Jambalaya

After baking a turkey for two adults and two young children, one is left with ALOT of leftovers. In an attempt to find pleasant dishes to make with the remaining meat without eating chicken sandwiches for an entire week, I tried The Good Home Cookbook's Jambalaya. I was pleasantly surprised with how well this turned out and how Wednesday didn't feel like leftover night.

The Recipe

2 slices of bacon
1 medium onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
2 medium celery ribs, also diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 cups long-grain white rice (I had basmati)
2 tbl tomato paste
4 cups chicken broth
1 (15 ounce) can diced tomato (I used a 28 ounce can)
2 dashes of hot sauce, such as Tabasco
1 tsp dried thyme
1 bay leaf
1/2 pound smoked ham, diced (I traded this for 2 Italian sausages)
2 c cooked chicken or turkey, shredded or diced
2 c cooked shrimp, peeled and deveined (I used one of those shrimp crowns, they were on sale)
1/4 fresh parsley (that I forgot)
salt and pepper to taste


1. Cook the bacon (and sausage meat if you prefer it to ham) in a large skillet (If you have a large skillet with a lid, I suggest you use that one) over medium heat until the bacon is crisp, about 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel to drain.

2. Return the skillet to medium-high heat. Add the onion, bell pepper, celery and garlic to the bacon fat, and sauté 5 minutes, until softened.

3. Add the rice and tomato paste to your skillet and sauté until the tomato paste darkens to a mahogany colour, about 4 minutes. Stir in the broth, the can of tomatoes, hot pepper sauce, thyme and the bay leaf. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to maintain a gentle boil and cook until the liquid is absorbed, about 15 minutes.

4. Uncover and add the ham (or sausage), chicken, shrimp and parsley. Replace the cover and let stand for 15 minutes.

5. Fluff the rice with a fork. Crumble the bacon and mix in. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add hot sauce to taste. Remove the bay leaf and serve


The Verdict


I only had jambalaya once before in my life. I am in no way an expert on american cuisine, but this tasted very good. It had a nice spiceness and a great variety of flavours. My boyfriend loved it, but  the idea of rice not being white was weirding my kid out and he didn't touch his plate.

I must say though that the list of ingredients is a bit long for a leftover dish. Unless you had a Christmas buffet recently or you planned this one ahead of time, it's not prepared with staple items that everyone keeps on hand at all times. So even though it is a delicious and great way to pass your leftover chicken, you might be disappointed if you decide to throw this together last minute. In fact, that's part of the reason why I had never made jambalaya before. I am definitely glad that I took the time to add this to my meal plan

Jalapeño Pot Roast

This recipe came to me from Stephanie O'Dea's book Make It Fast, Cook It slow. This book is the first that I purchased after receiving my slow cooker about 2 years ago. I have never regretted my purchase and I invite you to check out her blog where she keeps her recipes. I have to say that some recipes were a total disaster, but not the one that follows!

I made this recipe on our anniversary which I had totally forgotten until my boyfriend mentioned it on the morning walk to work. I had planned leftovers for that night and figured that our anniversary deserved better. I rummaged through my freezer and found an expensive cut that I had purchased a few weeks ago when it was on sale. I usually cook my roast beef  in the oven and cringed at the idea of throwing it in the slow cooker, like some cheap piece of meat. But I had no time to defrost, so in there it went, still frozen. So here it goes.


 The Recipe

3 pound chuck roast ( or whatever you have and it can be frozen)
1 (10 ounces) can of cream of something soup (I added 2 cans of cream of mushroom)
2 to 4 tablespoons of jarred jalapeño slices
1 (15 ounce) can of black beans, drained and rinsed (I added red kidney beans)
1 yellow onion, sliced in rings
1 to 2 cups of plain yoghurt or sour cream( I added Greek-style plain yoghurt)


1. Use a 4 qt slow cooker. Put in the meat and add your cream-of whatever soup, the jalapeños, the black beans, as well as the onion slices. Cover and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours.

2. After the meat has cooked, remove it using tongs. Scoop out a cup of the liquid and put it into a mixing bowl with the yoghurt or sour cream. Mix well. Pour the mixture back into the crock and stir to completely dissolve the yoghurt or sour cream. Slice the meat , return to crock and proceed to serve.


