Eating Mediterranean, with Cajun spices

Recipes: Poorman's jambalaya, Corn muffins

Sometimes you hear people talk about a "Mediterranean diet", and how healthy it is. What is that anyway? First of all, it reflects a lifestyle practiced around the Mediterranean Sea, in areas of France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey, and the countries of northern Africa, that represent some of the oldest places humans have historically made their homes.  The "diet", which just means a way of eating, involves primarily plant-based foods, such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, and nuts, and a minimum of red meat. Fish and poultry, and especially fish, is eaten much more than red meat. Olive oil is used in place of butter, and herbs and spices, rather than salt, are used to flavor foods. Wine, and in particular red wine, is considered food, and accompanies meals in moderation. Meals are enjoyed with family and friends, and walking or riding bicycles is much more common than jumping in the car to go to the store, or to work. People are rarely overweight or bothered by the common diseases of abundance - high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer.

Sounds good, doesn't it? How can we shift our diet to be more like this? Here are five tips you can use to move your meals in this direction:
 

• Make sure each meal and snack includes colorful vegetables or fruit, raw or cooked
• Mix up your dinner routine by adding legumes like beans, peas or lentils at least some of the time
• Cook fish instead of red meat at least two nights a week
• Add walnuts, pecans, or sliced almonds to a salad or steamed vegetables
• Use extra virgin olive oil in place of butter or other oils for low-heat cooking and salads

Easy enough, but what does this have to do with Cajun cooking? We're making jambalaya today. Yum! The answer is "not much", except that Cajun food, which is French Acadian in origin, has Mediterranean roots. Not to mention that it's so delicious, it's worth a little digging to find those healthy roots and bring them out.

 

Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen, the bible of Cajun cooking, is one of the great cookbooks, with caveats. There's hardly a recipe in it that doesn't need to be altered in some way for either health or hotness reasons. One recipe starts with "One pound, plus 4 tablespoons, butter". Most of the dishes are so spicy I can't eat them, and I like hot. For these reasons, I've hesitated to recommend it to readers. On the other hand, every recipe I've ever made from this book has been absolutely delicious, once I've tamed the heat. Chef Paul's spice combinations are incredible, and each dish is "rounded" in taste in a way that is very satisfying. It truly is amazing comfort food.  

Poorman's Jambalaya

This recipe comes from Louisiana Kitchen, with quite a bit of alteration in the seasoning mix and a few changes in ingredients and cooking time. I'm guessing this is called Poorman's because it doesn't have a lot of meat and fish in it - "only" shrimps and sausages.You will love it, poor or not.

Seasoning Mix

• 2 small bay leaves
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
• a pinch of cayenne pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 6 ounces good chicken or pork sausage, uncooked, partially frozen (to make cutting easier) and sliced or diced
• 3/4 cup chopped onions
• 3/4 cup chopped celery
• 1 red or orange or yellow bell pepper, cored, seeded, and chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup raw basmati or jasmine rice
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 dozen medium shrimp, tails on if you wish

Thoroughly combine the seasoning mix ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

In a large heavy skillet, or a medium heavy Dutch oven, melt the butter and heat the olive oil. Add the sausage and cook a few minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the onions, celery, bell pepper, seasoning mix, and garlic, mixing well. Cook until the vegetables are browned, 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally and scraping the pan bottom well.

Stir in the rice and cook 5 minutes more, stirring and scraping. Add the broth, stirring. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer uncovered until the rice is tender, about 30 minutes. Stir occasionally toward the end of cooking time. Add the shrimps to the rice, cover, and cook for 1 more minute.

Remove bay leaves, and serve immediately.

Corn Muffins 

You don't really need corn muffins with the jambalaya - it's a complete meal in itself - but the muffins are certainly good with it. This is provided just in case your meal wouldn't be complete without bread. They are a little sweet, but not too much.

 

• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup cornmeal
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 5 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup milk
• 4 1/2 Tbsp butter, melted
• 1 egg, beaten

Turn the oven on to 350 to preheat.

In a large bowl combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt. Mix well with a fork. In a separate bowl, combine the milk, melted butter and egg - beat the egg into the milk/butter and add to the dry ingredients. Blend just until mixed...do not overbeat.

Spoon mixture into greased muffin cups - this recipe makes 9 muffins in my cast iron muffin pan (they are medium-large size). Bake at 350 about 45 minutes. If you use a smaller muffin pan, adjust the baking time and bake until golden brown.

When the muffins are done, remove them from the oven and take them out of the muffin pan right away.

The muffins freeze well, and are delicious for breakfast, warmed and served with honey.

The Payoff
The jambalaya is gluten-free. The muffins are not.

Jambalaya meets the criteria of the Mediterranean diet in several ways - it includes colorful vegetables (onion, celery, bell pepper, garlic), it includes fish (shrimp) and a minimum of meat, olive oil is substituted for some of the butter in the original recipe (you could substitute olive oil for all of the butter if you wish), spices and herbs are used to flavor it, and it is delicious with red wine.

Buon appetito!