We restarted our weekly dinner last night, and it was obvious people were starved for companionship! An even dozen folks showed up…
And it was my turn to cook, so they got southern comfort food. Jambalaya, southern green beans, bread, and caprese (okay, I know it’s not southern, but…) Well, southern Italy…
And before you ask, here’s the recipe. My grandmother wrote this out sometime in the 1940s.
It will feed 15 hungry people or 20 normal people… LOL
That looks delicious ! Yeah, a meal with good friends and family are missed here too. A ‘Masked Thanksgiving’ did not feel right at all.
Thanks for sharing.
Now I’m hungry.
That meal would be wonderful and a great way to remember family.
The word “Jambalaya” triggered an earworm song.
I will get you started. “Jambalaya, crawfish pie, file gumbo….”
I checked for the version my mind insisted on playing and I remember the Karen Carpenter cover of the Hank Williams song.
File being pronounced ‘fee-lay’ of course.
That would be this weird green powder that you sprinkle on your gumbo that just jacks the flavor up 500%. Neat stuff. By itself tastes not so good.
File is powdered dried sassafrass leaves. You can, if you have some sassafrass growing near you, make it yourself!
Cedar and Beans.
Perhaps I shall begin commenting as Jean en File to add a certain cajun spice to my name.
And of course to get extra credit for the double pun.
That must have been some pan she had!
Looks like a feast. Glad you’re back with friends.
It was really good.
What on earth does “add half amount of rice to amount of water” mean?
I wish to know this as well!
Also,
1. When do you add the balance of the rice?
2. Is a “stick of sausage” the same thing as a link of sausage?
3. Do you cut up the pork chops before or after browning them in the olive oil?
I’m gonna make this sometime this week!
Generally, the water/rice ratio is 2 to 1. 2 cups water to 1 cup dry rice. So… half amount of rice to amount of water.
Normal people would say, add twice as much water than you have rice, or something, but nobody has ever accused our host of being normal…
🙂
Hey Old NFO;
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Yum….
Wow! She was using olive oil in the 1940s!
I don’t think they even SOLD olive oil in unincorporated Bibb County, GA, in the 1940s. In the 1950s, we used Crisco, and lard. And there was always a can of bacon grease on the stove to season the greens.
And the rice.
And the tomatoes.
And maybe the peach cobbler, for all I know.
If you use 5 cups of rice, then 10 cups of water. Cook the pork chops before you cut them up. ‘Sticks’ of sausage referred to our family way of doing sausage. I used two packs of Andouille sausage (8 hot dog length), cut them up and cooked in a cast iron pan, then dumped the trinity into the pan to deglaze it and heat the trinity.
John- I remember the Hank Williams version…sigh
Looks very good. Very good.
Glad you and yours are able to meet and see people again. It’s going to be a hard long time to destroy the ‘new normal’ and just get back to living again.
Jambalaya… hmmm… may have to make some. The above recipe looks very good.
Beans- It makes a LOT of jambalaya… Just sayin…
Went to BBQBoys.com because my daughter and SIL bought their gas grill. Now I keep getting ads. Looked at one of the ads and it was for a cast iron Jambalaya pot. That’s what you need for that mess or maybe two or three times as much.
File makes food disgusting. I bought a jar for a gumbo and it made it sort of slimy. I leave it out now. Definitely got to try this one though.
Thanks for the update on half amount of rice. Reminds me of director whose native language wasn’t English, and who wanted to have the riderless horses run across the set shouted “Bring on the empty horses”. David Niven used it as the title of his autobiography. Makes sense once you know what it means.
Looks like quite a feast!
And good food mixed with good friends always makes for an entertaining evening.
Bill- I’ve got REALLY BIG POTS… but I’m not serving that many folks…
Hereso- The key to file is just a little, glad I could straighten out the rice issue…
drjim- It was!