Shrimp Jambalaya
Ingredients
1: Green Onion
1: Large White Onion
3 Tbsp: butter
3 Tbsp: flour
3 Tbsp: parsley
4: Garlic Cloves
1.5 cups: (uncooked) rice
3 cups: water (for rice)
1.5 cups: hot water (for main Jambalaya)
400gr: Canned Chopped Tomatoes
Alternative: 3-4 medium-sized Fresh Roma Tomatoes
500g: Raw Shrimp (peeled and deboned)
Alternative: 500g protein of choice (diced chicken, beef, fish, etc.)
Spices
2 tsp: salt
3 Padrón Peppers
Alternative: 1/2 green Bell pepper
Additional Seasonings: To taste – Cajun Seasoning or Red Pepper Flakes
Make rice
Rinse the 1.5 cups of long-grain rice in a bowl by gently swirling the rice with your hands in cool water.
Drain the cloudy water (it’s a mixture of starch and debris from the packaging)
Repeat the process 3-4 times
In a medium sized pot, add both the washed rice and 3 cups of water, and cover the pot with a lid
Put it on medium heat, and leave it for 10-15 minutes
Ojo, if the bubbles overflow, don’t panic! Remove the pot from the heat for a moment while you lower a level or two the heat, placing the pot back.
Wash vegetables
While waiting for the rice to cook…
Wash everything else you have!
That means the onions, peppers and parsley.
Clean out the peppers
Cut out the stem and also cut open the pepper.
With your hands and/or with water, extract the seeds
Sometimes learning from our mistakes can be scarring, and one of those is my 8 year old self scratching my eyes after helping my mother clean out the peppers. Let’s say, the burning lingers longer than 10 minutes. Please wash your hands.
Ojo, chile stems and seeds make the taste more bitter, and you’ll have to work a lot harder later to fix that taste.
Chop vegetables
Dice into small cubes the large onion, and 3 Padrón peppers / 1/2 green Bell pepper.
Mince, meaning make really small thin cubes, 4 garlic cloves and 3 Tbsp of parsley are minced, meaning even smaller thin cubes, and the green onions are sliced normally.
Good job!
Make sure to keep these on hand,
you’ll use them soon!
Adding ingredients
Roux is a classic way to thicken sauces and soups!
In a large heavy pot, add:
3 tablespoons of flour
3 tablespoons of (room temperature) butter
Tricky Part
Set the heat to high, and mix constantly and quickly.
As the mixture starts to turn a light brown, or caramel color, turn the heat off.
When my mom made roux, I always thought she was making cookies, because of the smell it gives off. Instead of serving freshly baked cookies, there would be home-made gravy instead.
This is roux!
Simmer vegetables
In the same pot where the roux was made, add all of the chopped vegetables EXCEPT the tomatoes!
Set the pot to a medium to slightly high temperature, and maintain it that way throughout the rest of the process.
Lightly stir the pot until the white onions are simmered to a light yellow or light brown color.
Make it soup
Add 1.5 cups of water and the 400gr of tomatoes to the pot!
Simmer for about 15 minutes.
Stir occasionally while it is cooking.
I love stirring soups, it makes me feel like a witch making a questionable potion.
Simmer and season
Add 500g of peeled and deboned shrimp (I bought it frozen).
Season the pot with a generous amount of salt.
Simmer for 5 to 10 minutes, or until the shrimp carries a pink-ish color.
If you have other spices, like Cajun seasoning, or red chili flakes, don’t be shy about it!
Rice and simmer
Add the rice to the pot, and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes.
The stock will slightly be absorbed by the rice, that’s the consistency you want.
