Tired of turkey, ham and the usual Christmas dinner offerings, we decided to change things up a bit in the Cary-Nouchi household. My stepmom, Lisa, and I decided on Jambalaya. We deemed Emeril’s recipe as the one to use. This was definitely the right choice. We doubled the quantity which required using Lisa’s gigantic wok as I don’t think my family owns a Dutch oven.
This dish appeals to most everyone because it has a variety of meats, veggies and apparently a ton of spice. The recipe itself is not terribly hard to follow. Slicing and dicing the veggies and deveining the shrimp take a while. Luckily, Lisa helped chop some of the veggies and even deveined the shrimp! Handling meat is not something I do on a daily basis, but am getting better at with each meat filled recipe.
I made my jambalaya super duper spicy with Emeril’s Bayou Blast seasoning and added extra while the veggies were simmering.
This dish is surprisingly easy to make and was a big hit at Christmas dinner. The only modification I made was adding extra seasoning to increase the heat. Next time, I will try a vegetarian version.
Takeaways: Budget two hours of time if making a double batch.
Who handled the heat? Dad, stepmom, neighbors, my mom etc etc.
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