Day 49: Jambalaya { jəm-bə-ˈlī-ə }

As we start fish week, we end with a pot pie and start with a jambalaya. For some reason I have a hard time pronouncing this word. Since the beef needs to braise for a while, we are making the beef stew first so that it can braise in the oven. To get the stew going, we need to dice up some red and green peppers, onions. The beef is cubed, dredged in seasoned and browned. We are adding a few different flavours to spice up the stew ~ this will not be your typical pot pie. After about two hours in the oven the beef stew is put into a bowl and covered with puff pastry and baked in the oven until the pastry puffs.

Jambalaya { jəm-bə-ˈlī-ə } is a Louisiana French dish. It's first know use was in 1872. For me, this dish is their version of paella { pä-ˈe-lə, -ˈā-; -ˈāl-yə, -ˈā-yə },which is a Spanish dish with it's first known use to be 1892. This all according to Merriam-Webster.

Jambalaya consists of a number of ingredients: rice, sausage, shrimp, tomatoes, onions, garlic, herbs and spices. I put a little extra heat in my dish. I think it was from the Thai hot sauce. Chef likes the heat, but reminded me that for the main stream eaters, that I should not put too much heat into this dish. As a garnish to finish off this dish I skewered a few shrimp seasoned with salt and pepper and paprika. I grilled these on a hot plate.

** Pictures courtesy of my classmate. I forgot to bring my camera to school today.