My mother could make a meal from a virtually empty cupboard. That’s a skill she learned from her own mother, whose skills at producing something from nothing in the kitchen were unsurpassed.
Mom never taught me to cook—I suppose she figured I’d get married someday, so I wouldn’t need such skills. Well, if Mom were alive today, all I could say to her is, “Mom, the times, they are a-changin’.”
So, at this point in my life, I’m finding learning to cook part necessity and part something that I just might turn into a hobby. I’m no Sioux chef (hee hee!), but I whipped up something the other day that tickled my tastebuds. If you like your dishes on the spicy side, then try my Caj-Mex rice. Be careful, though, because it just might explode while you’re putting all the ingredients together.
Ingredients:
- 2 Cups rice, uncooked (I prefer jasmine rice)
- 1 or 2 links of Andouille sausage
- Half a large onion, or one whole small onion (or 2/3 of a medium onion, yuk-yuk)
- One can of Rotel tomatoes and green chilis (with habanjeros, if you can take it)
- Butter or oil
- Cajun spices
- Soy sauce
- Red pepper
Put the rice on to boil, and after you turn it down to simmer, start cutting up the onion into small, but not diced, pieces. Throw the onion into a large frying pan with some butter or oil. Cut the Andouille sausage into little hockey pucks, then half or quarter the pucks. Throw that in with the onions and butter and turn on the heat to sauté the onions. Spread everything out with your spatula, and make sure each piece of everything is coated with Cajun spices. Stir as it cooks.
Make sure you turn the heat off the rice when it’s done. When the onions have cooked down long enough, stir the rice in with the onions and sausage. Put just enough soy sauce on the rice to moisten it a little and to provide some salty taste. Throw in the Rotel, Sprinkle more Cajun seasoning into the mix as you stir it, and add a little of the red pepper to ratchet up the heat a bit.
Turn up the heat and mix well for a few minutes, then turn the heat off and dish it up. Serves one to six, depending on how hungry you are, or how much heat you can take, LOL.
Bon appetit!
