Jambalaya Recipe

I had a request in the comments for my Jambalaya recipe. It's the one that my dear departed mom handed down to me, so it's not really written anywhere but here's my best approximation:

Jambalaya

Ingredients

Onion
Vegetable Oil
Ham (or sausage or shrimp)
Rice – 1 cup
Tomato Sauce – 1 8oz. can
Seasonings: Salt or Garlic salt, Thyme, Bay Leaf, (Tabasco if desired)

Chop a small onion.

Chop ham into small pieces

Saute the onion in the vegetable oil until the onions are translucent.

Add the ham and sauté it with the onions

Add Thyme, Bay Leaf, salt, fresh garlic if desired

Add the tomato sauce and let it heat up and then add a cup of water. ( I use the tomato sauce can to measure the water and to get the rest of the sauce from the can.)

Here’s where you can add Tabasco sauce if desired.

Bring to almost boiling and then add the rice

When the mixture is boiling, turn the heat down to low and cover. Cook until the rice is done and the moisture absorbed.

(I usually make more than one cup of rice, just double or triple the recipe)

The recipe works as well with sausage or shrimp, just add them instead of the ham.

Also,in New Orleans, you can buy seasoning ham, but I haven’t seen that anywhere else. I just buy a small ham steak and use about half of it per cup of rice.