Jambalaya -- pork, andouille sausage, and chicken

I closed out the Creole and Cajun theme with another round of jambalaya.  The first attempt several weeks earlier was disappointing, but this time, it turned out fantastic.
My version, shown below, was based off of this recipe (pg 1, pg 2) by Rima and Richard Collins.

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3/4 pound andoulille sausage, sliced rounds
• 1 pound pork shoulder, trimmed of fat and 1/2-3/4 inch cubes
• 1/2 pounds chicken (dark meat)
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic (3-4 cloves)
• 1 cup chopped green bell pepper
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 2 cups chopped onion
• 3 cups heated chicken stock
• 1.5 cups long grain white rice
• 2 Bay leaves
• spice blend
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• ~2 1/2 tsp salt total
• 1/2 cup sliced green onion
• 2-4 tablespoon chopped parsley

1. preheat oven to 250°
2. heat the oil in a wide, oven safe, heavy bottomed pan (need to be able to cover the pan later)
3. lightly season and brown the pork cubes for 6-8 minutes, or until the fat starts to render; add the sausage and continue to cook for a couple more minutes until the sausage begins to render its fat as well
4. scoop out the pork and sausage with a slotted fork/spoon and set aside; drain off all but 1-2 tablespoons of the fat
5. add the bell pepper, celery, onion and chicken; season with salt and pepper and cook over medium-high heat until onion has turned translucent and is starting to brown; then, add garlic and sauté for another 2 minutes
6. add the spices, pork and sausage, and rice; stir so that the rice grains get coated with fat 
7. add the hot stock, remaining ~1 1/2 tsp salt, half of the parsley, and half of the green onion
8. bring to a boil, then cover and then bake in the oven for 20 minutes
9. use a spoon to sample the rice and verify that it is done and mostly dry; if rice is not cooked through and is getting dry, add a little bit of hot water and continue to cook in oven (?); if rice is cooked through but still wet, put uncovered pan back on stovetop over low heat for a few minutes.  Careful: too much stirring at this point will lead to mushy/sticky rice.
10. add remaining parsley and green onion, and stir gently to combine
11. optional: garnish with some additional chopped parsley and/or Creole/piquante sauce

Creole and Cajun

Recently, I had the opportunity to work in a professional kitchen at Creola Bistro, which focuses mostly on Creole and Cajun food.  Inspired by all the good eats there, I decided to take a stab at making the New Orleans fare at home.  The following books were my primary sources:

• Emeril Lagasse (EL), Emeril's A new New Orleans cooking", 1993
• Williams-Sonoma (WS), "New Orleans: Authentic recipes celebrating the foods of the world", 2005
• Paul Prudhomme (PP), "Chef Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen", 1984
• Rima and Richard Collin (RRC), "The New Orleans Cookbook", 1975
• John Folse (JF), "The Evolution of Cajun and Creole Cuisine", 1989

All recipes for the dishes below are available in this online album.  Favorites are marked with a (*).

Dish List

• Beans, beans, beans...
• Tuesday's Red Bean Soup (EL)
• * White Beans, Rice and Smoked Sausage (RRC)
• Black-Eyed Peas with Meat and Rice (RRC; EL)
• Breads and baked goods
• * Iron Skillet Cornbread (WS)
• Buttermilk Biscuits (EL)
• * Jalapeno Corn Muffins (EL)
• Hush Puppies (JF)
• Pumpkin Soufflé (RRC)
• One pot dishes (quintessential Creole/Cajun)
• Seafood Filé Gumbo (PP)
• Gumbo Z'Herbes (WS)
• * Chicken Creole Style (JF)
• * Shrimp Etouffee (RRC)
• * Pork Sausage and Chicken Jambalaya (JF; RRC) 
• Soups and sides
• Corn Maque Choux (WS)
• * Pumpkin Soup (EL)
• Stocks
• Basic Chicken Stock (EL; JF)
• Fish Stock (EL; JF)

