to was down green beans and rice – but who am I to judge, oh yeah.
My recipe changes constantly: Chicken stock, usually; water, sometimes; tomatoes, more often than not. Sausage, definitely – Most of the time, I pick andouille sausage but this has to do with what is on sale – substitutions abound - sometimes it is Spanish chorizo, occasionally what my market calls Creole sausage, another substitution has me using something packaged as ‘red hots’ – although considering I need a degree in chemistry to read the label, I mostly avoid those. Kielbasa – either beef or pork have gone in a pinch.
Chicken? Not usually but if I have a smoked turkey thigh, I’ll chop it up and use it like ham, even throwing the bone in while the rice is cooking. Speaking of ham – it almost never is used, more of a dual issue of I don’t usually keep ham in the house and some the hams you buy like spiral, honey baked are so spiced – clove, mace, sugar that they are hard to use in anything but a sandwich...there is a Cajun style of seasoned pork shoulder called tasso that is used every once in a while.
Vegetables are the constant in this dish…Always onion, garlic and bell pepper. Celery and tomatoes are used in 90% of my jambalayas – Tomatoes are a little controversial, not so much in my cookbook collection, whose authors give great latitude for variation but there are people, belligerent folks you meet at parties who will claim after a couple of drinks the addition of tomatoes make the dish etouffee. While green onion is always used when I have a bunch, if I forgot to buy the veg also known as scallion, it isn’t worth an extra trip to the store.
Spices consist of a of a tiny amount of rosemary, along with healthier portions of oregano, black pepper, paprika, cayenne, parsley and hot sauce – Crystal rules my cupboard. Rice is long grain - basmati in a pinch always fried in oil before liquid is added. And I like shrimp added to my jambalaya – not traditional but not as controversial as tomatoes – oysters or crawfish would be the more customary shellfish additions. Crab is usually used in gumbo. Finfish aren’t usually used but once I crafted a catfish jambalaya for a pretty attractive woman who was a self-described pesco-lacto, occasionally-poultritairian, which it turns out is a multi-syllabic way of saying picky eater.
As much as I like to sip a cocktail while I cook, you’d think a Sazerac would be a good aperitif but Jambalaya goes so very well with beer especially cold lager but also a good bitter ale that I usually forgo my pre-diner treat. And because eating rice leaves me hungry in an hour, I find a dessert of bread pudding really helps complete the meal.
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