This week we will be making – Jambalaya!

Jambalaya is a French word that means ‘jumbled’ or ‘mixed up’.

Jambalaya is a hearty spicy dish. It’s the perfect dish to keep you warm during the winter and the Creole, version originating from the French quarter of New Orleans is pure comfort food jam packed with flavour.

This Louisiana dish varies from kitchen to kitchen, depending on the cook and the recipes that have been passed down from past generations. Jambalaya traditionally contains any of the following meats:

• Chicken or pork (or vegetable substitute)
• Sausage — andouille, chorizo or smoked sausage
  (for non-pork eaters it will be substituted with a chicken sausage or vegetable substitute, for our vegetarians)
• Seafood

This classic Jambalaya recipe starts off with the aromatic holy trinity of onion, bell pepper and celery.  Generally long grain white rice is used in making Jambalaya, raw rice is then added to a rich stock (chicken or vegetable) and the flavour is absorbed by the grains as the rice cooks.

There are two kinds of Jambalaya; Creole and Cajun. Our recipe will be the tomato-based Creole version.

This week we will be using the following skills: Weighing, measuring, chopping, crushing, mixing/combining, boiling/simmering and frying.

See you at the weekend Junior Chefs.