CEimB: Jambalaya with Shrimp and ?Ham?

This weeks Ellie Krieger  recipe was chosen by Anonymous in New York, and can be found on page 236 of Ellie’s book “The Food You Crave“. 

The recipe allowed me to easily hide the vegetarian protein that I substituted for the ham.  It was only revealed to Ted after he first, confirmed that he liked it and second, had consumed half his meal.  The disclosure of the meatless pepperoni addition was followed by the comments… “I thought I saw something “funny” in there”.  The only ingredient, other than the ham,  I was tempted to leave out was the rice, but for Ted’s sake, it was included.  That rice ended up giving me a little grief.

Ted was needed in order to devein the shrimp. This procedure is really disgusting to me. It’s worse than beating chicken.  At least you have the wax paper separating you and the chicken. After that little chore was done, we were off and cooking.

I chose the vegetarian “pepperoni” (about 4.2 oz) over ham (6 oz) to give it more flavor…hence the “something funny in there“.    I also used Cajun seasoning (1/2 tsp) instead of cayenne pepper (1/4 tsp).   Vegetable broth was used instead of chicken broth (2 1/2 cups).  As for the recipe instructions, the timing for the rice was off by about 10 minutes and almost caused chaos when it came to this dish.  After the said 20 minutes, as written in the book, I lifted off the hot cover and dumped in my shrimp that had been sitting in lemon juice for 20 minutes.  As I stirred in the shrimp, the rice looked a little “thin” to me.  It was no where near cooked. Ahh! I had to meticulously scoop those shrimp out in order to let the rice cook for at least (I estimated) another 10 minutes. 

It was smooth sailing after the rice mishap. The dish was really good. Ted didn’t use the hot sauce, I did but it really didn’t need it.  It had the right amount of heat and it was full of flavor.  We really enjoyed this recipe.  

Good choice Anon. in New York.  Spicy deveined shrimp works for me every time.