Jambalaya

"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.

Jambalaya is not particularly tricky to make. There is a bit of chopping of the ingredients, but nothing too arduous. After frying up the chorizo and the chicken and softening the onion and other vegetables, everything goes into the pot with a swirl of chicken stock and bubbles away for half and hour or so until the rice is cooked. I didn’t dry it out too much but left it nice and moist which added to the flavour I think. Seasoning is simple – Worcestershire sauce and salt along with generous dashes of Tabasco to add a bit of kick. I made this in a cast iron casserole dish which, I swear, made it taste better.  I insisted on playing ‘Jambalaya’ by The Carpenters to get myself into the mood – corny, I know, but who’s to judge?