Jambalaya with Prawns, Pork and Smoked Sausage

Jambalaya with Prawns, Pork and Smoked Sausage

Jambalaya had humble beginnings as a poor man’s way of using up leftovers, filled out with plenty of rice. Now it is revered and like many Louisiana dishes, jambalaya has both Creole and Cajun versions with fierce proponents of both styles. This is Creole in the use of tomatoes and prawns – but also Cajun in including smoked sausage.

Serves: 4
Preparation: 15 minutes
Cooking: 50 minutes

Ingredients

1 tablespoon (20ml) extra virgin olive oil
300g pork neck (pork scotch), cut into 1.5cm dice
1 large (150g) smoked pork sausage such as Bratwurst or Kransky, sliced diagonally
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 red chillies, finely chopped (optional)
2 stalks celery, finely sliced
1 green capsicum, diced
1 red capsicum, diced
185g (1 cup) long grain rice
400g tinned chopped tomatoes
500ml (2 cups) chicken stock
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 bay leaves
12 green prawns, peeled (leave tail on) and deveined
12 mussels, scrubbed and de-bearded
2 – 3 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped, to serve
Hot-pepper sauce, or tabasco, to taste (optional)

Method

1. Heat olive oil in Grain master on the quick cook function with lid open. When hot, add pork and cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally or until browned on all sides. Add smoked pork sausage and cook for a further minute. Add onion and garlic and cook another minute.
2. Add chilli, celery, capsicum, rice, tomatoes, chicken stock, dried thyme and bay leaves. Mix well, change to Standard function and close the lid and it will automatically set for 45 minutes.
3. After 35 minutes open the lid and stir prawns and mussels through rice mixture, close lid and continue to cook until finished.
4. Place in a large, wide serving bowl and scatter with parsley and serve immediately with hot-pepper sauce if desired.

Lyndey’s Note: Traditionally Andouille, a spicy, Cajun smoked pork sausage is used. It is unlike its French namesake in that it contains no offal. Hot chorizo could be used in its place as can bratwurst or kransky.

Tip: you will have time to chop your vegetables etc progressively as you cook the pork, then the sausage and onion etc.