What goes better with jalapeno'd and honeyed cornbread muffins? Jambalaya!
Who is going to give you the most awesome way to make Jambalaya without burning the rice on the bottom of the pan, or destroying the ingredients from over-stirring when you're trying not to burn the rice on the bottom? ME!
In the effort to be plainly clear that I refuse to plagiarize -- I did get the actual "baking the jambalaya in the oven" idea from Anna Beth and Vince Chao seen in Bon Appetit, March 2011. Their recipe called for chicken thighs. I found that really sorta gross and distracting a flavor, but because it's jambalaya you can throw in any kind of meat you want. Do what you need to! Just make sure you follow the liquid-to-rice ratio, or you'll have problems.
"Hard to Screw Up Jambalaya"
3/4lb (12oz) bacon, diced
1.5lbs smoked sausage. I typically use Polska Kielbasa. Pedro likes Portuguese Linguica. Mix em up! Beer brats actually taste pretty good, too. So basically 1.5lbs of any smoked sausage. Half them, then thin-slice so you have 1/4-1/2" thick half-circles.
1lb Andouille sausages, half them and slice.
1lb smoked ham. Any kind will do. Cube the ham into 1/4" cubes.
The New Orleans trinity:
4 medium white or yellow onions, chopped
3 large celery stalks, chopped
1 large red bell pepper, chopped
1 large green bell pepper, chopped
Herbs and spices:
2.5TBSP Paprika (if you are using REAL paprika from Hungary <dad> dial that back a bit or it'll over power the dish -- maybe 1.5TBSP)
1 TBSP fresh Thyme, pulled from stem, and chopped to release flavors. OR 1tsp dry thyme leaves (not powder, if all you have is thyme powder, go for only 1/2tsp).
1.5TBSP Chili Powder (Trader Joes makes the best, just sayin')
Cayenne -- for non-spicy, got with only 1/4tsp. Our family typically uses and likes a full teaspoon. If you like your Jambalaya extra spicy? Go for 1&1/2tsp Cayenne. But be careful!
3 (10oz) cans chopped tomatoes. For better flavor over-all, get the chopped tomatoes with diced green chilies.
2.5 cups water.
1 well rounded Tablespoons Better than Bouillon Beef Flavor. Or Granules enough to make 2.5 cups water into beef broth. Or use 2.5 cups beef broth and skip the water. However, I still have not found a better flavor for any broth than Better than Bouillon.
3 cups long grain white rice.
1 bunch green onions/scallions
1 bunch flat leaf parsley
1/2lb shrimp (deveined and peeled) or crawfish (optional)
DIRECTIONS:
Move highest rack to bottom of your oven and preheat to 350F.
In a LARGE Dutch Oven or metal pot with a lid, brown your bacon to a nice crisp on the stove top over medium-high heat. DO NOT DRAIN! Add your sausages and ham, stirring occasionally, until the meats have nice little brown spots, about 10 minutes. Add the onions, celery and bell peppers. Again, stir until onions are soft and the peppers have nice little brown spots, another 10-15 minutes. Mix in all your herbs and spices, coating the meats and veggies well, cook about 1 minute. Add the canned tomatoes with green chilies and incorporate. Finally add your water and bouillon. Stir to blend it all up nicely. Give it a little taste and see if you need more cayenne. Add your rice. Turn the heat up to high and wait until the jambalaya mix starts boiling in multiple spots. Turn off the stove heat, place lid on your pot and carefully move the covered pot to preheated oven. Bake in 350 oven for 45 minutes -- no more than 48 minutes! In the meantime chop your green onions, prepare your shrimp or boil your crawfish. Make your honey-jalapeno-corn-muffin batter and prep your pan!
When you pull your jambalaya out of the oven, stir in seafood and green onions. Re-cover the pot while your cornbread bakes. At serving, sprinkle the jambalaya with fresh chopped parsley, and enjoy your perfectly baked, non-burned, pot of New Orleans DELISH! With Cornbread!
(This post is dedicated to my friend Jon A. Acuna Miller, who
hails from the deepest, most jambalayin' parts of Louisiana, and who, like me, couldn't figure out how not to
burn the damn rice on the bottom of the pot! Here's to us and non-burned-rice, Jon!)
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
How to make those cheap-o Jiffy Corn Bread packages taste like heaven!
I don't know about you all, but those cheap Jiffy Corn Bread packages come in handy for a side, but not really -- because all of us are typically sitting around with the look of swallowing a bitter-pill after having a bite. Because that's what they taste like: age old, bitter pill, corn meal YUCK!
