2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup canned crushed tomatoes
1 cup starchy white rice
4 chorizo sausages, sliced
2 cups chicken stock
1/2 pound shrimp, shelled and deveined
salt and pepper

1. Heat oil over medium heat in a large soup pot. Add the onion and red pepper and saute until tender.
2. Add the garlic, tomatoes and rice and stir to coat, simmering for a minute or two.
3. Stir in the chorizo sausage, cover with stock and raise heat to bring contents to a boil.
4. Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover pot and cook until rice is tender and sausages are cooked, about 20 minutes.
5. If the mixture is too liquidy, continue simmering until thickened. Stir in the shrimp and cover, cooking until the shrimp are pink, about 5 minutes.
6. Season jambalaya with salt and pepper to taste and serve.

Makes 6 servings

4 ears corn, shucked
1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon salt
water

1. Bring enough water to cover the corn to a boil in a large pot. Add salt and sugar to dissolve, then the corn.
2. Add the corn and cover, boiling until kernels are tender, about 10 minutes.
3. Drain the pot and serve corn with butter.

Makes 4 servings

A varation of Jambalaya was the first dish I made for A Food Year at the start of January. I really, really love jambalaya and often crave dishes like it (any thick comfort food with tomatoes, rice and sausage) so I went ahead and made a reasonably different Shrimp Jambalaya for dinner tonight. The flavors of shrimp and chorizo are much more traditional than Italian sausage and zucchini and perhaps even more delicious. I am somewhat embarassed to say that I ate the entire pot in 2 sittings.

As a side I just made some simple Corn on the Cob, boiled in a pot of water with some salt and sugar and served with a dollop of butter. Apparently adding sugar to the water is supposed to bring out the natural sweetness of the corn. Since I've never done a side by side comparison of whether or not this is true, I'm going to say that I don't buy it and that the sugar water helps to sweeten the corn instead. Regardless of which is actually true, corn on the cob is still my favorite reason to require a toothpick. Any leftovers can simply be cut off the cob and used for countless other dishes.