Jambalaya

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Where do the days go? It's the weekend again and I have no idea what happened to the rest of the week! My friend C. flew back to Germany on Tuesday, but before she did, we managed to do some cooking together. One of the dishes we cooked was Jambalaya.

Usually I'm not that keen on smokey flavours, I always prefer my bacon, salmon, ham etc. unsmoked, but for some reason I do enjoy the smokiness of a good Jambalaya and the two of us polished off the whole thing. Well, I did cut the recipe in half to serve two, but when we first looked at how much there was we thought we'd made way too much. We were definitely wrong though and somehow managed to find enough room for every last bit.

This is a recipe from Lesley Waters' Simple Ways to Success - Healthy cookbook. I sometimes find her a bit annoying when she's on telly, but I have to say every dish I have tried from this book so far has been a success and I guess that's what really counts. As I said, I cut the recipe in half, used white Basmati rice and left out the cloves, but I write the original amounts and ingredients here for you to try or tinker with. Oh, and sorry about the bad picture, I've gotta get used to taking pictures with artificial lighting again, as the days are getting darker quickly!



Jambalaya (serves 4)

2 chicken breast fillets, cut into bite sized pieces
3 peppers (red, yellow and orange), roughly chopped
350gr Camargue red rice, cooked
80gr sliced chorizo
1tbsp olive oil
1 red onion, cut into wedges
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 1/2 tespoons smoked paprika
pinch of ground cloves
3 bay leaves
400gr can of chopped tomatoes
200ml vegetable stock
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
salt, to taste

In a large shallow frying pan, fry the chorizo slices for about half a minute on each side. Take them out using some tongs, leaving as much of the released fat in the pan.

Add the chicken pieces and fry until golden, approx. 10minutes. Take out off the pan and drain on some kitchen paper.

Add the oil to the pan and fry the peppers and onion for about 5minutes. Add the garlic, paprika, cloves and bayleaves and cook for another minute or so.

Add the cooked rice, chorizo, chicken, tomatoes and the stock and stir well. Bring to a simmer and continue to cook for about 10 more mintes, stirring frequently. Most of the liquid should be absorbed.

Season with salt and freshly grounf black pepper to taste.

Enjoy!