crab jambalaya

Jambalaya is normally made with shrimp and andouille sausage, but this recipe swaps out the shrimp for crab (an idea from F&W again). It's easier to make than I expected -- it's not too spicy either, so you can kick it up with extra hot sauce when serving.

Grocery list: 2/3 - 1 pound kielbasa (I've tried both turkey and chicken kielbasa, fresh from the meat counter at WF, where they grind the meat and make the sausage fresh daily), 1/2 pound lump crab meat, 1 onion, 1 red bell pepper, old bay, garlic, jasmine rice, chicken broth, thyme, scallions.

I used my le creuset dutch oven for this, but any big heavy pot will do -- heat a few T of olive oil over med-high heat, and cook the andouille (chop it into bite size pieces) for about 3-4 minutes, remove to a bowl. Don't worry if it's not cooked all the way through yet. Then add the chopped onion, pepper, and celery, cook 2 minutes, add 2-3 chopped garlic cloves, cook 2 more minutes. Put the andouille back in the pot, plus 1 1/4 cups rice and 1 tsp old bay. Cook for about 2 minutes (the rice will start to get translucent). Then add 1 1/2 c chicken broth, 1 1/2 cups water, a whole sprig of thyme, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then cover the pot and turn down to low heat.



Simmer for about 15-20 minutes until the rice has absorbed all the liquid (don't open up the lid to stir too much though). While this is cooking, pick through the crab meat to make sure there aren't any bits of shell. (I learned the hard way the first time I made this.) Also, chop 3-5 scallions or green onions. When the rice is done cooking, stir in the crab meat and the scallions, turn off the heat, cover, and let stand 2-3 minutes for the crab meat to get warm. Remove the thyme sprig before serving.

tilapia po boys

I tried a recipe tonight from the Moosewood Restaurant cookbook (a great recommendation from my friend Lydia -- even though it's a vegetarian cookbook, it's not at all limited to veggies). It was super easy, just shake a few fillets of fish in a ziploc bag with 1/4 c cornmeal and 3 T Old Bay. This made for almost-spicy fish, so if you don't like spicy, cut back on the OB. I used tilapia because it's about 1/4th the cost of other mild white fish. The tartar sauce, also a recipe from MW, was just 1/2 c mayo + 1/4 c dill relish + juice of 1 lemon.

On the side -- sweet potato fries. Except they were out of sweet potatoes so I had to use yams. Thanks to the produce guy, I now know that the more red the skin of the yam, the sweeter (and thus more like sweet potatoes) they are.

Anyway, to make these, you just slice a couple of potatoes in french fry shape, put them in a big bowl, drizzle with olive oil, then a generous dose of salt, pepper & garlic powder. Toss all this in the bowl till everything is evenly coated, then spread into a big roasting pan (I line the pan with foil for a lot easier clean-up). 20-25 minutes at 450 degrees, flipping the fries every 10 minutes. I think they get crispier and cook better when you cook them on the bottom rack.