I am a big fan of spicy food. Dishes like Texas chili, nachos with blazing hot salsa, enchiladas, most any Thai cuisine and especially South Asian… Punjabi spices – loaded with fragrant spice blends.
You will find many of these recipes on my blog.
While not for everyone, degrees of spice give us variety in our daily cuisine. I mean, you cannot live on meat and two veg forever… well, I guess some do.
Not me – I like my taste buds challenged… something with a kick. And this recipe ticks a lot, if not all, of those boxes.
Good old Jambalaya is an easy one pot – one pan dish for those that can have it any which way they want to swing.
Ingredients…
▢ 1 Tablespoon oil, (vegetable or canola oil)
▢ 1 pound Andouille sausage, cut into ¼ inch thick slices
▢ 1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
▢ 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
▢ 2 Tablespoons butter
▢ 1 yellow or white onion, chopped
▢ 4 green onions, chopped
▢ 4 cloves garlic, finely minced
▢ 3 ribs celery, chopped
▢ 1 green bell pepper, chopped
▢ 1 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
▢ 1 1/2 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
▢ 1 teaspoon kosher salt
▢ ½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
▢ 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, optional, add more for spice, if desired
▢ 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes
▢ 2 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
▢ 1 1/4 cup long-grain white rice
Directions…
In a large skillet with a fitted lid, add the oil over medium high heat.
Once hot, add the chicken and cook, flipping once or twice to brown on all sides (don’t cook chicken completely through).
Remove to a bowl.
Add sausage and cook until browned on both sides. Add to the bowl with the chicken.
Reduce heat to medium and add butter and flour to the pan and stir well, scraping up any leftover browned bits from the pan.
Add onion, garlic, celery, and bell peppers and sauté for a 3 minutes.
Add basil, Cajun seasoning, diced tomatoes, salt and pepper and stir well to combine.
Add chicken broth and rice bring mixture to a gentle boil.
Add reserved meat to the pan. Reduce heat, cover pan with fitted lid and cook for 20 minutes.
Remove from heat, and rest with the lid on for 10 minutes. Then gently fluff with a fork and rest again for 5 minutes before serving.
Colin Newell is a Victoria B.C. resident and long time coffee expert… his rambling has appeared everywhere from the New York times to the Wall Street journal, CTV Newsworld and in-flight magazines from carriers like Air Canada to Air Transat… he has been doing this blog thing since the dawn of internet time…
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Recently a neighbour contacted me about his Windows laptop…
“I have a subscription to some anti-virus software and I updated it on my laptop and now the internet doesn’t work… what do I do?”
Windows 7, Windows 10 and 11 have built in Malware and virus protection – adding more “protection” does not always work out the
way we want it to.
My Neighbour had a “paid subscription” to a popular product and paid for even more coverage than he already had — (or needed)
I did a site visit, uninstalled the conflicting software and all things returned to normal. I advised him to call the 1-800
number at the software vendor, with his purchase confirmation number, and have the charge reverse or eliminated -
which he did and was very successful.
If you are a Mac user, the story is very similar — no additional virus/malware software is needed.
Now, it is true that Mac OS does not really have “anti-malware” features built into it, the Mac OS,
at the core is a Unix/Linux based hybrid that is significantly more resistant to attack than the Windows OS.
Buying additional software for the Mac is simply not needed, in part, because of the naturally robust nature of the Mac OS.
Hackers and bad agents don’t typically spend as much
time creating exploits for the Mac OS. It’s just not worth the effort.
For most of us, we surf the web and read our e-mail: A simple rule applies here…
If a friend or family member sends you an e-mail with a PDF, PowerPoint
or any kind of .exe (executable) file attachment in it, exercise extreme caution with it.
Most of us run into trouble while surfing the web with our favourite browsers — the reason being, the web can be a rabbit hole leading us deeper and deeper into potentially dark territory.
Most of the time, modern and up to date web browsers will warn us of impending doom when the warnings of “insecure connections” and “invalid site certificates” alerts pop up.
If your browser suggests you turn back, think it through before proceeding.
Bonus tip – Everyone uses e-mail. Considering using a web-based e-mail client. This allows for an extra layer of protection from the bad people by keeping the crap and malware in the cloud OR at least warning you of the potential for a bad download.
