Wednesday 12 March 2014

Jambalaya (Simply Cook Review)



I've been looking at "subscription boxes" a lot lately and think they're such a great idea!  If you google subscription boxes it throws back a huge variety of things you can get delivered through your letter box - boxes filled with new beauty products, snacks, spices, chocolate, French foods, sweets, even books!  In the age of emails and text messaging who doesn't want to get home after work and find a box filled with treasures that got posted through your letterbox?!





When I saw an ad for Simply Cook I knew that I had to sign up immediately and I did!  You get to choose what type of box you get and there's a selection of recipes to choose from.  Fast forward to the day your postman drops the box through the door - you get 4 recipe cards with 4 boxes of spices and pastes to use in the recipes and all you need to do is pick up the fresh ingredients and get cooking!




I love that the spices are perfectly portioned and ready to cook with.  How many times have you seen a recipe that calls for a teaspoon of something and you have to go and buy an entire jar of something you will probably never use again?!


Anyhoot....so I got my first box from Simply Cook last week but knowing I had this week off work I saved it knowing I would spend an age on each recipe (as normal!) so here's the first one - Jambalaya!   I followed the recipe card that came in the box so the steps below are all theirs!




Dice the chicken and then coat the prawns and chicken in the Cajun seasoning (I hate prawns so left them out and just used chicken!)





Heat a large frying pan at a high heat with a few tablespoons of olive oil.  Add the chicken and Garlic Paste stirring really quickly till all the chicken is coated in the garlic paste.  Fry till all the chicken is cooked then take out of the pan and set aside.




Add the chorizo to the pan and fry until crispy.




Add the onion, green pepper and celery and cook until soft (don't you just love how the rice looks jewelled with the chorizo and peppers?!)




Add the rice, 400ml of boiling water and the Jambalaya paste, stir and simmer for 12 minutes.





Add the meat and prawns (or just chicken in my case!) and simmer for about 5 minutes, until the the prawns are pink (adding more water if needed) and serve.

I found that I had to add quite a lot more water than in the recipe to make sure the rice was cooked and therefore had to cook for a little longer.

The result was really delicious!  A hint of spice, a hint of garlic, nothing too strong.  I've never tried jambalaya before but it's definitely something that needs to be cooked again and can see it being a perfect dish that I can make in a big batch and take to work the next day for my lunch!




Ingredients
From Simply Cook
Cajun seasoning
Garlic paste
Jambalaya paste

Additional Ingredients
200g chicken and prawns (prawns not used so just used 200g chicken)
50g chorizo
1 small onion, finely chopped
50g celery, finely chopped
100g green pepper, chopped (this is about a whole medium sized pepper)
180g rice
2/3 tablespoons oil (sunflower or olive)



P.S. no one from Simply Cook has asked me to write this or review their products - I just like sharing great products!  If you're inspired and want to give it a try, you can get your first box for half price!



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