During that peak “Hermit Phase,” I dared to cook a totally new dish... with 28 different ingredients. Yep. Twenty-eight. Not just that, but I fell down a rabbit hole of culinary origins and linguistic etymology before the stove was even lit. Who does that?
Well, maybe someone who hadn’t had sex in such a long time — given the world was frozen over with mass anxiety. Honestly, I have to “cum” clean [BWAHAHA]: What else was there to do during that pandemonium but obsess over rice? When the bedroom is a ghost town, the kitchen becomes a high-stakes laboratory 🧪. Actually losing my mind from the utter solitude and the lack of human connection was not an option. So again, creativity for the rescue. No wonder the article Creativity Shall Set You Free was conjured just three months afterwards.
Here is it goes...
━━━ 𓋹 ━━━
While all alone at the beach house in Ein el Sokhna on the Red Sea — my sanctuary for the past year — I decided to tackle a total stranger: Jambalaya.
What made me think about this Louisianian staple all the way out here? Not sure. I tend to be weirdly random like that — as some of you who know me have come to expect. Mayhap the salmon and shrimp in the fridge whispering for a change of scenery. So as one does, I consulted the oracle Google.
Most authentic jambalaya recipes demand andouille sausages and cod fish — a fact confirmed by my friend Ronald McKinley, a fellow drummer from L.A and a New Orleans native. Lacking both, I pivoted. I reckoned salmon would play along nicely and the sausages... well, the dish would survive the omission. Or so I gambled. I headed to the kitchen and went into a trance.
Later, I shared the photo on social media with a bit of history as well as a bit of etymology of the word — mainly to entice me. But without ingredients nor directions; those were added herein.
Until that day, all I knew about Jambalaya is that it is a merry song by Jerry Lee Lewis, as seen in the 1989 flick Great Balls of Fire! with Dennis Quaid. The original goes back Hank Williams who wrote and performed it in 1952. Much later I found out jambalaya is a Creole/Cajun dish, first made popular at the melting pot of French, Spanish, and African communities of New Orleans, Louisiana. One day I decided to try it, as make it... with 28 different ingredients!
There is something highly invigorating about trying new things — the thrill of the unknown and the uncertainty. About that raw novelty where you have no clue if you’re making a masterpiece or a mess. Despite the risk, the final result here was heavenly. For me though, the excitement is multi-layered: the cooking is the climax, but the foreplay is the research — digging into the history and the etymology of the word. Depending on the result, finally indulging in what you’ve created can be yet another climax. Then, this storyteller finds the ultimate high in retelling the findings of the experiment.
Challenge created, then indulged in, then written about. This is how I kept my “sanity” while also growing through those two and a half years.
From Ritsa to Uni: a Sea Urchin Story is yet another compelling culinary piece. Eating Cows’ Trotters — كوارع is one more.
Challenge created, then indulged in, then written about. This is how I kept my “sanity” while also growing through those two and a half years.
From Ritsa to Uni: a Sea Urchin Story is yet another compelling culinary piece. Eating Cows’ Trotters — كوارع is one more.
Might as well share this unique version
Now to the History...
Jambalaya is of Creole and Cajun origins,
first made popular at the melting pot of French, Spanish, and African
communities of New Orleans, Louisiana. There are two main
varieties: Caju, which uses the culinary technique known as “dumping”,
and Creole which uses the “layering” technique. Of course being here on the beach — all the way in Egypt — meant I had to
improvise, bearing in mind what I have and what I don’t. Whatever the
result, I absolutely love trying new things. And the Internet is
simply a wonderful medium allowing us to do just that.
Jambalaya sounds like a funny word. But where did it come from? The below is an extensive and multicultural etymology of the word, as shown in Wikipedia:
Fittingly for a product of Cajun culture, the word “jambalaya” seems to have as many possible origins and authors as the complex dish has ingredients and variations — and most of these are easier to discredit than to verify. Until very modern times, Louisiana cooking was largely confined to the local region. The result is a meagre written record of the area’s food history, and folklore has often became “fact”.
The most commonly repeated folklore is that the word derives from the combination of the French jambon meaning ham, the French article “à la”, a contraction of “à la manière de”, meaning “in the style of”, and “ya”, thought to be of West African origin meaning rice. Hence, the dish was named “jamb à la ya”. However, ham is not the signature ingredient of the dish and there is no known African language in which “ya” means “rice”.
Another source suggests that the word comes from the Spanish jamon (ham) + paella, a noted Spanish rice dish. However, Spanish speakers would call a ham paella paella con jamon, not jamon paella.
There is also a popular old wives’ tale about the origin of the word “jambalaya”:
Late one evening a travelling gentleman stopped by a New Orleans inn which had little food remaining from the evening meal. The traveller instructed the cook, “Jean, balayez!” or “Jean, sweep something together!” in the local dialect. The guest pronounced the resulting hodge-podge dish as “Jean balayez”.
The first print appearance of any variant of the word “jambalaya” in any language occurred in Leis amours de Vanus; vo, Lou paysan oou théâtré, by Fortuné (Fourtunat) Chailan, first published in Provencal in 1837. It includes this text (translated):
The upstairs neighbors were making a din All kinds of people, rich and poor: It was a mish-mash [jambaraya] of red inebriated faces.
It is also found in a poem by Louis Charles Felix Peise, “La Testo et la Coua de la Serp”, from his book Leis Talounados de Barjomau (1865), which includes this line (translated):
This rabble [jambalaia] reminds me Of the arrival of an old snake.
