Jambalaya & Ravigote

I have a confession. I'd never had Jambalaya.

It's true. Embarrassing, but true.

Last week I decided it was high time, after 23 years of life, I did it.

A friend let me borrow a cookbook, Taste of Louisiana, filled with stunning pictures and scrumptious recipes. In this book was the recipe for authentic Jambalaya and an appetizing Crab Ravigote.

First the Ravigote, I served it on a deep fried, creole spice crusted red tomato. You may have lived in the south for forever, and fried green tomatoes are our trademark, but fried RED tomatoes? A whole new level of southern deliciousness. So you've got your crispy, slightly spicy tomato, then you top it with Ravigote. Ravigote is crab, capers, Louisiana hot sauce, mayo, pepper, creole mustard and such, mixed and chilled. In laymen terms it's hyped up crab salad. But it's so good.

Jambalaya. It's hot. It's hot hot. It's burn allllllll the way down hot.

Probably would have gone over better if we hadn't just gotten over the stomach bug. We ate it. Then we sat around looking at each other praying fervently that we wouldn't be revisiting it.

The kiddos loved it! Surprisingly enough, because they are usually not into hot food, they ate it everyday for the next three days. We went through about 6 jars of sour cream.

Will I make it again? Definitely. Probably this winter when we need a good warming through.

Jambalaya: ***(3) stars
Crab Ravigote: ***** (5) stars