The Gift That Keeps On Giving
September 9, 2016
This is just unbelievable. When they say, “Great minds think alike”, I am happy to be in the company of these women.
It’s college football season. Time for tailgating with friends and cheering on your favorite team donned in all the university’s regalia. We hosted long time friends to our lake house near Auburn where the Tigers were hosting the Clemson Tigers. And there was a lot of orange involved.
Our friends used to live about 7 hours away from where HUBBY and I live. They have since moved and now it’s only around 4 hours. We were “meeting in the middle”, so to speak and I couldn’t wait to laugh along with the wife who I had known since dating HUBBY days. Her husband is a fraternity brother of HUBBY’s and was in our wedding. We have known them a long time.
I should have remembered they did like seafood but to be on the safe side, I called to see if they did. I wanted to make a jambalaya for a meal while they were our guests. I just felt like having this although it wasn’t really cold weather for a stew. My thinking was, “It will be something different that I bet they haven’t had in a while.” And that was true. They were happy to know I was going to serve it.
I prepared it a few days before their arrival which was Friday afternoon. There was going to be a spread of food at another frat brother’s house Friday night that we were all invited to and also on Saturday night there was a catered affair for tons of folks. I would serve the stew Saturday for lunch.
I was very happy with the way my recipe turned out. How could it not be good with 3 pounds of shrimp in it that I painstakingly shelled and deveined?
Here is the recipe:
Easy Jambalaya Recipe
Prep time – 20 minutes. Cook time – 45 minutes. Total time – 1 hour and 5 minutes.
Serves: 4-6 servings
Ingredients
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into cubes
3 lbs.frozen shrimp
4 sausages (andouille sausage is most common, but use whatever you like!), sliced
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 green peppers, chopped
3 celery stalks, sliced
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
1 (14 oz) can diced tomatoes
3 bay leaves
1 tsp. Worcestershire
1 cup uncooked rice
3 cups chicken broth
1 tsp. cayenne
½ tsp. paprika
½ tsp. dried oregano
½ tsp. ground thyme
as much frozen okra as desired
INSTRUCTIONS
In a large saucepan, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add onion, peppers, celery, and garlic. Cook for a couple of minutes, or until veggies begin to sweat. Add the chicken and sausage, stirring frequently, using more olive oil if necessary. Cook until meat is browned and chicken is no longer pink. Season with salt, pepper, cayenne, paprika, oregano, and thyme. Cook for 1 more minute.
Stir in tomatoes, broth, Worcestershire, okra, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil and add rice. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 20-30 minutes, or until rice is cooked through. Add more broth if necessary, but if you stir often enough, there should be no worries of burning or sticking.
When the rice is almost cooked, stir in the frozen shrimp. Cook until heated through.
Serve!
With tailgate food at the two couples houses, how could my dish not be considered a rare treat? Well, I was about to get a total shock.
We landed at the Friday night affair. While standing around in the kitchen (like every one does) drinking and talking, the dinner was being prepared in a gigantic pot. When the hostess opened the lid I just about freaked. There was her version of jambalaya. Oh, my poor guests! There were going to now have that same meal two times in a weekend and in less then 16 hours. The meal is wonderful but to offer it twice? What could I do about it? I hadn’t brought anything else to offer them for lunch the next day. Well, it wasn’t the worst thing in the world to only have it TWICE in a weekend.
Here is her recipe:
INGREDIENTS
1 lb. shrimp
1 lb. kielbasa, sliced into 1″ rounds
1 can beef consomme soup
1 can French onion soup
1 can Rotel, original
1 stick butter, cut into pieces
2 Bay leaves
1 bunch spring onions, chopped
1&1/2 cups Uncle Bens rice, uncooked
Mix altogether except for the shrimp. Bring to a boil and simmer until rice is done. I usually cook about 45 minutes and then add the shrimp just before serving.
