I used to make this dish all the time.  Decades ago.  It used to be my fanciest creation.  As time marched on, new and less time consuming dishes took over and the jambalaya was forgotten.  It didn’t help that some of the ingredients were hard to find.  It’s not like grocery stores were brimming with andouille sausage twenty years ago.

Yanno, and then life happened.  Job changing, moving, marrying, divorcing, becoming a mom.  And moving, job changing, marrying, and moving.  It just so happens that we have this funky little meat and fish market kind of off the beaten path down here in this smallish rural logging town.  The store has turned over a few times, but it looks like the new owners are on track to success.  I happened to be in on a day where they had both andouille AND giant prawns.

It was a sign.  I got both and decided to revisit this dish.  It was time to pause in the era of jambalaya before there was an Emeril.  Bam!  The last time I made this, I didn’t have a care in the world and basically no responsibilities.  I was also not that great in the kitchen.  Ha!  Looking back, I’d probably call that mess I made a pretend jambalaya.  Can you say Lawry’s seasoned salt?  Ugh.

One of my pet peeves about this dish is the overcooked shrimp.  It never fails.  Even upon perusing The Googles, you see the shrimp added too soon, too much, too chopped up, which accelerates the overcooking of the shrimp.  There are smarter ways to get the shrimp flavor distributed throughout the dish without ruining the shellfish in the process.  And chopped shrimp?  Why?!  Don’t bother.

Also, I chose to elevate it.  The garlic was black.  The water was replaced with shrimp broth.  And the herbs were fresh.  I recently recreated a chile chocolate pie that used ground dried chiles, so instead of just using powdered cayenne, I chose to grind dried chile instead.  It wasn’t super obvious, but I felt like there was more chile flavor instead of just flavorless heat.  It made a difference to me.

Hubs couldn’t stop eating it.  He thought it was divine.  As for me, I felt apathetic.  I think that, for the amount of work that goes into jambalaya, I’d be more impressed.  Perhaps this is why I don’t make it anymore.  And perhaps this is why so many recipes abuse the shrimp in jambalaya.  Because to me it’s pretty ho hum.  So Hubs got the rest of the pot to himself.  Perfect!

I cannot get into the cauliflower “steaks” thing.  I’ve tried and tried and I don’t know about you, but I end up with a crumbled mess.  I would cook cauliflower more often if it was easier to work with, but as well as being a terrible baker, I also have horrible knife skills.  Cauliflower steaks are probably not going to happen in my repetoire.  I’m just not that talented.

Then the intrawebs happened.  I stumbled virtually onto whole roasted cauliflower nirvana.  Why have I not thought of it before?!  Probably because I had pretty much given up on cauliflower being anything other than soup or roasted florets.  *yawn*  But roasting a whole head intact?  The possiblilities are endless and so are the sauce options.  And it’s a gorgeous presentation without having to do a whole lot.  Hubs and I are addicted.  I see many heads of cauliflower in our future.

Cauliflower is like the chicken of the vegetable world.  It does have a distinct flavor, but it’s subtle, and adapts well to just about any flavor combination you can dream up.  I’m already thinking of how I can do an Italian version, or bbq sauce on the grill…good gravy I just drooled a little bit.

Currrently, Hubs and I are hooked on an Indian/North African ish type sauce that is amazing.  I would definitely do this with vindaloo and I think I just might this week.  Maybe I’ll whip out the harissa.  What’s going to happen?!