Ham and Sausage Jambalaya

This is a great Creole jambalaya recipe.  It's from the New Orleans cuisine cookbook La Bouche Creole by Leon E. Soniat, Jr.  This cookbook is a fun read too.  He tells stories of growing up in New Orleans and shares family recipes (pp. 119-120):

Milneburg was the "good time" recreation spot for hundreds of New Orleans families.  While many families would spend time at the camps during the week, it was on weekends that all merriment would break loose.  Early on Saturday mornings the intensity of the celebrating could be forecast by the cases of "home brew" and kegs of beer that were carried along the boardwalk and into the camps--when the foam began to flow, music was needed.  Usually, most of the camps had a battered old piano in good enough shape to beat out a few tunes, but musicians were also imported from the city.  These musicians were naturals.  They were blacks who usually had battered old instruments and no training, but who put their souls into their work.  Most of the time the combos were made up of a piano player, a banjo player, and either a clarinet or a cornet player.  The real fancy outfits would have the aforementioned four pieces, plus a trombone and a brass horn.

The music would begin on Saturday evenings.  The bands played far into the night and half of Sunday.  Everybody danced the two-step, and the music fit it perfectly.  The tunes?  Well,, as I said before, these musicians played by ear and the only melodies they knew were the old spirituals.  What better jazz tune could be found?  As this was repeated year after year, the music developed into Dixieland Jazz, with "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" and "Milneburg Joys" becoming the classics in the jazz bands' repertoire.  But the good time would close about Sunday afternoon.  A big dinner was served, and then it was time to pack up and get aboard Smoky Mary and head for home.

One of the great dishes we usually had on Sunday was JAMBALAYA.  Jambalaya meant "cleaning up the kitchen" with ham, sausage, chicken, shrimp crab, or anything that was handy.  My favorite was a ham and sausage jambalaya the Mamete would fix.

She would use the large (about 10-quart) black iron pot.  First, she would slice, in about 1/2-inch pieces, about 1-1/2 pounds of some good hot sausage.  In 3 tablespoons of oil, she would fry the sausage until it was brown.  A pound of ham went in next.  The ham was diced and sauteed with the sausage and stirred every now and then while she chopped 4 onions, 2 bell peppers, and 4 or 5 ribs of celery.  This was added to the pot and allowed to cook until the vegetables were tender.  

A large can of tomatoes (or if we had the fresh kind, 4 tomatoes chopped) were added to the pot and cooked a few minutes more.  Also, she added 6 cups of stock, brought it to a boil, and let it simmer for 30 minutes.  While the pot was simmering 4 cloves of garlic were chopped and added, along with 4 bay leaves, 1/4 teaspoon each of powdered cloves and allspice, 1 sprig of thyme (or she used 1/2 teaspoon powdered thyme), 1 teaspoon chili powder, and salt and pepper to taste.  Both black and cayenne pepper were used, so the jambalaya was "piquante," or very hot!

Then she added 4 cups of raw rice.  The jambalaya was brought to a boil and allowed to cook for about 3 minutes, and then the heat was turned very low and the pot covered.  After about 15 minutes of cooking, the cover was removed and the mixture was stirred.  If the jambalaya seemed dry, more liquid was added.  The cover was put back on to cook the mixture for about another 15 to 20 minutes.  One bunch of green onions was chopped rather finely and added to the jambalaya during the last 5 minutes of cooking.

The jambalaya was removed from the heat, allowed to set for 5 minutes, fluffed up with a fork, and then served to hungry campers.  This served from eight to ten.