After her wonderful – and I do mean wonderful – dinner (doesn’t it always taste better when someone else prepares the meal?) I decided to let her in on my quandary. How funny, we both thought. I am so glad she had a sense of humor about it all. Such a coincidence! By Saturday’s lunch, I was feeling OK about not having jambalaya myself for lunch since I had just had it the night before. I did prepare it for my guests, though. I cooked a satisfying breakfast and thought when we arrived at the next party, I would find something else to eat besides Cajun food.
When we arrived, the chafing dishes were set out in her kitchen and we could see our host and hostess had decided to cater their party. The hostess from the night before was there and as I was standing across the kitchen counter where the food was laid out, I watched her open the lid to see what meal was prepared for all of us. Then I saw the reaction of almost HORROR and afterwards a laugh on her face and I knew exactly what she had found and how she felt about it. That’s right: jambalaya! AGAIN! My poor guests were ONLY having this Creole delight for the entire weekend, except for the breakfasts I would be serving. These coincidences were just hilarious and of course we had to let THIS hostess in on the joke.
I spoke to the caterer and this was their recipe:
NEW ORLEANS JAMBALAYA WITH SHRIMP AND SAUSAGE
Serves: 8-10 servings
INGREDIENTS
ROUX:
½ cup high heat oil, such as canola, corn, or vegetable
½ cup all purpose flour
GUMBO:
1 medium onion, diced
2 bell peppers (I used ½ of each red, green, yellow, orange – see note), diced
3 stalks celery, diced
6 cloves garlic, minced
3 bay leaves
8 ounces andouille sausage, sliced (I used Tofurky)
2 tablespoons EACH: cajun seasoning AND tabasco sauce (more or less to taste)
1 tablespoon cayenne (omit if you want it mild)
4 cups low sodium chicken broth
1 (14.5 ounce can) stewed tomatoes and juices, roughly diced
1 ½ pounds raw shrimp
2 teaspoons gumbo filé
sliced scallions + white rice or quinoa, for serving
INSTRUCTIONS
ROUX: Heat the oil in a large dutch oven or a heavy bottom pot over medium-high heat. Whisk in the flour until combined and smooth. Switch to a wooden spoon and continuously stir for 15-22 minutes or until the roux darkens to just past a deep peanut butter color. Do not let the roux burn! (if you smell it burning, you will need to throw is out, clean the pot, and start over, unfortunately there’s just no saving burnt roux!)
Once the roux reaches that deep rich brown color, stir in the onions, bell peppers, and celery and continue to cook, stirring as needed so the vegetables don’t stick. About 8-10 minutes or until the veggies soften. Add the garlic, andouille sausage (if using tofurky, do not add yet), and bay leaves. Continue to cook for an additional 1-2 minutes until the garlic is nice and fragrant.
Add the cajun seasoning, tabasco sauce, and cayenne along with the chicken broth and stewed tomatoes and bring to a high simmer before lowering the heat to medium-low, covering and simmering for 15-20 minutes.
IF USING TOFURKY: add a teaspoon of oil to a skillet over medium high heat. Add the slices and cook for a quick 90 seconds (turning half way) just to sear the outside before adding to the gumbo.
Add the shrimp and tofurky (if using) to the gumbo, give it a stir and allow to continue to simmer for an additional 10 -15 minutes or until the shrimp is opaque and the veggies have softened. Taste and season with salt and pepper as desired. Add the gumbo filé and stir. Remove bay leaves before serving.
TO SERVE: Serve warm with white rice or quinoa with sliced scallions on top.
Delicious!
Before bed, I checked my Twitter and since I receive Southern Living Magazine tweets, it was important that very night they send out to their readers several great recipes that would feed a large crowd for any upcoming football games. The variety of recipes were for the same meal and what did I NEED to know for future reference? What do YOU think?
Here are Southern Living Magazine’s Recipes:
http://www.southernliving.com/food/en... Seafood Jambalaya
I have no words.
