Jambalaya

I'm starting to notice how many recipes I could potentially write which contain sausages! We do eat other meats and part of the reason I plan our meals is so that I make sure we have a variety and eat fish at least once a week. However, I will not deny that we enjoy eating sausages and that they do feature frequently on our meal plans. I have been very lucky and probably spoilt as I've grown up eating tasty sausages from our local butchers. Now that I'm buying food for my own family I make sure that I buy sausages from the butcher as well as minced beef. It may seem like a luxury when the cost of goods is rising and the rise in salary isn't matching it, but I would more rather buy a little less of a higher quality good when it comes to sausages and beef. I do buy meat from the supermarket, but for my personal taste, I prefer these two items from the Butcher. Jesse Smiths is our local butcher, we use the shop in Cirencester but my parents have been going to the shop in Northleach since before I was born. They are also the company that we bought our delicious turkey from this winter.

 
 

Anyway, I tend to buy in bulk from the butchers, and if I time my visit right and go when they're quiet, they even split what I've bought into separate bags ready for the freezer. I've got quite a few bags of sausages at the moment, so they were the inspiration behind this meal tonight. I used chipolatas tonight but you could easily use large sausages, just reduce the number that you include, I normally cook 3 large sausages per adult.

 
 

Sausage jambalaya (fed 2 adults plus toddler easily)

8 Chipolatas

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium/large chorizo sausage

1 red pepper

1 yellow pepper

1 tin chopped tomatoes

1 tablespoon tomato puree

1/2 cup rice (this isn't an American measure but how we measure rice in my family. I use a cup not mug, I guess when I make this it is probably about the same as the packet instructions for two people. So if you're doing this for yourself and your not sure if your cup is the same size as mine, follow the rice packet instructions and adapt it to two people if necessary.)

 
 

1. Preheat the oven to 200C, put the sausages onto a tray with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Cook the sausages for about 25 minutes or until they're golden brown.
   
2. Meanwhile, deseed and roughly chop the peppers into 1-2cm sized chunks, if you want to use different colour peppers it's fine, these are the colours I had today when I cooked. Chop the chorizo into slices roughly 1/2 to 1cm thick. I used ready chopped chorizo and it was a mistake as the flavour was totally different.
   
3. In an oven ready dish pour the second tablespoon of olive oil and add the chorizo and chopped peppers. Fry this over a medium heat until the peppers have started to soften and all of the tasty juices have been released from the chorizo.
   
4. Once the sausages are cooked and cool enough to handle chop into chunks. Leave the oven on but reduce the temperature down to 180C. Add this along with the chopped tomatoes, tomato puree and rice. I also add half a can of water at this stage. Give it all a good stir, put a lid on the dish (this is really important to help the keep the juices in and help cook the vegetables) and put it in the oven.
   
5. Cook for 40 minutes or until the rice is cooked.
   

 

You could swap the sausages for chicken or prawns. If using chicken, I would probably use chicken pieces and brown them off first before adding the chorizo. If using prawns (unfrozen), I would put them in for the last 5-10 minutes cooking time so that they are just cooked through before serving.