The Results


This is a nice alternative to the traditional slow cooker roast. It has a nice spiciness but you can easily choose the spice factor with  the amount of jalapeños and yoghurt that you add. My boyfriend really liked it, as well as my two year old that ate all his meat for the first time in his life.

I enjoyed that all the ingredients were in my pantry and fridge. I keep jarred jalapeños for the days when I feel like making nachos or sandwiches and this was a new way to enjoy them. As for cream-of-something, it is a staple that most people keep on hand. If you prefer home-made, the author suggests to use two cups of your own cream-of-whatever. I must add that my second can of cream of mushroom soup was not necessary. When I was preparing the dish, I thought it looked a bit naked so I just threw an extra one, but one simple can would have suffice.

However, the can of black beans was unnecessary. Sure if you are looking to add beans in your diet, it can be interesting, but I didn't think that it belonged in the dish. It just felt like she had an extra can of beans which she added. So if you don't have beans on hand, or your family doesn't enjoy them, feel free to omit.

I will make this again, but with a cheaper cut so I feel less guilty. We had the leftover in a sandwich on onion bread, it was great!

Pork Goulash with Sauerkraut

As a lover of Goulash, this recipe in Donna-Marie Pye's Canada's Best Slow Cooker called out to me. As pork is often on sale but I have few recipes that I absolutely love, it seemed necessary to at least try it out. I also appreciate the idea of adding sauerkraut, because I think that it's the bee's knees. If you can't stand the thought of sauerkraut, you can simply omit as the author indicates in her book.

The Recipe
1 tbs oil
1  2lb pork roast (shoulder), cut in 1 1/2 inch cubes
2 onions, sliced
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1/4 sweet paprika (if you only have hot paprika on hand, half this quantity)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
19 oz can of sauerkraut (can be replaced by fresh sauerkraut)
19 oz can diced tomatoes, with their juice
1 c beef broth
1 c sour cream ( I usually use natural Turkish yoghurt)
   cooked and hot egg noodles to serve
   extra sour cream, optional and also for serving


1. In a large skillet, heat oil on medium-high. Add the cubes of pork, the onion as well as the garlic. Brown meat on all sides, about 4 to 5 minutes. Add the paprika , salt and pepper and cook one minute extra.

2. With a slotted spoon, add the contents of the skillet in the slow cooker. Add the sauerkraut, the can of tomatoes, and the broth, Place the lid and cook on slow for 8-10 hours or on high, 4-6 hours. The meat should be tender.

3.Place your slow cooker on low. Add the sour cream and cook for five additional minutes. Serve on the warm egg noodles with a dollop of additional sour cream.


The Verdict

I've made this twice since I typed out the ingredients about a month ago. My first time, I doubled the portions and went a little overboard on the sauerkraut. My can was too big, I was lazy, so I just dumped everything in there instead of putting the leftovers in a Tupperware. The taste of sauerkraut was a bit overwhelming and it tasted more like a paprika enhanced sauerkraut than a meat dish.
Therefore, I decided to  retry using the real ratios.

I'm going to sound wishy-washy, forgive me. I don't hate it, but I don't love it as much as I hoped I would. Perhaps, if I had had less hopes for this recipe, I would have appreciated it more. It was a nice switch from my regular goulash; sauerkraut gives it a nice depth of flavour and the tomatoes really lighten the dish. However, I would never trade in my recipe of regular goulash for this one. I like having this recipe at hand for special occasions or for when I crave sauerkraut (because I do have huge sauerkraut cravings), but my regular goulash that is robust and meaty, has nothing to fear.

Another negative aspect of this recipe is that it doesn't freeze well if you add the sour cream as indicated in the last step. The sour cream will separate and curdle when it defrosts, something that I hadn't even thought about when I  put my extras in the freezer. Let's just say, that even though it still tastes okay, it looks awful and I was the only one that accepted to eat leftovers.

So all-in-all, an interesting take on a great dish BUT that doesn't surpass the original, unfortunately.