This is just unbelievable. When they say, “Great minds think alike”, I am happy to be in the company of these women.
It’s college football season. Time for tailgating with friends and cheering on your favorite team donned in all the university’s regalia. We hosted long time friends to our lake house near Auburn where the Tigers were hosting the Clemson Tigers. And there was a lot of orange involved.
Our friends used to live about 7 hours away from where HUBBY and I live. They have since moved and now it’s only around 4 hours. We were “meeting in the middle”, so to speak and I couldn’t wait to laugh along with the wife who I had known since dating HUBBY days. Her husband is a fraternity brother of HUBBY’s and was in our wedding. We have known them a long time.
I should have remembered they did like seafood but to be on the safe side, I called to see if they did. I wanted to make a jambalaya for a meal while they were our guests. I just felt like having this although it wasn’t really cold weather for a stew. My thinking was, “It will be something different that I bet they haven’t had in a while.” And that was true. They were happy to know I was going to serve it.
I prepared it a few days before their arrival which was Friday afternoon. There was going to be a spread of food at another frat brother’s house Friday night that we were all invited to and also on Saturday night there was a catered affair for tons of folks. I would serve the stew Saturday for lunch.
I was very happy with the way my recipe turned out. How could it not be good with 3 pounds of shrimp in it that I painstakingly shelled and deveined?
Here is the recipe:
Easy Jambalaya Recipe
Prep time – 20 minutes. Cook time – 45 minutes. Total time – 1 hour and 5 minutes.
Serves: 4-6 servings
Ingredients
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into cubes
3 lbs.frozen shrimp
4 sausages (andouille sausage is most common, but use whatever you like!), sliced
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 green peppers, chopped
3 celery stalks, sliced
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
1 (14 oz) can diced tomatoes
3 bay leaves
1 tsp. Worcestershire
1 cup uncooked rice
3 cups chicken broth
1 tsp. cayenne
½ tsp. paprika
½ tsp. dried oregano
½ tsp. ground thyme
as much frozen okra as desired
INSTRUCTIONS
In a large saucepan, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add onion, peppers, celery, and garlic. Cook for a couple of minutes, or until veggies begin to sweat. Add the chicken and sausage, stirring frequently, using more olive oil if necessary. Cook until meat is browned and chicken is no longer pink. Season with salt, pepper, cayenne, paprika, oregano, and thyme. Cook for 1 more minute.
Stir in tomatoes, broth, Worcestershire, okra, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil and add rice. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 20-30 minutes, or until rice is cooked through. Add more broth if necessary, but if you stir often enough, there should be no worries of burning or sticking.
When the rice is almost cooked, stir in the frozen shrimp. Cook until heated through.
Serve!
With tailgate food at the two couples houses, how could my dish not be considered a rare treat? Well, I was about to get a total shock.
We landed at the Friday night affair. While standing around in the kitchen (like every one does) drinking and talking, the dinner was being prepared in a gigantic pot. When the hostess opened the lid I just about freaked. There was her version of jambalaya. Oh, my poor guests! There were going to now have that same meal two times in a weekend and in less then 16 hours. The meal is wonderful but to offer it twice? What could I do about it? I hadn’t brought anything else to offer them for lunch the next day. Well, it wasn’t the worst thing in the world to only have it TWICE in a weekend.
Here is her recipe:
INGREDIENTS
1 lb. shrimp
1 lb. kielbasa, sliced into 1″ rounds
1 can beef consomme soup
1 can French onion soup
1 can Rotel, original
1 stick butter, cut into pieces
2 Bay leaves
1 bunch spring onions, chopped
1&1/2 cups Uncle Bens rice, uncooked
Mix altogether except for the shrimp. Bring to a boil and simmer until rice is done. I usually cook about 45 minutes and then add the shrimp just before serving.
