Jazzy Jambalaya & the Plain Plantain

Folks, 2 great lessons in cooking were learned today. One, the jambalaya I have been fretting to make this week turned out pretty good. I've never thought about making the dish until a good friend was throwing ideas around about what my next post would be about. I also need to note that this is a "vegetarian" version plus shrimp-sorry no sausage. Lesson 2 is, if you want to fry plantains even if they look very ripe they aren't and you should wait for them to get black for the best flavor. At least the way I prepared them. I'll be waiting 2 more days at least.

So here goes the deliciousness....

Do remember that I don't always use exact measurements when cooking. This isn't baking. Also be warned these makes a heaping helping. I had 4 people eating and it didn't make a dent.

Jazzy Jamba:
1 cup onion chopped
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped green pepper
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 garlic cloves minced
4 cups diced tomatoes (I used the canned kind)
3 boil in a bag brown rice
2 cans organic black beans

a nice sprinkling of parsley, I went dehydrated because Kroger was out of the fresh stuff
a sprinkle of salt
a good sprinkle of paprika
a good sprinkle of chili powder
smidge of cayenne, based on your tolerance for heat
sprinkle of black pepper
3 bay leaves

raw shrimp,the bag I bought was 51-60 with tails but take the tails off!

Here's the word on making it:

I half cooked the boil in a bag rice based on box instuctions but not all the way.

In a large pot use the oil to cook until tender the onion, celery, green pepper and garlic. Stir in diced tomatoes, rice, parsley, salt, paprika, cayenne, chili powder and pepper. Add in shrimp and watch for them to get pink. Toss in DRAINED black beans.

Transfer to a 2-1/2 qt baking dish rubbed down with some butter. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 60-70 minutes or until a fair portion on the liquid is absorbed.

I served with mini corn bread muffins which seemed to be a hit.

Ahhh the plantains. I did alot of research on how to make this a good experience and I thought it would a breeze.

I peeled and quartered the plantain(or huge banana) got the skillet primed with a large spoonful of butter and put some brown sugar in a bowl. I shook the pieces of plantain in the brown sugar and coated them and placed in the skillet. Pushing the pieces around they began to form a nice caramel in the pan. It looked ooey, gooey and yum. Serving them over vanilla ice cream was the best thing I could do. Even the sugar laden bananas could not be taken for delicious by my 10 year old sister. The concensus from my taste testers (sister and mom) was that they tasted like a green banana. Forgive me for my short report but I wasn't impressed but this blog isn't just about the successes. It's the mistakes too. Like I said earlier I will try again later this week with my super ripe version of the fruit and try again. How's that sound?

What will be next on the veggie venture???