Jambalaya

Awe the coldness, it just keeps creepin’. Well actually it has been battling it out with the warmth. Some days its cold and others it’s warm. It literally snowed all day one day last week and was down around 20°F and the next day it topped out at 63°F and melted all the snow. Welcome to Ohio, where you never know what the weather will be like. If it’s cold in the morning you might as well wear some shorts under your pants because it may be hot by noon. If you live in a little more predictable climate or it actually is cold today in Ohio there is nothing better on those freezing days than a hot meal. One of my favorite hot meals is jambalaya. Oh you don’t know what jumbalaya is? Let me put it to you this way; the Cajuns said, “I’m gonna make some spicy rice and add some meat.” Not sure what the original dish contained but you can put anything you want in it. Whether it’s chicken, sausage, seafood, or alligator it’s a tasty hot meal on that cold winter day.

How do you make it? Easy. You buy a box of Zatarain’s Jambalaya Mix and follow the instructions on the back of the box. The box doesn’t come with meat so you add your own, again, your choice. I like mine with sausage. Andouille sausage is the way I go, or with smoked sausage or jalapeno chicken sausage. Now on the back of the box it instructs you to brown the meat (sausage) in one pan and drain. Then it goes on to boil so much water and add an amount of veggie oil as an option. When the water comes to a boil add the rice/spice from the box and the cooked meat. Then it goes on how to finish. The way I do it is I brown my sausage in a sauce pan, remove the sausage and there is a small amount of oil left from the sausage, some might call it grease, or fat juice, whatever you want to call it, that’s what I use instead of veggie oil. I leave that in the pot and add my water, bring it to a boil and add my rice/spice and sausage bring back to a boil and then let it simmer on low heat. Twenty minutes later you have a pot full of goodness. Now I don’t take credit for finding this recipe, me mum used to feed it to me when I was a little lad. Not sure why that sentence had a British tone to it. Oh you say you’re a vegetarian? Don’t add meat. The rice is tasty by itself as well. The best part of this whole meal, it’s cheap and easy as hell to make. So next time you in the sto’ go on and pick you up a box. Not sure how to write in a Cajun way.

 

If you are unfortunate and they don’t have Zatarain’s in your local grocer, you can make your own. There are a ton of recipes on the internet. And you are too lazy and don’t want to make your own or by the box and make that, some restaurants make their own so you can go get theirs. Around the Columbus area there is a restaurant called BJ’s Brewhouse by Polaris mall that serves a very tasty version loaded with a few different meats including chicken, shrimp, and sausage.