Make This Cajun Dish for Mardi Gras

Jambalaya allows for infinite variations

Mark Bittman
Heated

--

Photo: Aya Brackett

Even if you hadn’t planned a Mardi Gras trip to New Orleans for Tuesday’s pre-Lenten revelry, you can celebrate in spirit by cooking up a Cajun dish like jambalaya.

But before you start cooking, you have a couple of decisions to make — like whether you’ll commit to red jambalaya with tomatoes, or brown jambalaya with chicken and sausage; made on the stove or in the pressure cooker.

We’ve got recipes for them all.

A few notes: For the pressure cooker, I find it’s a more valuable use of time and effort to toast the vegetables and spices than the meat. The key to cooking the rice cooking perfectly is to wait for the pot to release naturally without venting or cooling under running water. Otherwise, you may end up with undercooked rice and a soggy jambalaya.

In either scenario, use medium-grain rice for a stickier dish, long-grain rice for fluffier. And if you can find tasso — a highly seasoned smoked ham classic in this dish — you’re in for a treat.

Shrimp Jambalaya on the Stove

Makes: 8 servings
Time: About 1 hour

Ingredients

  • 3 tablespoons olive oil

--

--

Mark Bittman
Heated

Has published 30 books, including How to Cook Everything and VB6: The Case for Part-Time Veganism. Newsletter at markbittman.com.