Jambalaya Recipe

So it's been a crazy week, but I'm back today to share the jambalaya recipe Cindy and I made two weeks ago!  We basically used this recipe, but if you know me at all, you know that I never ever follow directions and don't usually measure things.  Also relevant knowledge, this dish has A LOT of meat in it, and I'm a vegetarian.  This means that I didn't taste it at all, which is how I usually cook.  So I was really surprised when people actually liked it!

Just letting the meat cook first

We made a half batch, but used the full amount of onion and 1.5x the garlic.  I really like garlic and onion, the smell of it sautéing in butter is one of the best.  Another change was that we used italian cured ham instead of pickled pork.  Trader Joe's didn't have a can of crushed tomatoes, so we crushed them ourselves, although that doesn't really make much of a difference.  I also did not feel like buying bay leaves without knowing if I would ever use them again in the next three years.  I put a little bit more rice in than necessary and used almost twice the amount of shrimp that I should.  Oh and I added Tabasco, probably about an eighth to a fourth of a cup, that I may or may not have stolen from the dining hall...

After adding the chicken broth

The response was great people really loved it, although Cindy found it a little too spicy, but that is totally like her.  I've never made jambalaya before but it was fun!  It took a while, but it felt good to really cook something that I could influence.  Cooking is an art that I miss practicing.

The finished product!

Again, the recipe can be found here.