Jambalaya

A BBC News post today reports that scientists in Manchester have discovered that certain aromatherapy oils kill the ‘superbug’ MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). This apparently serendipitous finding arose because the scientists were asked to test the oils to ensure that they would not harm immune suppressed patients.

Odd that the report does not mention which oils.

There are those amongst you who seem to think that a weblog called Jambalaya should have a recipe for the dish of that name. In fact I described one a while ago on another weblog. My original article has a fairly detailed recipe together with an account of how we arrived at it. I will reproduce it below for those of you too lazy to visit the original offering!

First, a word about the word—or rather about the origins of the word jambalaya. The dish itself is clearly related in spirit, method and (mostly) content to the Spanish paella, a rustic, outdoor one-pot dish or rice, meat, fish and vegetables (or whatever). A link with early Spanish colonization of Louisiana is thus plausible, though some sources go to some lengths to ascribe a French connection through the putative Provencal word jambalaia. (If anyone can provide evidence to corroborate this, please let me know). I, however, am rather struck by the phonetic similarities to the word jumble, which seems aptly to describe the nature of this dish.

Since writing that article I have been experimenting a great deal with Spanish rice dishes based on the classic paella. My original inspiration for these came from Sam & Sam Clark’s wonderful Moro cookbook. The Clarks’ spanish rice dishes start with a sofrito of chorizo, onion, celey and green peppers, which seems to me very sound basis for this as well as jambalaya, although many ‘classic’ recipies fopr these dishes don’t go this way.

Leaving aside the ‘main’ ingredients of the two dishes, which can variously include chicken, sauasage, seafood, ham, snails, vegetables etc., the main differences between paella and jambalaya are (1) the cooking pot: a paella is a wide, shallow, flat-bottomed pan whilst jambalaya is traditionally cooked in a deep cast-iron pot; (2) the rice: the Spanish use a round rice such as Valencia or Calasparra, which absorb more liquid without disintegrating. Jambalaya is usually made with American log grain rice; (3) the flavourings: saffron, rosemary and paprika are fundamental to the Spanish dishes, the Creole derivative is enlivened with cayenne, chilli, allspice, cloves and thyme—plus tomatoees in the New Orleans version.

Now for the recipe. The method is probably fairly generic, but is most immediately based in that given by Ella and Dick Brennan in their Commander’s Palace New Orleans Cookbook.

So, the Prince of Pod is having problems getting BT Broadband in Guildford. Welcome to the UK, Adam! ;-)

I have until now resisted the temptation to rant here about BT’s general incompetence in delivering (or not delivering) broadband. My problem was not with getting connected, but with staying connected. From time to time my connection would suddenly drop—for anything between a few seconds and several minutes: not what you want when you are running several mailservers and websites. The first time was one night when I was asleep in a hotel outside Cologne at the start of a fortnight’s trip to Venice, and was awoken by an automatic SMS from my ISP. The problem persisted for several months. BT were completely hopeless, fielding staff who couldn’t tell a plug from a socket and it was only because of the dogged persistence of my excellent ISP, Andrews and Arnold and myself that we eventually persuaded BT to find someone who understood broadband to do what had obviously needed doing all along, namely change the equipment at the exchange end of the line.

Adam: if you are dealing with BT direct: forget it. Give Andrews and Arnold a call: they are a relatively small outfit and customer service is good. They know what they are doing and have oodles of experience dealing with BT, who they ultimately have to deal with as the UK’s monopoly supplier of local loops. The will also get you some fixed IP addresses which are more difficult to come by from BT.

Update 5/12/04: The saga has moved to the Ipodder weblog. It seems that wireless broadband may be available in Guildford (but at what cost?). This could turn out to be a high profile test case for Broadband Britain.