Scottish Jambalaya!

Two nights in a row I haven't slept and my goodness, do I feel grumpy.   I lay on the sofa this morning, eyes like a half shut knife, growling at anyone who came within three feet of me.   It was the same old story; after being intravenously fed a cup of tea, I came to, just in time to have my heart sink at the sight of yet another blanket of snow; I rushed around as fast as my tired legs could carry me and found a bizarre assortment of gloves and hats for the children to wear....Kelly had one pink fluffy mitt and a hand puppet, I kid you not.   Why the school haven't sent out a social worker yet, I've no idea.....

I managed a smile and a kiss for each of them...not Brian; think Rottweiler snarl...poor guy...and crawled towards the bathroom for a shower.   Going as fast as a speeding tortoise, I had no time to fix my mop of unruly blonde hair stop telling me it looks ginger or I may have to kill you...no offence to those beautiful, natural ginger headed lovelies of course...and walking along in the snow, I'm sure I saw people pointing and laughing from their cars as my hair got bigger and bigger and bigger.   My hair arrived at yoga 10 minutes before I did, lay out my mat and twirled itself around a passing leg.

We did flow yoga to music; very enjoyable in a "WTH-my-body-can't-bend-like-that; I-may-have-a-dizzy-turn-or-even-faint-anytime-soon" kind of way.   We looked totally knackered by the end of it and coffee was welcomed by all.   By the time I left, the sun was shining and I'd perked up so I strolled to Ann's for another wee coffee before heading home.   Having refused to eat anything, saving it all for my lunch, Brian, who was having lunch with me, became increasingly quiet as my lips curled up and my teeth seemed to grow a few inches.   One slice of toast and a poached egg later, I was much better and got on happily with the rest of the day.

 

Lola was finished this week

I fancied making Jambalaya; having had chicken breasts at the ready to make buttermilk chicken but with no buttermilk, this seemed like a good opportunity.   I also had a bag of prawns sitting in the freezer unopened from Christmas, vaguso using store cupboard ingredients which vaguely resembled the recipe I had, I went about creating Scottish Jambalaya...or JambalHiya as Lucy christened it.

Jambalaya                                                  Scottish Version
1 tbs plain flour                                          Same
1 tsp dried oregano                                    Half tsp dried thyme
2 tsp paprika                                              1 tsp smoked paprika
Half tsp celery seeds                                  Good sprinkling celery salt
750g (eight pieces) chicken thighs               2 chicken breasts, cut in half
2 tablespoons olive oil                                1 tablespoon olive oil
225g/8 oz  chorizo skinned and sliced         Oh, I wish but had none left
3 cloves garlic peeled and chopped            1 big fat clove
500g raw shelled prawns                            250g cooked frozen tiger prawns
1 onion peeled and finely sliced                   Same
1 celery heart, leaves and all                        Nope
2 red peppers, thinly sliced                          1 orange pepper
1 tsp dried thyme                                        Same
5 tomatoes, peeled, seeded, quartered        Tin plum tomatoes, sauce and all
6 handfuls long grain rice                             A big dod of basmati rice
1-4 tbs tabasco sauce                                 That would have been nice but sadly, no
1 handful chopped fresh leaf parsley            Had some but was too hungry....
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper     Yup

Mix flour, herb of choice, paprika (I used smoked because I love it), celery seeds (celery salt in my case), salt and pepper in a large bowl.  Coat chicken in flour mix and fry in olive oil until brown.   Gosh, the smell from this alone....

Browning the chicken in spices

Remove chicken back to the floury bowl and fry chorizo, if you have it for a few minutes then reduce heat and add remaining  paprika, some salt, garlic and prawns (shrimps).   Stir until the prawns turn pink or in the case of frozen prawns, stew!   Prawns really shouldn't stew but well, I knew it would be good, I wasn't being too  pernickety.  Add onions, celery if using, peppers and thyme to the pan.   Stir every now and then until onion is soft...approx. 10 minutes.  

Sweating the veg and prawns with thyme

Return chicken and remaining flour to pan alongside tomatoes and  rice and cover with water.   Give it a good stir, bring to a gentle boil and simmer until rice is cooked-according to my recipe about 40 minutes but I don't imagine any rice would take that long.   I shall cook it for this long however when next using long-grain.   I was using basmati so I cooked it for approx. 20 minutes.   Everything was cooked through, the chicken was tender and the rice perfect.

 

Tomatoes, rice and water added

    

Season to taste with salt, pepper, tabasco and parsley.   Plate up, salivate, have husband tell you he isn't touching it because there are prawns in it and eat alone, mentally sticking two fingers up to him but then realising that it's now just yours...all yours and yours alone!   Mmmmmm.

 

A steamy bowl of Scottish Jambalaya!

Tender, spicy chicken and prawns

We made biscuits tonight, some in the shape of hearts since it's February.....

Iced and plain butter biscuits

Lovely!