Cajun Soup

So this is yesterday's post.  I have no idea how I managed to forget to post it, but it probably had a lot to do with me watching Alias on Amazon Prime all evening.  I have watched an entire season in a matter of days, haha.

Anyway, I wanted to make something sort of like jambalaya but I really wanted soup.  So, I decided to make a completely non-authentic cajun flavored soup.  My new favorite thing is to make a lot of soup, eat it for a few days, and then freeze the rest of it.  If this recipe sounds a little larger than what I usually make, that would be why.

Ingredients:
-7 cups of water
-3 chicken tenderloins (at least)
-3 TB butter
-1 cup of shrimp
-1/2 cup scallops
-2 smoked sausages, unless you happen to have a more authentic spicy sausage on hand
-1/4 cup chopped green or a mix of red and green peppers
-1/4 cup corn
-1/8 cup chopped onion (or as I like to say, some)
-1 cup chopped tomato
-1 cup minute rice
-1 TB Zatarain's Creole Seasoning**

Let me start off by saying that I am not exactly impressed with the Z. Creole Seasoning I bought.  Had I realized that the first ingredient in it was SALT I would have paid more for the McCormick.  So please keep that in mind.  If you use a different spice with more heat and way less salt, which I would suggest, you may want to start with about half that amount and work your way up to just the right spice, and then add your own salt.

Regardless, put the water, butter, chicken, peppers, tomato, onion, seasoning all in a stock pot and bring it up to a boil.  I like to cook all of mine together (covered) until I can shred the chicken with two forks, which usually takes 40 minutes or so.  Shred the chicken and return it to the stock pot.  If you are using a different sausage other than the ones you can microwave and throw on a bun, you will want to cook it in a skillet first before transferring it to your soup.  Add the sausage, shrimp, scallops, and let cook for a few minutes until nearly done.  Add the rice, put the lid on the pot, turn off your heat, and let the rice cook while you make some cornbread cakes on the griddle.

Now, I really did not know exactly how to make griddled cornbread, but I have made plenty of pancakes.  So I did what any self respecting cornbread lover would do, I winged it.  I added a cup of corn meal, an egg, and enough milk and oil to get me to a pancake texture, making sure that milk was the predominant addition. 

Not all cooking is an exact science, and you really can't get a more flexible meal than soup and cornbread.  Recipes really need not exist for soup sometimes in my opinion.

Stay tuned for whatever the actual craft of THIS day ends up being.

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