Jambalaya, Gonzales Style with pictures Posted to TigerDroppings.com by pochejp on 3/20/10 Cooked a pork and sausage Jamb while watching the LSU Tigers beating Arkansas in baseball. I included process pics. This is how we cook Jambs in this area. I know everyone has their own method. This is mine. This is a 3 cup of rice Jamb. Feeds 8 to 10 with sides. I would like feedback. What would you do different? There are many good Jamb cooks on this board. Enjoy. Ok. First off I start with pork temple meat if available. If not I use Boston butt pork meat cut into cubes. I try to keep a small piece of fat on each piece as it adds great taste and is tender.

Brown that down really well in approx 3/4 cup of vegetable oil. Let it fry till it sticks then stir. Do that over and over. Sometimes a little water is needed to cool off the grease. The sticky part (gratin) on the bottom of the pot will dictate your color of the rice.

After it browned down I remove from the pot.

Then I brown down my sausage. I used LeBlanc's smoked sausage for this one. It’s really good and locally made.

After I cook the sausage a little I remove from the pot. Don't cook the sausage till fried dark brown because to me that cooks all the taste out. Just mildly brown it. Drain the grease but don't lose the gratin. Then I add my onions, green onions, garlic and cook till clear looking. This is when you scrape the bottom of the pot getting all the brown gratin from the pork. This is where the color starts to come in. I used three regular sized yellow onions.

After those are cooked I add the meat back to the pot and mix well. Cook all the water out at this time.

At this time I add my water. For this size Jamb I go with the standard 2 to 1 ratio of water to rice. I also added a three chicken bouillon cubes as I didn't have and broth. I usually use broth instead of plain water.

After it came to a boil I start tasting the water. I like it a tad bit salty because the rice will absorb the saltiness. I use black pepper, garlic pepper, and LeBlanc' s seasoning, made here locally by Kim LeBlanc.

Skim the remaining grease off the top. The boiling water will separate it from the water/broth.

After I get it like I want I add the rice. I let it boil until it starts to expand and "jump out the pot". This is a very important time relevant to the "popping" of the rice. I let the rice get noticeably bigger/expanded before I cut heat and cover. This can be achieved on a HARD boil. Critical to the rice pop.

After it gets where I think it’s ready to cover I cut back on my heat and cover. Do not lift the lid for any reason!

Cast iron pots hold heat really well as you can see. This is the lid temp while covered on lowest heat I can apply on my gas stove.

I let this cook for about 25 minutes for this size and then roll the rice. Don't stir. Roll it from bottom to top. Re-cover and cut heat off.

Let sit for another 15 minutes and then un-cover and eat. Came out good. Rice popped open perfect. Hard to beat the Mahatma extra long grain.

Give me some feedback guys. I've been cooking Jambs like this for 25 years. Basically the same process for 5 and 10 gallon Jambs.