Geoff's Seafood Jambalaya

Copyright © 2007 Geoffrey Alan Washburn

Using the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 License

• 1 1/2 cups of chopped red onion
• 1/2 cup of sliced celery
• 1/2 cup of diced bell pepper (I tend to use either red or orange peppers)
• 1 tablespoon of minced garlic
• 1 pound smoked ham (andouille sausage is good too)
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 cup long-grain wild rice (I find Lundberg's wild rice blend the best)
• 14 1/2 ounces of canned diced tomatoes (fresh diced tomatoes may also be good)
• 1 pound of shelled shrimp (fresh is better, but precooked is fine)
• 1/2 pound of bay scallops
• 4 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne or chipotle pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon thyme (dried, if fresh use a slightly more)
• 1/4 cup green onions or scallions

The above list of ingredients is mostly just guideline and quantities can be be adjusted or substitutions made based upon availability and tastes without drastically affecting the quality of the result.

• Appropriate knives and cutting board(s)
• A long wooden spoon (or similar) for stirring
• One large stock pot
• Auxiliary containers for processed ingredients as desired

1. Begin by chopping, slicing, and dicing the onions, celery, and bell peppers respectively. If necessary, mince the garlic.
2. Next cut the smoked ham or sausage into portions of the desired size.
3. Add the olive oil the stock pot and begin heating on medium-high heat.
4. After the oil has begun to flow freely, add to the pot the onions, celery, sausage and garlic. Cook until the onions are starting to caramelize.
5. Add the rice and mix thoroughly.
6. Next add the canned tomatoes, bell peppers, shrimp, scallops, salt, bay leaves, cayenne pepper, and thyme.
7. If you are using more than 1 cup of rice, either use more canned diced tomatoes or add water to account for this.
8. Bring the contents of the pot to a simmer, cover, and reduce the heat to low.
9. Cook until the at least the shrimp and the scallops have been thoroughly cooked, and as long as it takes for the rice to cook to your preference.
10. Remove the pot from the heat and allow to stand for a few minutes.
11. Chopped up the scallions and stir them into the jambalaya.
12. Serve, perhaps with corn bread or muffins.