After her wonderful – and I do mean wonderful – dinner (doesn’t it always taste better when someone else prepares the meal?) I decided to let her in on my quandary. How funny, we both thought. I am so glad she had a sense of humor about it all. Such a coincidence! By Saturday’s lunch, I was feeling OK about not having jambalaya myself for lunch since I had just had it the night before. I did prepare it for my guests, though. I cooked a satisfying breakfast and thought when we arrived at the next party, I would find something else to eat besides Cajun food.
When we arrived, the chafing dishes were set out in her kitchen and we could see our host and hostess had decided to cater their party. The hostess from the night before was there and as I was standing across the kitchen counter where the food was laid out, I watched her open the lid to see what meal was prepared for all of us. Then I saw the reaction of almost HORROR and afterwards a laugh on her face and I knew exactly what she had found and how she felt about it. That’s right: jambalaya! AGAIN! My poor guests were ONLY having this Creole delight for the entire weekend, except for the breakfasts I would be serving. These coincidences were just hilarious and of course we had to let THIS hostess in on the joke.
I spoke to the caterer and this was their recipe:
NEW ORLEANS JAMBALAYA WITH SHRIMP AND SAUSAGE
Serves: 8-10 servings
INGREDIENTS
ROUX:
½ cup high heat oil, such as canola, corn, or vegetable
½ cup all purpose flour
GUMBO:
1 medium onion, diced
2 bell peppers (I used ½ of each red, green, yellow, orange – see note), diced
3 stalks celery, diced
6 cloves garlic, minced
3 bay leaves
8 ounces andouille sausage, sliced (I used Tofurky)
2 tablespoons EACH: cajun seasoning AND tabasco sauce (more or less to taste)
1 tablespoon cayenne (omit if you want it mild)
4 cups low sodium chicken broth
1 (14.5 ounce can) stewed tomatoes and juices, roughly diced
1 ½ pounds raw shrimp
2 teaspoons gumbo filé
sliced scallions + white rice or quinoa, for serving
INSTRUCTIONS
ROUX: Heat the oil in a large dutch oven or a heavy bottom pot over medium-high heat. Whisk in the flour until combined and smooth. Switch to a wooden spoon and continuously stir for 15-22 minutes or until the roux darkens to just past a deep peanut butter color. Do not let the roux burn! (if you smell it burning, you will need to throw is out, clean the pot, and start over, unfortunately there’s just no saving burnt roux!)
Once the roux reaches that deep rich brown color, stir in the onions, bell peppers, and celery and continue to cook, stirring as needed so the vegetables don’t stick. About 8-10 minutes or until the veggies soften. Add the garlic, andouille sausage (if using tofurky, do not add yet), and bay leaves. Continue to cook for an additional 1-2 minutes until the garlic is nice and fragrant.
Add the cajun seasoning, tabasco sauce, and cayenne along with the chicken broth and stewed tomatoes and bring to a high simmer before lowering the heat to medium-low, covering and simmering for 15-20 minutes.
IF USING TOFURKY: add a teaspoon of oil to a skillet over medium high heat. Add the slices and cook for a quick 90 seconds (turning half way) just to sear the outside before adding to the gumbo.
Add the shrimp and tofurky (if using) to the gumbo, give it a stir and allow to continue to simmer for an additional 10 -15 minutes or until the shrimp is opaque and the veggies have softened. Taste and season with salt and pepper as desired. Add the gumbo filé and stir. Remove bay leaves before serving.
TO SERVE: Serve warm with white rice or quinoa with sliced scallions on top.
Delicious!
Before bed, I checked my Twitter and since I receive Southern Living Magazine tweets, it was important that very night they send out to their readers several great recipes that would feed a large crowd for any upcoming football games. The variety of recipes were for the same meal and what did I NEED to know for future reference? What do YOU think?
Here are Southern Living Magazine’s Recipes:
http://www.southernliving.com/food/en... Seafood Jambalaya
I have no words.
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