Jambalaya

This weekend I decided to make Jambalaya, as it is a dish I have not made for some time. Jambalaya is a Creole dish found in many different forms in the southern states of America and in Central America. The dish contains pepper and chillies which gives it its hotness, and often the fleshy oysters found in the Gulf of Mexico are included. These are shelled and arranged over the rice a few minutes before the dish is cooked, so that they solidify, but remain fleshy.

However, when I arrived at the supermarket for the ingredients, not everything was available, so some improvising was necessary. Stone crab claws could not be found anywhere (not even frozen), but here in California we had an abundance of Alaskan King Crab legs, so I used these instead, chopped into approximately 3-inch lengths, resulting in a slightly more sweet flavor which contrasted well with the pepper and tangy lime flavors. The recipe below gives the original recipe, but feel free to substitute seafood and pork flavors with whatever you have available locally.

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 2 medium green peppers
• 18 oz tomatoes
• 4 oz boiled ham
• 8 oz large shrimp, shelled
• 4 crab claws (Stone or Common crab)
• 4 rashers rindless smoked bacon
• 3 oz onions, finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 7 oz long grain rice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• freshly ground pepper
• sprig of thyme
• 1 teaspoon lemon balm
• 1 chili, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons lime or lemon juice
• chicken stock to cover

Method

1. Dry fry the diced bacon, and then lightly fry the onions in the bacon fat, over a moderate heat. Add the crushed garlic and finally the diced peppers. Simmer the vegetable mixture for about 5 minutes, or until the peppers are tender and the onion transparent.
2. Sprinkle in the rice, and stir until it is transparent and beginning to swell. Add the salt, pepper, thyme and lemon balm.
   
3. Marinate the finely chopped chili in the lime juice for 10 minutes before adding it to the other ingredients in the pan. Make sure that the chili is well distributed throughout the dish.
4. Stir in the ham and tomatoes. Pour on the chicken stock and cook oer a high heat for 5 minutes. Then fold in the prawns, crab claws. Set the oven at moderate (180 C, 350 F, gas 4). Place the pan in the preheated oven and cook for about 20 minutes.

This recipe was found in the book Shellfish by Anton Mosimann and Holger Hoffman.