Brad's Sausage & Chicken Jambalaya

When I first met Brad seven years ago, I was thrilled to find out that he enjoyed cooking. A match made in heaven, no? We had been dating for about two weeks when he first cooked for me -- a fabulous dinner of lasagna from scratch. I didn't know any other 24 year old guys who not only cooked their own pasta sauce from scratch, yet alone an entire lasagna. He even cooked the lasagna noodles in garlic and olive oil infused water. I tell you what, I was smitten. I mean, I liked him already, but when I walked into his apartment that day, with the Barenaked Ladies playing on the stereo, and Brad finishing up his sauce, sleeves pushed up on his long-sleeved gray t-shirt, splattered here and there with sauce...yeah, that's the definitive moment when I looked at him and thought "Holy shit. I love this guy." And I still do. ; )

Lasagna's not the only thing he cooks, though. He's an impressive force in the kitchen, never using recipes, just winging it as he goes, adjusting ingredients and seasoning until everything is just right. I wish I could cook with such abandon, but I am, as I've said before, much more of a by-the-book girl. We used to cook dinner together most nights, but kind of fell off that habit when he worked nights for the better part of our first year in Japan, and then -- when he wasn't deployed to Afghanistan -- had a job that often didn't get him home from work in time to pitch in. I think it's something we need to start again, though. I miss cooking together.

This dinner tonight is one of his specialties. He was born and raised in southeast Louisiana, so jambalaya is near and dear. This is another one of the regional dishes I'd never tried before I met him (along with grits, crawfish, red beans and rice, muffalettas, catfish, salty cornbread, sweet tea, and the like), but it quickly became a favorite, and I love when he makes it! Tonight his mom and little brother came over for dinner, so he tackled the entree and I handled French bread and brownies (scroll down for those blog entries).

I've done my best to transcribe his process into a written recipe, and I think this is pretty close. I don't have actual amounts for the cajun seasoning and Tabasco sauce, so you'll just have to taste and tweak as you go, but this is pretty hard to mess up.







Oh, baby!








Brad's Sausage & Chicken Jambalaya

Smoked sausage or andouille sausage link, about 8"
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3 cloves garlic, separated
1 to 2 green bell peppers
1 onion
2 to 3 fresh jalapeno peppers
2 Tbsp olive oil
cajun seasoning
oregano, basil, thyme, crushed red pepper, 2 bay leaves
Tabasco sauce
2 cups rice, uncooked
1 can beer
chicken stock, enough to make 4 cups of liquid when combined with beer


Prepare all ingredients before you start cooking, as follows: slice sausage in half lengthwise, then slice into ½-inch pieces; cut chicken into chunks; dice bell pepper and onion; finely dice jalapenos; mince garlic. Set aside.

Heat olive oil in a heavy skillet over medium-high heat until almost smoking. Add chicken, sausage and 1 clove of garlic; add liberal amounts of cajun seasoning, spices and Tabasco. Cook and stir until cooked through and fairly blackened. The majority of the spices for this dish are added at this point in the recipe, so be sure to check and adjust seasoning as necessary. Remove meat from skillet with a slotted spoon, and set aside, leaving all pan juices and drippings in the skillet.

Add bell pepper, onion, jalapeno and remaining cloves of garlic to the hot skillet, cooking and stirring to get the yummy blackened bits off the bottom of the pan. Cook vegetables until softened and lightly browned. Add dry rice and stir for several minutes to brown. Add chicken stock and beer, stirring well to combine thoroughly.

Cover and simmer 20 to 25 minutes, or until rice is cooked through. Serve with crusty French bread and a green salad.

Roast Beef Po' Boys

1 recipe Roast Beef and Gravy
New Orleans style French bread, about 8-10 inches long per sandwich
Shredded iceberg lettuce
Dill pickle slices
Mayonnaise

Slice the bread about 3/4 of the way through, leaving a hinged top. Slather the bread with a very generous portion of mayonnaise on the inside of the upper and lower halves. Place about a cup of lettuce on the bottom half. Top with dill pickle slices. Cover the lettuce with a generous portion of sliced/shredded roast beef. Drown the beef with gravy.

Have plenty of napkins on hand. If you're not messy to the elbows by the time you finish eating this, you haven't done it right. ; )

Seafood Gumbo

Shrimp stock:
1 ½ lbs jumbo shrimp, with heads and shells
1 blue crab
1 onion, halved
2 bay leaves
5 sprigs fresh thyme
¼ tsp cayenne
2 Tbsp Old Bay seasoning
2 lemons, halved and squeezed

Gumbo:
½ c butter
½ c flour
2 yellow onions, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 pound okra, cut into ¼-inch slices
1 tsp salt
½ tsp cayenne
½ tsp Old Bay seasoning
1 15-ounce can chopped tomatoes, drained
3 bay leaves
3 fresh thyme sprigs, leaves stripped from the stem
2 quarts shrimp stock
1 ½ lbs peeled shrimp (reserved from stock)
3 c cooked long-grain white rice
chopped flat-leaf parsley and green onions, for garnish

To make the shrimp stock: Peel the shrimp and toss the heads and shells into a large stock pot; refrigerate the peeled shrimp until ready to cook in the gumbo. Add the crab, onion, bay leaves, thyme, cayenne, Old Bay, and lemons to the pot. Cover with 2 ½ quarts of cold water. Allow the liquid to slowly come to a boil, then lower the heat. Gently simmer for 45 minutes, uncovered, skimming any foam that rises to the top. Strain the stock into a heatproof container or another pot to remove the chunky solids; at this point you should have about 2 quarts of broth. Cool until needed.

To make the gumbo: Melt the butter over medium-low heat in a Dutch oven. Just as the foam subsides, add the flour, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or whisk to prevent lumps. Cook the roux until it’s the color of walnut, about 15 minutes. Add the onions, celery, bell pepper, garlic and okra. Season with salt, cayenne and Old Bay. Mix in the tomatoes, bay leaves and thyme. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring now and then, until the vegetables are soft. Pour in the cooled shrimp stock and stir to combine. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce heat. Simmer for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the gumbo is dark and thick. Add the shrimp and cook another 15 minutes; adjust seasonings as necessary. Serve atop rice in bowls, and sprinkle with parsley and green onions.