Both publications are French and neither example used the word in a culinary sense. In both cases it indicates a mish-mash, rabble, or mixture — a meaning that lends itself well to jambalaya.
The earliest appearance of the word in print in English occurs in the May 1849 issue of the American Agriculturalist, where Solon Robinson refers to a recipe for “Hopping Johnny (jambalaya)”.
Interestingly, while the names Hopping John and jambalaya are treated as referring to the same dish, the recipe is clearly a jambalaya, not a “Hopping John” which is made from rice and beans or peas. An article in the 1875 New Orleans Times reported jambalaya as “spelled in French jumbliade; but the dish is of Indian origin” and “originally made of zizania aquatica, or wild rice … and of several varieties of beans or frijoles as the Mexican Indians call them.” This recipe clearly describes Hopping John, not jambalaya.
Jambalaya did not appear in a cookbook until 1878, when The Gulf City Cook Book, by the Ladies of the St. Francis Street Methodist Episcopal Church, was printed in South Mobile, Alabama. It contains a recipe for “JAM BOLAYA”.
 |
| The Lots |
Ingredients:
Following such an obscure history, here comes the works. The following are the ingredients used the second time, which included a few more than on the first trial. With over 28, jambalaya is usually a one-pot meal. The cool thing about it is that you can freely add or deduct whatever you feel like.
Yeah, 28 ingredients and I absolutely love it! Note that, for this very reason, adding relatively small amounts of all herbs and spices seems like a mint idea. I simply used what is available here on the beach while discarding whatever I don’t like or have. Like Cod fish instead of the salmon, which is how they usually make it in Louisiana. There was also celery, which I am really not fond of. Also the Andouille sausage that is one of the main ingredients along with the fish and shrimps. In fact, many of the recipes consulted were titled: Shrimp, Sausage, and Fish Jambalaya. Then again, this is my own version one could say.
I was all alone, so the dish was made for two people, which was enjoyed over two nights. Using one salmon filet and about 12 shrimps. The remaining quantities are not added yet can be seen in the photo below — taken during preparations.
Directions:
• Add the oil to the heavy-bottom pot on medium high heat then the butter.
Following such an obscure history, here comes the works. The following are the ingredients used the second time, which included a few more than on the first trial. With over 28, jambalaya is usually a one-pot meal. The cool thing about it is that you can freely add or deduct whatever you feel like.
• Olive oil
• Butter
• Diced onions
• Garlic minced
• Diced red and yellow bell peppers
• Peeled seeded chopped tomatoes
• Tomato paste
• Carrots
• Corn
• Ginger
• Potatoes
• White rice
• Boneless skinned salmon cut in cubes
• Shrimps peeled and deveined
• Vegetable broth
• Salt & Pepper
• Basil
• Thyme
• Oregano
• Rosemary
• Herbes de Provence
• Turmeric
• Black seeds
• Onion powder
• Garlic powder
• Soya
• Dijon mustard
• Tabasco
Yeah, 28 ingredients and I absolutely love it! Note that, for this very reason, adding relatively small amounts of all herbs and spices seems like a mint idea. I simply used what is available here on the beach while discarding whatever I don’t like or have. Like Cod fish instead of the salmon, which is how they usually make it in Louisiana. There was also celery, which I am really not fond of. Also the Andouille sausage that is one of the main ingredients along with the fish and shrimps. In fact, many of the recipes consulted were titled: Shrimp, Sausage, and Fish Jambalaya. Then again, this is my own version one could say.
I was all alone, so the dish was made for two people, which was enjoyed over two nights. Using one salmon filet and about 12 shrimps. The remaining quantities are not added yet can be seen in the photo below — taken during preparations.
Directions:
• Add the oil to the heavy-bottom pot on medium high heat then the butter.
• Once the butter melts, add the onion and stir for 5 minutes.
• Add the yellow & red peppers and carrots to the mixture.
• Then add the garlic and stir for about a minute.
• Add the tomato paste and stir for 4-5 minutes.
• Now add the diced tomatoes, corn, salt & pepper, a dash of soya, and 2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard.
• Put the vegetable broth in the mix and bring to a boil.
• Stir, add a cup of rice, then reduce heat to medium low and cover — leave it undisturbed for 25-30 minutes till the rice cooks.
• Finally add the shrimp and cubes of salmon while increasing the heat to medium-high. Once boiling, reduce again to simmer for another 10 minutes. Add thyme, oregano, rosemary, herbes de Provence, Turmeric, black seeds, onion powder, and garlic powder — stirring occasionally.
Et Voilà. Now serve and indulge. Nom Nom Nom.
Et Voilà. Now serve and indulge. Nom Nom Nom.
Buon Appetito...
ALSO VIEW:
Eating Cows’ Trotters — كوارع
From Ritsa to Uni: a Sea Urchin Story
Arugula: The Healthy Ancient Aphrodisiac
The Difference Between Mandarin, Tangerine, and Clementine
Dropping Two Waist Sizes in a Few Months
Kicking That Sweet Habit
New Kreation: Onion-n-Garlic Pasta with Mussels and Other Yummy Stuff
New Kreation: Veggie Pasta
Cooking My Catch, Finally ― Pasta with Calamari [With Video and Recipe]
New Kreation: Sliced Baked Potatoes with Herbs
Creativity Shall Set You Free
Most Expensive Food in the World
Top 10 Most Expensive Scotch in the World
No comments:
Post a Comment