Colin Newell is a Vancouver Island resident, retired from 36 years in info technology, software and hardware support at a local University – his writing and speaking on the subject of food and coffee culture in Canada has been seen and heard widely on radio and TV
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I spend a lot of time talking about coffee. A lot of time.
Over the years, I have done the yakity yak for every major radio network in Canada and the U.S. and some TV things. It never gets tired. You might say… it stays awake!
Yes, it is a pretty light duty subject – often a lot of fun… especially for the people that are drinking it. Like today. One. Too. Many. cups of coffee and shots of espresso. If I was any more jazzed on the bean today, I swear I could hear colours!
Photo above – doing a quick coffee cupping at 2-Percent Jazz coffee in Victoria – at the Hudson Market.
It has been (and continues to be…) a great run — and I am always willing to be a source of sonic amusement… on the subject that stimulates me the most. Coffee. However you brew it.
Want to talk? Just shoot me an E-Mail – replies are virtually instantaneous. Meantime, enjoy some of the chatter in the audio files below.
CFRB 1010 Toronto
CKNW 980 Vancouver
CJAD Montreal 800
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Heading to a garden party across town on Canada Day? A blog reboot from 2009!
Arborbrook Pinot Noir Vintner’s Select 2006 at $67 a bottle (U.S.) is a remarkable grape. Any party host would welcome you with open arms.
This huge wine hits you harder than a jilted bride with bigger-than-Rita McNeil style – and flavors: fat, voluptuous with powerful fruit seasoned with ungodly quantities of exotically spicy new oak.
And if you are thinking about doing the right thing and leaving your car at home on Canada Day – I mean, doing the Legally right thing… by not drinking and driving – by taking the Bus (with this great Wine in your Man-Bag…) well think again Cowboys and Cowgirls!
B.C. Transit will have a ZERO alcohol policy on Canada Day – regardless of whether or not you are sober, wearing priestly garb or doing an emergency delivery to your favorite grape fan.
Even if you have this sealed Wine double paper bagged and sealed in your ruck sack, the folks at B.C. Transit will be taking it from you – after they illegally search you… violating your Charter Rights.
And sure, you can avoid the shake down by not taking the bus…
But that is not the point.
You have the right to ride the bus and you have the right not to be searched without probable cause.
So. Buy yourself a big fat bottle a grape and find an alternate form of transport… because you will not be riding the bus on Canada Day if you have any sober and peaceful plans to attend a civilized social somewhere!
This blog re-boot from 2009 is made available to you from the good people at the CoffeeCrew blog.
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If you think Victoria B.C. is coffee central, better get ready to add a new category for this little piece of West Coast paradise! Victoria Gin has hit town.
We spoke with boyish master distiller and molecular biologist Peter Hunt, 31 as he tended his copper pot still – the first one I have ever seen.
Photo right: From L to R – The Hemp Vodka, the Oaken Gin and the Pure Gin.
Peter did his B.A. and Masters degree in Micro-Biology at UVic and seemed as surprised as my wife and I to be tending and managing the intricate discipline of distillation. One of his former vocations was community development work in Africa – but now, at this very early stage in his career, he is doing something completely different – if not just as equally satisfying.
This was our second attempt at finding the operation (they have added some more signs!) and adjacent to a small vineyard in Saanich, the distillery and tasting room are in a barn, giving it that cottage industry feeling that you find in many small wineries.
I learned a lot about distillation and the process of making gin and vodka while checking out their neat operation. A mash of juniper berries and 10 “botanical” additions are used in this handcrafted spirit. Watching it “boil” away at just over 80 degrees © was cool – as well as seeing the condensation towers “perking” – with a gentle little stream of refined “brew” ending up in a steel tin.
Wild organic herbs and spices plus natural spring water create the complex flavor profile of gin – and it is not entirely lost on me, an avid coffee taster. In some ways, it is even more challenging. In the sample room, there are martini glasses laid out with samples of the botanical pallet they use. So much for secret ingredients!
We sipped several varieties of the Gin, one Oak aged and one pure as well as the hemp vodka – and bought a bottle of each. Because I was driving I kept my tipple to less than 1/8th ounce sips with each sample – but the flavor was all there.
Some extra things I learned…
The German-made, 120L copper pot-still produces a “batch” in an attention grabbing 4 to 6 hour distillation process. Intense knowledge of biology and chemistry is key because you do spend a lot of time stripping off ingredients you really do not want in liquor – like acetates and methanol, the blindness inducing byproduct of careless distillation.
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