Fat Tuesday…

What is it? What does it mean?... and Jambalaya!!

Its pretty simple, it is called Fat Tuesday because it’s the last day before lent where you can eat meat or fatty foods. It’s the last day that you can rid your sins during the time of the Carnival celebration that begins after the Christian feasts of Epiphany, or the Three Kings Feast, and ends on the day of Ash Wednesday. Traditions on how Carnival is celebrated vary in many locations around the world but the last three days, known as Mardi Gras, seem to be the wildest and best known. The celebration is very much part of the Anglican and Catholic faiths, and countries in Europe that are dominated by these religions. But don’t be fooled, they are just as wildly celebrated here in the United States. We have our famous Mardi Gras celebration in the New Orleans French Quarter, but it had all originated from the time French King Louis XIV sent a mission in 1682. The mission landed at the mouth of the Mississippi by a French expedition lead by the famous French explorer Robert Cavelier. They landed about 70-miles north of the mouth of the Mississippi, where they founded their own French haven in North America, named La Nouvelle-Orléans or New Orleans. The expedition didn’t stop here, they moved across the south into what is today’s Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and eastern Texas, where they placed their flag and brought us their European celebrations and culture, including Carnival and the last days of Mardi Gras. This new French group of Louisiana Acadians, also frequently called Cajuns or Creoles, settled in the south and, even today, they speak their French Creole and celebrate their feasts as they did back in the 17th century when their ancestors arrived.

So, last year we celebrated Carnival and Fat Tuesday with a great Louisiana Gumbo dish and this year we will follow it up with a Louisiana Jambalaya. Not just an ordinary Jambalaya, but a game dish! So, what is it and how can it be game? With French and Spanish origins, Jambalaya is a specific Louisiana dish, which comes from a province in France and descends from the Spanish dish paella. These two cultures dominated the southern region of Louisiana and its adjacent States, which were part of the French Cajun south. While there are countless variations of Jambalaya, all of them contain rice, seasoned vegetables, spices and protein. Our Game Jambalaya has all of the great seasonings we love to use, including a few from the HuntChef, vegetables, rice and there’s the protein, yes, the protein. Our Game Jambalaya consists of duck breast, hickory smoked rabbit sausage we purchased from Whitefeather Meats and shrimp.

Let’s Get Started! ...and it’s a bit spicy, not too much, but enough…

Ingredients:

• 2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil

• 1 Large (or 2 small) onion(s) chopped - I used a Spanish onion

• 1 Red Bell pepper chopped

• 2 Red Fresno peppers chopped – you can test your taste buds here, if you like it hot use Serrano peppers instead

• 3 Jalapeños chopped

• 4 stalks of celery

• 6 cloves of garlic - but as always, I use more. I used the whole head on this one.

• 1 lb. of duck breast(s) cut in cubes - try to preserve the fat on the meat, the fat adds to the taste.

• 1 lb. of sausage - this one is wide open; you can use whatever you want but is should be smoked. I wanted to use a Wild Boar Sausage here, but I went to Whitefeather Meats in Creston Ohio and saw this Hickory Smoked Rabbit Sausage, and couldn’t pass it up. It screamed, ‘you should buy me and put it in your Jambalaya’ all over it…!

• 4-tomatoes chopped - or take a shortcut and buy a can of diced tomatoes, I did and I won’t lie about it…

• 4 tsp of your favorite Cajun seasoning

• 2 tsp of dried Oregano

• 2 tsp of dried Basil

• 4 tsp of the HuntChef’s Reel Dam Deal - this seasoning is created for wild game, but as it says on the label it’s really a great all-around seasoning, and I totally agree.

• 2 tsp of Salt

• 2 tsp of Pepper

• 8 ounces of tomato sauce

• 1 cup of chicken stock

• 1 cup of rice - I leave it at rice because you can use any type here. I used a specific Jambalaya-style rice that I found at Aldi that contained a wide variety of soft peppers, nothing spicy.

• …and finally, parsley if you want it as a garnish, you know makes it look sexy…

Instructions:

• Warm your crock pot on high for about 15-30 minutes.

• Add the olive oil and all of the vegetables, stir thoroughly, and mix it all together.

• In a cast iron pan on your GAS STOVE, brown the duck breast and the sausage. The duck breast really won’t turn brown, it will be more like a soft white, but don’t overdo it.

• Once the duck and sausage have been browned (warmed), put in the crock pot and stir it all in.

• Add all of the seasoning, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and the chicken stock. Stir it all in well.

• If you’re going to cook on high it will be ready in 4-5 hours, or low and slow for about 8-hours.

• Increase crock pot temperature to high, add the shrimp and the rice, stir in well and cook for the last 30-minutes.

Conclusion:

This is a great recipe and can feed up to 8-servings. I hope you enjoy this spectacular dish. I paired this with a lovely Chianti, or you can pair it with any favorite red or burgundy wine. We added cornbread as a side since it is a Louisiana favorite when it comes to any Creole dish with a soft spicy aftertaste. The family Monkey Meter gave me an average of 3.5 on a scale of 5, but it did have a little spicy zing to it, which may have been a contributing factor. You definitely need to enjoy a little heat on a dish like this. But I loved it, will make this one again for sure!

I hope you enjoyed reading this piece and I’m looking forward to your next visit at Guns and Goulash.

Cheers and live well…!!!