Jambalaya

I've cooked this once before but I wasn't in a blogging mood back then. I decided to try again and now I thought I'd write everything down. This recipe is more or less heavily inspired by Chef John's Jambalaya Recipe without much modifications aside from doubling the quantities.

I didn't make any adaptations to make the recipe more Filipino by replacing ingredients with more familiar ones. I didn't replace the sausage with longganisa for instance. As far as I know I've used  ingredients they do use from its place of origin.

For instance, I would not have attempted to do this without Andouille Sausages. That is the one ingredient a true jambalaya can't do without. So when I found a couple of packages of Andouille Sausages in a deli in Manila, I decided I'll cook this recipe again.

These are my ingredients:

500 grams Andouille Sausages, cut into circles.
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons cumin
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon salt
400 grans can Capri whole peeled tomatoes
2 large green bell pepper, chopped into cubes
4 sticks celery sliced thinly
1 bunch green onions, sliced thinly
2 cups rice
6 cups chicken broth
750 grams shrimp, peeled and cleaned

This is how you do it:  At medium heat melt the butter in a deep pot and sautee the Andouille sausages for 3 minutes. Add the paprika, cumin and cayenne pepper and continue stirring for the next 2 minutes. Add the bay leaves, salt and the tomatoes. Break up the tomatoes with your big spoon and let simmer for a couple of minutes. Add the bell pepper, celery and most of the green onions (reserve some for toppings later). Stir for a couple of minutes.

Clean the rice and add it to the pot. Add the 6 cups of chicken broth, cover, and allow to simmer at low heat for 45 minutes.

There is a danger that rice will stick at the bottom of the pot so it might do you well to stir this every once in a while. 6 cups of chicken broth to 2 cups of rice might seem a lot, but you'll be surprised how all that liquid will get absorbed within the next 20 or so minutes, so much so that you might want to add small amounts of water here and there so it won't dry out completely.

Keep tasting it if you need to add salt and to check if the rice is cooked or not.

Once you think the rice is just about to be cooked, add the shrimp, and keep stirring  for the next few minutes.Medium sized shrimp should be cooked in about 3-4 minutes. Just keep cooking until the rice is completely cooked and soft.

Once it's done, place your Jambalaya on a serving dish and sprinkle on the remaining green onion on top.

Gumbo at New Orleans, Resorts World

I was at Newport Mall,  Resorts World for a thing a few days ago and while I was killing time I watched some awesome Flamenco Dancers from Spain and enjoyed this Gumbo from Murray's New Orleans Bourbon Street Ribs, Steaks and Oysters.

I myself had cooked some Gumbo not too long ago, sticking to what was purportedly an authentic New Orleans recipe, complete with some creole sausages. It tasted pretty good. I wish now I had written the recipe down or at least took a picture for this blog.

But I wanted to taste one from a restaurant that seemed served authentic New Orleans food, as authentic as one can find it here in the Philippines, that is.

I ordered their standard gumbo dish, which is described as "Creole Cajun stew, shrimp, shellfish, oysters, blackened chicken, andouille sausage, Holy trinity, tomatoes and okra." All right then!

What did I think?

I thought it was pretty good, although I found it a little bit on the salty side. Very salty. It's just probably my taste buds which has been used to less sodium for the past several years. But the taste of the thing was very nice, specially the sausages. The okra was surprisingly crunchy, which was kind of unexpected. All the vegetables were actually kind of crunchy which indicates that they were just perfectly done and not overcooked. However, I thought the shrimp needed a little more cooking time. It was just almost there, and had a bit of a slimy bland taste to it.

I did bite into a piece that turned out to be something like a gob of peanut butter? What the? Peanut butter? That's what it tasted like that is. Perhaps it wasn't mixed in the soup properly? Was it supposed to be a thickening agent of some sort? Upon realizing it was something like peanut butter, I went ahead and crushed it and blended it into the soup. And that worked just fine. The taste was surprisingly complementary to the whole thing.

Based on what I've seen of New Orleans food, it's something I feel I would naturally be attracted to. Jambalaya, for instance, is something also enjoy quite a lot.

I don't mind coming back. I'm hoping I can request for less sodium next time around.