It’s Mardi Gras! Stupid Easy Jambalaya Recipe
Laissez les bon temps roulez! It’s time for hurricanes, king cakes, beads, chicory coffee, and partying…or it’s just Tuesday. In either case, jambalaya is on the menu.
Our wonderful world has a few ubiquitous comfort foods that show up in every culture. They can be simple, complex, dressed up, stripped down, and interpreted according to the local spices and flavors, whether that requires a day of intense prep and cooking or five minutes with a bag of bread, jars of jam and peanut butter, and a plastic knife. You’re familiar with these foods and have eaten plenty of them. Here’s a partial list:
- “The Wrap” – food wrapped in other food, usually making it portable and convenient. Examples include sandwiches, wraps, and rolls.
- “Hot Bev” – leaves or beans broken into small pieces and steeped in hot water to make a beverage. Tea and coffee are the obvious examples.
- “The Stew” – food chopped up and cooked in liquid, resulting in a hearty soup-like concoction. May or may not include spices, meats, starches (potatoes or rice in most cases), vegetables, legumes, and broth. Can be made from leftovers and whatever is in season, or is in the fridge.
Jambalaya is a cajun variation of the stew, and commonly involves chopped andouille sausage, green peppers, onions, shrimp, and spices cooked with rice in chicken broth, spiced to taste. It’s not very hard to make, but takes a bit of prep time and isn’t as easy as opening a can of Campbell’s Chunky. The web has plenty of great jambalaya recipes for home cooks who don’t mind chopping. Here’s an easy-peasy shortcut for those among you who could burn water and don’t exactly enjoy spending hours in the kitchen.
- 1 bag of frozen fajita mix, with sliced peppers and onions (chop it up if you feel ambitious)
- 1 lb frozen or fresh shrimp (raw is fine)
- 12 oz package of andouille sausage – Trader Joe’s chicken andouille is great, and sorry but you will have to chop it up
- 1 14oz can chopped tomato
- 2 c chicken stock (one can or half of a box)
- 1 c rice (or 1 c cauliflower if not a training day – see instructions)
- fresh parsley
- 1 tsp dry thyme
- 1/4 tsp dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- salt and pepper to taste
- hot sauce and/or cajun seasoning to taste (at least 1 tsp seasoning)
- Grab a big pot, and set it on the stove on med-high heat.
- Tear open the fajita mix dump it em into the pot.
- Chop up the sausage and dump it in.
- Throw in the oregano, paprika, and cajun seasoning. If you don’t feel like measuring, just eyeball it. 1/4 tsp is “a little” and 1 tsp is “a good hit.”
- Optional: splash some wine or beer in there. Yeah. Cook it off for about 5 minutes.
- Open the tomato can and dump it in.
- Dump in the rice* and broth.
- Bring the heat up until you see bubbles (boiling), then turn it down to low, cover, and ignore for about 40 minutes.
- Rip off some parsley and throw it in, or if you are feeling fancy, chop it up.
- Throw in the shrimp, and cook on medium for 5-8 minutes, until the shrimp is pink and not frozen.
- Stir, scoop up a cup, and nail it with Tabasco! Enjoy!
- *Cauli rice: you can “rice” cauliflower with a food processor, or just knife the hell out of it, but it’s not the same – it’s a substitution if you’re not doing starch today, but goes beyond the “stupid easy” definition and violates the spirit of the dish and of Mardi Gras. I suggest using rice or just leaving it out and reducing the broth – meat and peppers with cajun spices is still a tasty dish.
In the past I have struggled with my weight constantly going up and down and staying healthy. I’ve always lost weight by taking in less calories and increasing my activity. It was difficult because I would be hungry and tired all of the time.
