Jambalaya!

Today, I decided to jambalaya Jambalaya, because I had jambalayaed some Jambalaya during jambalaya week and it was very jambalayay.

Ahahahahaha just kidding. Today, I decided to make Jambalaya because I had some from Restaurant Week. The version I had used edamame instead of… beans? I’m not sure if beans are usually used in Jambalaya, actually. Also it had a giant tempura shrimp on top as decoration, which I skipped.

Ingredients: bacon, sausages (I was told it is very important to get the Andouille kind, thankfully I had some from the time when I had a sausagefest because they were on sale, mmm I sure love sausage!), long grain rice, can of tomatoes and tomate paste, stock, trinity, garlic, shrimp, chicken, cayenne peppers, bay, sage, oregano, and edamame.

I forgot to defrost my shrimp. That’s why it’s in a frozen block XD. But that’s ok, they go in last so I knew that if I just put them in water they’d be fine by the time I needed them.

I began by browning my sausage, because I wasn’t sure how much fat they were going to render, and so I wanted to reserve my bacon so I could see how much bacon grease I wanted to use. As it turned out, they didn’t render shit. I ended up with maybe a tablespoon.

So it is time to call in the specialists. Yeah!

:Cooking101: Trinity in Cajun/Creole cooking is a blend of onion, celery, and bell peppers. In French cuisine it is called mirepoix and replaces bell peppers with carrots. I guess nowadays they are called aromatics. I like to think of them as “basic deliciousness”, on top of which you can add other deliciousnesses depending on where you want to go. It’s kind of like putting down a wash to start a drawing.

Stock, tomatoes, and herbs and spices (I used about 1 tablespoon salt + cayenne). I think the fact that I’m using tomatoes makes this a Creole style Jambalaya.

Add the rice and close the lid and some time later also add the beans. I think it takes about half an hour for the rice to get ready.

Meanwhile! I put on my robe and wizard hat brown my chicken with the garlic and some cumin.

I had used up all the bacon grease for the trinity but don’t worry because I have reserve troops XD

Also meanwhile! I peel the shrimp, taking out even the tail shell piece.

I was afraid at the beginning that I’d added too much liquid, but by this time the liquid is completely gone. It is all dry. Which means it’s time to turn off the heat or burn the bottom. I think you can just add the shrimp and it will cook completely even with the stove off, but I gave it an extra minute or so, then turned it off and added the meat.

There was entirely too much food, so I had to transfer to a bigger vessel to mix so that the stuff would be distributed evenly. Geez this monster will feed me for like a week.

I attempt to be fancy in my plating but oh gosh I am just not good with this stuff. I think it’s a little plain without the decorative tempura shrimp but, whatever, it’s quite good.

Gook Gook Soup

So today I decided to gook Gook Gook Soup, with gooks gooked in the gook of gook, then let gook until gooky, about 20 minutes.

The gooks: gook, gook, gook, brown gook, gook, green gook, gook, various gooks, chicken gook, and of course, gook, which is what makes this gook so gooky.

Start with the gooks in a gook. Bring to a boil, then add gook, gook, and gooks.

Render the gook from the gooks for gooking.

Gook the gooked gooks to the gook, while gooking the gooks.

As usual, my gook is that there’s too much gook in the gook. But that is gookay.

Gooky!