All Holiday Cafe

Holiday Cooking the New Orleans Way

by Sandy Mitchell on September 24th, 2008

Few cities take culinary traditions more seriously than New Orleans, where long-time Creole dining customs and iconic dishes contribute so much to the distinctive local cuisine. During the mid-1800’s, New Orleans’ Creole families celebrated the “Reveillon” (French for “awakening”) twice during the holidays. The first Reveillon came after Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, when families returned from St. Louis Cathedral to break a daylong fast with an elaborate meal. New Year’s Eve brought another Reveillon, usually shared among several families. This more festive meal featured eggnog, fancy pastries, meringues, sugar sculptures, and crystallized fruits.

Today’s Reveillon is celebrated nightly during the Christmas season in restaurants throughout the city. Menus combine ageless Creole cuisine with more contemporary New Orleans dishes. This fall we can bring New Orleans cuisine and the spirit of Reveillon to holiday tables everywhere. One of the city’s most influential restaurateurs, Ralph Brennan has wrapped up the soul of New Orleans in one great, essential cookbook published this year by Vissi d’Arte Books. “Ralph Brennan’s New Orleans Seafood Cookbook” is a comprehensive guide to Gulf seafood. Four years in the making (including a nine-month hiatus in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina), this beautiful, full-color cookbook covers everything from finfish, crabs, crawfish, shrimp, oysters, frog legs, and even alligator. He was kind enough to share one of his holiday recipes with “All Holiday Cafe” readers:

Creole Jambalaya

This rice dish is one of the oldest in the traditional New Orleans Creole cook’s repertoire. It shares characteristics with Spanish paëllas, but it has even stronger connections with traditional African rice cookery. Some have speculated that “jambalaya” is a contraction of jambon à la ya-ya— marrying the French word jambon, for ham, with the old African Bantu word ya-ya, for rice. Over the decades, jambalaya has taken on a multitude of identities in South Louisiana. The classic New Orleans dish with shrimp and ham is among the “red” jambalayas, thanks to the presence of tomatoes in it. In many of the Cajun com­munities to the west of the city, “brown” jambalayas, with oysters, giblets and lusty country sausages, are more familiar.

In present-day New Orleans homes, jambalaya’s easy preparation makes it pop­ular party fare, especially during such local celebrations as Mardi Gras and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

Serves 6

Special Equipment
A heavy, nonreactive 6-quart saucepan or Dutch oven
A nonreactive lidded container for refrigerated storage

1 tablespoon unsalted butter (or 2 tablespoons if the pork and sausage are very lean)
4 ounces andouille sausage,* sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
4 ounces pickled pork** or ham, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1 medium-size yellow onion, chopped
1 bunch of green onions, chopped, with white and green parts separated
1 medium-size green sweet pepper, chopped
2 cans (10 ounces each) crushed plum tomatoes
1/4 cup canned tomato purée
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 whole bay leaf
1 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne
1/4 teaspoon dry thyme leaves
4 quarts chicken stock
1 tablespoon Louisiana pepper sauce
2 cups long-grain white rice, uncooked
1 pound raw medium shrimp, peeled

*Smoked or Polish sausage (kielbasa) may be substituted for the andouille.
**Pickled pork (or “pickled meat,” as it is sometimes called) is a familiar seasoning meat in the traditional “pot cooking” of the American Deep South. It is often used to add flavor to greens, beans and other “pot food.” In this jambalaya recipe, any good-quality ham may be used instead.

Over medium-high heat, melt the butter in a heavy, nonreactive 6-quart saucepan or Dutch oven.

Add the sausage and pickled pork or ham and cook until all of the fat is rendered out of the meats, about five minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the yellow onions, the white part of the green onions and the sweet peppers. Cook the vegetables until they are clear, about five minutes, occasionally stirring and scraping the pan bottom clean.

Add the crushed tomatoes, tomato purée, garlic, bay leaf, table salt, black pepper, cayenne, and thyme. Cook and stir this base sauce about two minutes. (If the dish is being prepared ahead, allow the base sauce to cool, then place in a lidded nonreactive container and store it in the refrigerator for up to two days. For the final preparation, heat the base to a boil and proceed with the remainder of the recipe.)

Add the chicken stock and pepper sauce to the base and bring to a boil.

Reduce the heat to maintain a strong simmer, and simmer the liquid uncovered until it is reduced by one third, about one hour 15 minutes. Skim any foam or coagulates as they develop on the surface.

Return the liquid to a boil and stir in the rice.

Reduce the heat to medium, and cook uncovered until the rice is just short of being done (it should still be a little firm in the center), about 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the shrimp and cook until the rice is tender and the shrimp turn bright pink, about three minutes. Do not overcook. Stir in the green part of the green onions.

Serving Suggestion
Spoon the warm jambalaya onto a heated serving platter or into a wide, shallow serving bowl.

Chef’s Note:
This recipe can be prepared up to two days ahead by completing Steps 1 through 4, allowing the base sauce to cool a bit, then covering and storing in the refrigerator. When it’s time to finish the preparation, bring the base sauce to a boil and proceed from Step 5.

^{(Recipe and cover art from RALPH BRENNAN’S NEW ORLEANS SEAFOOD COOKBOOK by Ralph Brennan with Gene Bourg, photography by Kerri McCaffety (Vissi d’Arte Books; March 2008; $45.00/hardcover)}

Tags: holiday cooking, jambalaya, new-orleans, ralph brennan

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POSTED IN: Christmas, Entertaining, Mardi Gras, Thanksgiving