I have yet to enter an American kitchen that doesn't have at least one package of this in their cupboards. So I know I am not the only one that -- often regrettably -- makes them on occasion.
Well my step-daughter Crysta and I (Crysta is my home-style-kitchen-road-dog these days. She hangs with me at every meal. She's my sous-chef, my assistant, and by-far: the best cooking pupil to-date. She doesn't argue. She doesn't ask dumb-or-obvious questions. She just does and gets-em-done. And I rarely have to tell her anything twice, or if I do, it's just a refresher, because she KNOWS the basics after one lesson! She's rocking! OK enough blowing up of Crysta's ego, let's get to the point) figured out tonight a way to make the cheap mix taste sweet, and like a home-made cornmeal cornbread.
Follow all the directions on the Jiffy box, and while your batter is "resting": thin slice a fresh jalapeno pepper. Half it, rib and de-seed it, the slice into 1/4" strips. For our larger family we used two boxes and a whole jalapeno. For smaller servings use one box and one half a jalapeno. Mix the thin-sliced jalapeno into the batter and let it rest at least 10 minutes. In the meantime, cooking-spray a large muffin pan.
After your batter is all fluffy-big, and you have deposited it 3/4 full into each cupcake/muffin cup --
ADD ONE TEASPOON OF FRESH, REAL, 100% HONEY (we LOVE Orange Blossom honey around here) TO EACH CUP ON TOP OF THE BATTER.
Bake per usual, and ZOMG, enjoy! REALLY TASTY CORNBREAD MUFFINS!
Punk Rock Farm APPROVED!
Also, another household tip, as previously stated on facebook: GAIN LAUNDRY POWDER removes ages old soap scum from bathtubs. I honestly cannot believe how much it's removed and it was just an accidental discovery from having to hand-wash laundry in our old, old bathtub! I didn't even attack the scum properly yet -- it just vanished slowly, but surely -- after a few loads of laundry!
I have yet to enter an American kitchen that doesn't have at least one package of this in their cupboards. So I know I am not the only one that -- often regrettably -- makes them on occasion.
Well my step-daughter Crysta and I (Crysta is my home-style-kitchen-road-dog these days. She hangs with me at every meal. She's my sous-chef, my assistant, and by-far: the best cooking pupil to-date. She doesn't argue. She doesn't ask dumb-or-obvious questions. She just does and gets-em-done. And I rarely have to tell her anything twice, or if I do, it's just a refresher, because she KNOWS the basics after one lesson! She's rocking! OK enough blowing up of Crysta's ego, let's get to the point) figured out tonight a way to make the cheap mix taste sweet, and like a home-made cornmeal cornbread.
Follow all the directions on the Jiffy box, and while your batter is "resting": thin slice a fresh jalapeno pepper. Half it, rib and de-seed it, the slice into 1/4" strips. For our larger family we used two boxes and a whole jalapeno. For smaller servings use one box and one half a jalapeno. Mix the thin-sliced jalapeno into the batter and let it rest at least 10 minutes. In the meantime, cooking-spray a large muffin pan.
After your batter is all fluffy-big, and you have deposited it 3/4 full into each cupcake/muffin cup --
ADD ONE TEASPOON OF FRESH, REAL, 100% HONEY (we LOVE Orange Blossom honey around here) TO EACH CUP ON TOP OF THE BATTER.
Bake per usual, and ZOMG, enjoy! REALLY TASTY CORNBREAD MUFFINS!
Punk Rock Farm APPROVED!
Also, another household tip, as previously stated on facebook: GAIN LAUNDRY POWDER removes ages old soap scum from bathtubs. I honestly cannot believe how much it's removed and it was just an accidental discovery from having to hand-wash laundry in our old, old bathtub! I didn't even attack the scum properly yet -- it just vanished slowly, but surely -- after a few loads of laundry!
So it's been ages, my darling waffles . . . let's catch up!
On July 1st, 2013 us two city-raised kids moved onto a five acre farm North of Spokane, WA. With four of our kids. Two girls turning fourteen this year, and entering high school come September. My eight year old daughter and five year old son.
I'd like to give a disclaimer here to say that we're not completely out of our ability. Pedro was born on a farm-stead on one of the islands of the Azores. I worked on a horse ranch every weekend when I was in 8th grade, and also grew up tending a large cattle ranch with my father for many weeks out of the year (long story, some other time). So it's not hopeless! We have some idea how things are done (alright, alright, Pedro more-so than I). We also take a lot of great ideas from the folks over at Punk Rock Homesteading.
Thus far: it's been an amazing experience.
