Jambalaya

Jambalaya Serves 3-4

20 minutes preparation: 50 minutes cooking

Jambalaya is a rice, meat and seafood stew from Louisiana. Traditionally the cooking starts with the so-called 'trinity' of onion, green pepper and celery which begins many dishes from the Deep South, but thereafter almost anything goes. The name is a jumble of jambon, the French word for ham, and alaya, which means rice in an African dialect, and consequently the dish usually includes a spicy pork sausage of some sort, although often ends up with ham. Whatever the ingredients, a good jambalaya is always spiked with plenty of chilli. My version of this easygoing dish is made even more colourful with red onions and red peppers and I have purposely restrained the chilli-heat by using cayenne at the beginning of the cooking and adding Tabasco towards the end, while serving Tabasco and a wedge of lemon alongside so that people can adjust the dish to suit their own heat threshold. A good supply of ice-cold beer is essential.

Ingredients

• 2 red onions,
• 2 plump garlic cloves
• 1 red pepper
• 1 celery heart
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• 1 bay leaf '
• ½ tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 large skinless boned chicken thighs
• 2 pepperoni sausages or 50g/2oz sliced chorizo
• 200g/7oz raw giant tiger prawns with shells
• ½ tsp Tabasco sauce
• 250g/8oz basmati rice
• 400g/14oz can whole Italian tomatoes
• 500ml chicken stock
• 1 tbsp finely chopped parsley 1 lemon (for wedges) salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Peel and chop the onions and garlic.

Core, deseed and dice the red pepper.

 Trim and slice the celery, setting aside the leaves, rinse and drain.

Heat the oil in a 2-litre/3%-pint heavy-based flameproof casserole and stir in the onion and garlic.

Cook for about 5 minutes then add the red pepper, celery and bay leaf.

Season with salt and pepper and cayenne and cook for about 10 minutes more while you prepare everything else.

Cut the chicken into chunks,

Slice the pepperoni chunkily or halve the chorizo.

 If the prawns are frozen, slip into warm water for about 5 minutes and remove the shells.

Place the prawns in a bowl and toss with the Tabasco.

Stir the chicken into the vegetables and, when it's changed colour, add the pepperoni, if using, the rice and the canned tomatoes with their juice.

Add the stock.

Bring to a simmer, cover the pan and cook for 20 minutes.

 By now the rice will have absorbed most of the liquid but the jambalaya should be nicely moist.

 If it isn't, add a little more stock.

Stir in the prawns, cover the pan again and cook for 10 more minutes.

 Sprinkle over the celery leaves and parsley and serve with lemon wedges and the Tabasco bottle.