Jambalaya recipe adds baking to the mix

I recently ordered jambalaya in two different restaurants during my visit to Alaska, which inspired me to experiment with this dish. Originally, jambalaya derives from a French-Spanish influence that settled in Louisiana.

There are several ways to prepare jambalaya. The Creole version uses onions, celery, peppers, spicy or smoked sausage, chicken or other meats and seafood. The recipe uses also tomatoes, so people refer to jambalaya as the red dish.

The Spanish, in their effort to duplicate paella, used tomatoes instead of saffron.

The second version of jambalaya is the Cajun, which evolved from the Creole version, with more spices and meat varieties and does not use tomatoes.

The recipe I have developed controls the quality of the rice, so it does not get sticky and dry. Baking the jambalaya after all the ingredients are cooked balances and settle the flavors.

I will be serving jambalaya at Café Collage for the next couple of weeks.

JAMBALAYA

1⁄2 pound long-grain basmati rice

1⁄4 cup olive oil

1 large yellow onion, peeled and diced

1 head of celery, washed and diced

1 each red and green bell peppers, diced

3 Andouille sausages, cut into 1-inch pieces

3 fresh large tomatoes, diced

2 cups tomato sauce

1⁄4 cup herbs de Provence

Kosher salt and ground pepper, to taste

1 teaspoon ground cumin

2 tablespoons harissa or chili paste, optional (only use if you like spiciness)

1 pound prawns (21-25), shelled and deveined, tail on

1 pound Pacific cod fish, cut into 2-inch portions

2 cups white wine (I prefer sauvignon blanc)

1 cup water or additional white wine, if needed

Preparation

Boil 2 cups of water in a small pan. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1⁄2 teaspoon salt. Add the basmati rice and cook for 15 to 20 minutes. The rice needs to be about two-thirds cooked, meaning somewhere between still crunchy and starting to fluff up. Transfer the rice from the pot into a bowl and let it cool.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Heat 1⁄4 cup of oil in a large pan. Add the onions, celery and bell peppers. Cook for five minutes. Add the Andouille sausage and cook for five minutes. Add the fresh tomatoes. Cook for another five minutes. Add the tomato sauce, herbs de Provence, salt, pepper, cumin and harissa, if using. Stir the sauce well.

Cook for five more minutes, then add the prawns and cod fish. Add the wine. Cook for a few minutes, then push the vegetable-seafood mixture to one side of the pan. Add the cooked rice on the other side of the pan where there is only sauce. If there is not enough sauce, add some water or more white wine.

Cook for another five minutes, then stir to combine. Transfer the mixture to a baking pan and bake for 10 minutes (I generally use a clay pot). Remove from the oven. Let the jambalaya cool for five minutes, then serve hot.

Salim Ben Mami is head chef and owner of Café Collage restaurant in Oregon House, Calif. Contact him at 530-692-2555 or ccollage@succeed.net. His website is cafecollage.net.