"Creole and Cajun cooking, the food of New
Orleans and the surround countryside, is one of the most vibrant and exciting
cuisines in the world today. French in its origin and accents, this spicy and
sometimes fiery tradition also embodies elements of Native American, Spanish
and African cooking… The Creole cooks of New Orleans created a sophisticated
and complex cuisine that blends French techniques with local products and
traditions… Cajun cooking is the earthy, flavourful and sometimes fiery cooking
of the southern Louisiana countryside.”
– Denis Kelly, ‘Creole & Cajun Cooking’
This jambalaya is an amalgam of two recipes – one from Denis Kelly’s book and
another from my grandmother’s old cookbook. This was the book that she started compiling
when she took cooking lessons (as young ladies of the time did) and was one she added to throughout her life. Aachhi was a formidable cook and some of
my earliest memories are of helping her in the pantry. Her
book is yellowed, tattered and generally a bit worse for
wear, but I got it re-bound with a lovely leather cover and it is one of
my favourite cookbooks, full of recipes accumulated over the years, many
of which I have enjoyed at the ancestral dining table. I love the book as much for the memories it holds as for its recipes.
Aachchi’s
recipe for
jambalaya was always going to be a winner. I mean, spicey fried chicken,
prawn
AND chorizo all in the one dish?!? HellO there! Who cares if the last is
not
all together completely authentic – it is probably the secret ingredient
which
makes this dish really special. Chorizo is not easy to find in Sri
Lanka, but I'm sure bacon or pancetta would more than pass as
substitutes. Most of the other ingredients were in Mr
Kelly’s recipe – onion, garlic, tomato, celery and capsicum. We used the
Cajun
spice mix prescribed by ‘Creole & Cajun Cooking’, which is a peppery
mix of
paprika, black pepper, cayenne, garlic powder and onion powder. It’s
super
flavoursome and really adds a certain something to this dish.
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