Preparation notes

•  Tuesday's Red Bean Soup (EL)
• I pulled the skin off of the smoked ham hawks before using them; I later asked chef Caba about this and he said it was unnecessary to do so
• the beans actually took about 80 minutes to cook through
• the Andouille sausage tasted dried out in the final product.  Creola restaurant  adds their sausage at the end of the cooking process to avoid this
• I didn't use any bacon, but instead doubled the amount of ham hock (which provided a nice amount of meat as well)
• White Beans, Rice and Smoked Sausage (RRC)
• this was a hearty and comforting dish with mild smokiness and full-bodied flavor
• The chunks of meat are strewn throughout but "light"
• I scaled the recipe down by 50% and a 3 quart pot worked well
• Instead of using a "seasoning ham" and "hambone", I used to ham hock stock and meat scraps from one half of a ham hock
• Sausage-wise, I used one andouille link
• Used Safeway-brand great northern beans.  I like to disparage Safeway's quality, but it seemed to turn out okay.
• Black-Eyed Peas with Meat and Rice (RRC; EL)
• Iron Skillet Cornbread (WS)
• scale proportions by 2/3 and worked well in my 8 inch cast-iron skillet
• Seemed slightly under salted; try 1 teaspoon next time for the 2/3 scaling
• Since no sugar is added, honey or similar is needed as a garnish
• Buttermilk Biscuits (EL)
• review: decently flaky texture; housemate Mike not a fan of the slightly sour taste
• Instead of miniature biscuits, made 3 standard size biscuits (1/2" thick before cooking) with scraps left over
• Jalapeno Corn Muffins (EL)
• review: housemate Mike and I agree it was "excellent"; sweet, despite no added sugar; nice texture with contrasting chunks of corn and  K. key/crumbly cornmeal
• The Chile Pepper lost most of its kick after cooking
• Hush Puppies (JF)
• review: decent, but a little dry inside and under salted; definitely requires butter, ketchup, etc. as garnish
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt added was insufficient despite the called-for "pinch"; try 3/4 teaspoon next time
• I yielded 12 small-medium balls from a 50% scaling of the proportions
• Some fresh jalapeno or ground chili powder would be nice
• if the batter is too liquidy, it is very hard to form and maintain the ball shapes
• Pumpkin Soufflé (RRC)
• I omitted the Cointreau out of necessity; the resulting flavor was overly mild
• scaled the recipe by 50% and it fit nicely into a single ramkin and 1.5 cup gratin dish
• because of the smaller portions, I checked the ramkin for deafness after 12 minutes (very unfair-done) and begin at 25 minutes (borderline under-done still)
• The soufflés rose from about 1 inch to 2 inches before falling back to 1 1/3" couple of minutes after coming out of oven; they achieved a medium-brown color on top
• Seafood Filé Gumbo (PP)
• I scaled down the oil to 1/3 the recipe amount for "nutrition" reasons
• omitted the Tabasco sauce because it was very piquant without
• the stock:  simmered (pre-cooked) crab carcasses, 15 shrimp shells and homemade fish stock for 45 minutes; fantastic rich taste!
• the broth of the Gumbo turned out "particulate"; was this the file powder clumping together?
• Gumbo Z'Herbes (WS)
• for the greens, used kale, chard and some arugula
• salt level: close to 1 teaspoon / Qt
• Chicken Creole Style (JF)
• due to lack thereof, omitted the mushrooms, jalapeno, margarine, basil, and Louisiana Gold (used red pepper flakes instead)
• piquant level: mild, present but not distracting
• removed excess fat from dark meat beforehand, and removed about 50% of the skin; still, the final product was slightly oily
• simmered the boneless chicken breasts for 15-20 minutes and the dark meat for about one hour; perfectly cooked
• Shrimp Etouffee (RRC)
• scaled the amounts by 33% and the shrimp by 50%; yielded approximately 1.5 servings
• I used a homemade fish-shrimp stock instead of plain water
• reduced the cooking time for the shrimp from the suggested amount
• used the lower bound on the requested liquid quantity; final product still fairly runny
  
• Pork Sausage and Chicken Jambalaya (JF; RRC)
• see separate blog post
  
• Corn Maque Choux (WS)
• scaled down to 1/3; 2 servings
• Pumpkin Soup (EL)
• pre-roasted the pumpkin for one hour at 350°; then, sliced perpendicular to fibers and measured out 2.5 cups
• reduced cream to 1/2 cup
• reduced nut butter to 1/4 cup and used almond instead of peanut; diluted with liquid before adding to main pot
• added a dash of cayenne
• superb!
  
• Basic Chicken Stock (EL; JF)
• Fish Stock (EL; JF)
• my version took the common ingredients from these 2 recipes.  I used:
• 2-3 pounds of fish heads and carcasses
• 2 onions
• 2 celery stalks
• 2 carrots
• one lemon, halved
• 4 bay leaves
• 6 sprigs of parsley
• 10 peppercorns
• 1 teaspoon of thyyme
• 3-4 quarts of water
• procedure:  Blanch fish and rinse (only necessary if "off" smells present?); combine all ingredients in stockpot and bring to a boil; simmer for about 45 minutes; reduce for up to 2 hours; strain