A little about the farm: as you know we have 5 acres. We have an old dilapidated barn that needs some serious work. The house itself is a hot-mess on the outside, but fairly clean on the inside. It needs some cosmetic work inside, and I'll be happy to take you on that journey as we fix it up. The house is actually a 1964 mobile home on one part, and built onto over the years to become quite expansive. There's 3 bedrooms, and even a hot-tub room, with hot tub. Pedro plans to move the tub and turn that room into my studio. So while it's not pretty to look at from the outside, it's thus far cool in the summer, and has a large woodstove to keep us warm through the winter.
We have approximately 20 old-growth fruit trees. Many variations of apples. Pears. Plums (2-3 varieties). Apricots. Prunes. There's a lot of other old-growth, non fruit baring trees, mostly pines or evergreens.
We have two large old-growth grapevines.
The one crop we know that was raised here in the last 15 years is garlic.
And lots of hay-grass. Lots and lots of hay-grass.
We're building a chicken coop in part of our shop/laundry/out building storage space.
We've put dibs on some piglets. I'm also considering sheep. Since neither of us have raised sheep, that might be a year in the coming, and at least one child schooled in a 4-H program.
Our nearest neighbors raise rodeo bulls. Which is pretty fantastic, and absolutely hilarious (and frankly, a bit scary) when their largest bull broke down our fence and decided the grass on our side of the fence was greener. This "xtra-large, wandering bull" business went on a good 24 hours. Other neighbors came in to help, even trying to wrangle him with the use of a quad. All to no avail. Alas, the high-pitched screams of my daughters were the only sure deterrent . . . and now we know how to get rid of wandering bulls!
There's plenty of amazing wildlife around here. Deer, moose, elk, coyotes and even wolves.
Every day is, if not a natural adventure, an adventure in homesteading, fixing up, learning-on and parenting kids in a very rural and fantastic way!
So please stay-tuned, we have a lot more to talk about, a lot of fantastic recipes, parenting snafus, wildlife snafus, and how to have fun in the middle of freakin' nowhere. Even if "nowhere" happens to be your living room. ;-)We hope to at least entertain all of you.
KC & Pedro
I'd like to give a disclaimer here to say that we're not completely out of our ability. Pedro was born on a farm-stead on one of the islands of the Azores. I worked on a horse ranch every weekend when I was in 8th grade, and also grew up tending a large cattle ranch with my father for many weeks out of the year (long story, some other time). So it's not hopeless! We have some idea how things are done (alright, alright, Pedro more-so than I). We also take a lot of great ideas from the folks over at Punk Rock Homesteading.
Thus far: it's been an amazing experience.
A little about the farm: as you know we have 5 acres. We have an old dilapidated barn that needs some serious work. The house itself is a hot-mess on the outside, but fairly clean on the inside. It needs some cosmetic work inside, and I'll be happy to take you on that journey as we fix it up. The house is actually a 1964 mobile home on one part, and built onto over the years to become quite expansive. There's 3 bedrooms, and even a hot-tub room, with hot tub. Pedro plans to move the tub and turn that room into my studio. So while it's not pretty to look at from the outside, it's thus far cool in the summer, and has a large woodstove to keep us warm through the winter.
We have approximately 20 old-growth fruit trees. Many variations of apples. Pears. Plums (2-3 varieties). Apricots. Prunes. There's a lot of other old-growth, non fruit baring trees, mostly pines or evergreens.
We have two large old-growth grapevines.
The one crop we know that was raised here in the last 15 years is garlic.
And lots of hay-grass. Lots and lots of hay-grass.
We're building a chicken coop in part of our shop/laundry/out building storage space.
We've put dibs on some piglets. I'm also considering sheep. Since neither of us have raised sheep, that might be a year in the coming, and at least one child schooled in a 4-H program.
Our nearest neighbors raise rodeo bulls. Which is pretty fantastic, and absolutely hilarious (and frankly, a bit scary) when their largest bull broke down our fence and decided the grass on our side of the fence was greener. This "xtra-large, wandering bull" business went on a good 24 hours. Other neighbors came in to help, even trying to wrangle him with the use of a quad. All to no avail. Alas, the high-pitched screams of my daughters were the only sure deterrent . . . and now we know how to get rid of wandering bulls!
There's plenty of amazing wildlife around here. Deer, moose, elk, coyotes and even wolves.
Every day is, if not a natural adventure, an adventure in homesteading, fixing up, learning-on and parenting kids in a very rural and fantastic way!
So please stay-tuned, we have a lot more to talk about, a lot of fantastic recipes, parenting snafus, wildlife snafus, and how to have fun in the middle of freakin' nowhere. Even if "nowhere" happens to be your living room. ;-)We hope to at least entertain all of you.
KC & Pedro
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