Jambalaya II

There are several ways to make Jambalaya. After all it was created as a basic comfort food by poor people who used whatever was available. A lot of the popular foods we now enjoy came from a basic need to feed a family for a small amount of money.

But the methods and spices are pretty much the same.

Stock:

I am going to describe Seafood and Sausage Jambalaya, so we start with a good seafood stock. Buy about three pounds of shrimp with the heads on.. Dehead the shrimp and retain the heads and shells. Do not clean the shells. Throw them in a stock pot with about three quarts of water.
Throw in a sweet onion, peeled and quartered, a couple of cloves of garlic and a couple of of sticks of celery. Bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer. Simmer for at least four hours. Strain the results and refrigerate until ready to use. It should result in a beautiful golden liquid. You coulld add crab shells and other seafood scraps. I like to add some clam juice.

3 Bay leaves
2 Teaspoons of salt
2 Teapoons of ground red pepper
2 Teaspoons of Oregano
1 1/2 Teaspoons of white pepper
1 Teaspoon of balck pepper
1 Teaspoon of thyme
2 lb of chicken
1 Large sweet onion
2 diced sticks of celery
2 Lbs of Good sausage (andouille if you can get it, Polish sausage if yoou can't)
1 Large diced green pepper
2 Tablespoons of diced garlic
The shrimp you cleaned earlier
A dozen or so oysters (you can skip the oysters if you are squemish)
A couple of cups of white rice.
5 cups of stock

Put it all in a big pot and simmer until the rice is cooked, and let it sit.

It's a quite a bit of work, but well worth it.