Rich's Jambalaya

2 tbsp olive oil
½ cup diced celery
½ cup diced green bell pepper
1 cup diced onion
2 cloves garlic
2 bay leaves
1 14 ounce can diced tomatoes (fresh is better – but not this time of year)
3 tbsp a.p. flour
3 cups chicken stock
2 hot sausage links (about 1/3 lb)
1 chicken breast, cut up in 1 inch cubes
½ lb shrimp, cleaned and peeled
¼ tsp Cayenne Pepper or more if you like it hot

Salt and pepper to taste

Grind up the celery, onion and bell pepper in a food processor. Cook them in the olive oil over medium heat in a heavy sauce pan until soft and mushy – about 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Next strain the tomatoes and save the juice from the can. Add the tomatoes and garlic to the pan and turn the heat up. You need to caramelize the sugar in the tomatoes. Don’t use a non-stick pan, it just won’t work. With a stainless steel or copper pan you will start to see a brown coating stick to the pan – this is good. Once the pan starts to look like it will never get clean (5 to 10 minutes) take the veggies out of the pan and set them aside in a bowl. In the same sauce pan (this is important for the flavor) brown two sausages – I like hot Italian, but any sausage you like will do. These should also stick to the pan and leave a lot of brown bits. Once the sausage is done take it out and set it aside. Next, brown the chicken breast (cut up in 1 inch chunks). After this is done take out the chicken and deglaze the pan with chicken broth. I usually make my own, but I was in Paul’s kitchen – so canned would have to suffice.

Add 3 tablespoons of flour to the pan and scrape up the brown bits. This should soak up all the oil in the pan. If there is not enough fat, add some olive oil or butter to make a good roux. Then pour in about 3 cups of chicken broth and the tomato juice (that we saved earlier). Crank up the heat to get the liquid boiling and dissolve all of the crusties from the pan. This is the secret to a good sauce. Use a wooden spoon and scrape everything off – this makes it a lot easier to wash the pan, too. Bring the sauce to a boil. If you like, you can add in a can or two of tomato sauce.

Throw the sausage and vegetation back in, add some salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper to taste. Add the bay leaves. Simmer for anywhere from 15 minutes to 5 hours (longer is better). About 15 minutes before serving turn the heat up to medium and add the chicken back in (if you leave it in it to stew it will overcook and be dry). Right before serving, add the shrimp and take off the heat as soon as the shrimp turns pink.

Serve over long grain white rice with a good amber ale. I like Mirror Pond from Deschutes brewing company with this.

I know that most Jambalaya recipes call for cooking the rice in with everything else – but I have never been able to get the chicken, shrimp and rice to all finish at the same time.