American Southern Dishes- Jambalaya and Shrimp Gumbo (美國南方 蝦仁燴飯, 蝦仁濃湯)

To commemorate the ten years anniversary of 2005 Katrina disaster in New Orleans, CBS News published Chef John Besh's Seafood Gumbo recipe, which reminded us of the days in 2014 when we tried our hands on this class of dishes, like Spanish Paella, American Jambalaya, Taiwanese Pork-Stew Rice (滷肉飯), and Cantonese Baked Rice (堡仔飯).  We never got around to writing up the recipes for Paella and Jambalaya.  It seems a good time now, to remedy at least part of the mistakes.

The two American Southern Dishes below are full of flavors, easy to make, and each a meal in itself.  Both dishes use the same basic process of Southern Cooking, i.e., to cook some meat and seafood with the holy trinity of vegetables, onion, bell peppers, and celery, in a pot of strong flavored broth. In the recipes below, we use a method of Chinese Cooking to prepare the vegetables on the side, to avoid over-cooking the veggies.  We also use a rather small subset of spices and ingredients, when compared with a lot of the recipes online.  In the end, the cooking method is simplified, cooking time shortened, without sacrificing the taste and texture, we hope!

I. Jambalaya

1. Pour one 14-oz can of chicken broth into a flat bottom cooking pan (~1 1/2 cups).  Add 1 can of water (~1 1/2 cups).  Add 1 cup of tomato sauce. Turn on high heat, bring to boil, and let simmer (at lowest possible heat level).  Season with 3-4 cloves of garlic (minced), 1 tsp of cayenne pepper, 1 tsp of paprika, 1/2 tsp of salt, 1/2 tsp of black pepper, 1/2 tsp of thyme, 2-3 tsp of hot sauce (Tobasco or any other brand), 2-3 tsp of Worcestershire sauce.
2. Add 1-lb of Sausage (cut into 1/4" thick slices, or smaller bite size chunks), and (optionally) 1-lb of chicken (cut into bite size).  Bring to boil and cook at medium heat for 8-10 minutes (3-4 minutes if both sausage and chicken are fully cooked).
3. Add 1 cup of raw rice into the pot, bring to boil at high heat (watch closely as the sauce will boil over with rice in the pot). Reduce the heat to low and cook with lid covered till the rice is tender (8-10 minutes).  
4. Now stir-fry the vegetables in a fresh pan: (1) stir-fry 1 onion (sliced) for 3-4 minutes; (2) add 2 bell peppers and 4-6 stalks of celery (both cut into coarse chunks) and stir-fry for 1-2 minutes. Pour the veggies over into the pan with sausage and chicken. 
5. Add 1/2 - 1 lb of large shrimps (shelled, deveined, defrosted, and marinated-see Note below) into the pan. Bring the pot to boil, and cook with lid on for 1 - 2 minutes (Try not to overcook the shrimps). Turn off heat, season to taste with salt (1/4 tsp), pepper (1/4 tsp), and hot sauce (1/2 tsp). Here is a picture of the finished product.  Note- Marinate 1 lb of shrimps for 2-3 hours with 1 Tbsp of rice cooking wine, 1 Tbsp of corn starch, 1/4 tsp of baking soda, and 1 Tbsp of veggie oil, as we did in Sautéd Crystal Shrimps.
   

II. Shrimp Gumbo

1. [Make roux]  In a flat bottom cooking pan (preferably a non-stick pan), add 1/2 cup of vegetable oil. Turn on high heat for 1 minute, then reduce the heat to medium. Stir in 1/2 cup of flour with a wooden spatula. Stir constantly until the mix (known as roux, a thickening agent for the gumbo) turns golden brown.  Turn the heat down to low.  Note- Chef Besh's recipe calls for dark brown roux, which might add nice toasty flavor to the gumbo, in addition to its visual appearance.  
2. Pour one 14-oz can of chicken broth into a flat bottom cooking pan (~1 1/2 cups).  Add 1 can of water (~1 1/2 cups).  Add 1 cup of tomato sauce. Turn the heat to high again, bring to boil, and let simmer (at the lowest possible heat level). Season with 3-4 cloves of garlic (minced), 1 tsp of cayenne pepper, 1 tsp of paprika, 1/2 tsp of salt, 1/2 tsp of black pepper, 1/2 tsp of thyme, 2-3 tsp of hot sauce (Tobasco or any other brand),  2-3 tsp of Worcestershire sauce. Note- This is the same as Step 1 of Jambalaya above.
3. Add 1-lb of Sausage (cut into 1/4-thick slices, or smaller bite size chunks), and (optionally) 1-lb of chicken (cut into bite size).  Bring to boil and cook at medium heat for 8-10 minutes (3-4 minutes if both sausage and chicken are fully cooked).  Note- This is the same as Step 2 of Jambalaya above.
4. [Optional] Add 10-12 pieces of fresh or defrosted Okra (cut into 1/3"-thick segments along its length) into the roux. Note- This is another thickening agent commonly used in the traditional Gumbo.  The third thickening agent is gumbo filé (pronounced as 'fillet'), which is not used here.
5. Now stir-fry the vegetables in a fresh pan: (1) stir-fry 1 onion (sliced) for 3-4 minutes; (2) add 2 bell peppers and 4-6 stalks of celery (both cut into coarse chunks) and stir-fry for 1-2 minutes. Pour the veggies over into the pan with sausage and chicken. Note- Try not to overcook the veggies. This step can be repeated to add more veggies as we reheat the sauce in the next day or two. This is the same as Step 4 of Jambalaya above.
6. Add 1/2 - 1 lb of large shrimps (shelled, deveined, defrosted, and marinated-see note below) into the pan. Bring the pot to boil, and cook with lid on for 1 - 2 minutes (Try not to overcook the shrimps). Turn off heat, season to taste with salt (1/4 tsp), pepper (1/4 tsp), and hot sauce (1/2 tsp). Note- This is the same as Step 5 of Jambalaya above. Marinate 1 lb of shrimps for 2-3 hours with 1 Tbsp of rice cooking wine, 1 Tbsp of corn starch, 1/4 tsp of baking soda, and 1 Tbsp of veggie oil, as we did in Sautéd Crystal Shrimps.
7. Ladle the gumbo over rice or pasta (separately cooked), and serve.  Here is a picture of the finished product (with no okra in this version).