July 30: Jambalaya Burgers and Cajun Corn and Red Beans

1 package ground chicken or ground turkey breast
1/2 pound Cajun andouille sausage, casing removed, diced
3 celery ribs and their greens, finely chopped
1 green bell pepper, cored, seeded, and finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 tablespoons fresh thyme, chopped
2 tablespoons hot sauce, such as Tabasco
   Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
3 ears corn, from the cob, or 1 10-ounce box frozen corn kernels, defrosted
4 scallions, chopped
1 can red beans, drained
1 cup chili sauce, divided
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup grainy mustard
4 jumbo shrimp, peeled, deveined, and butterflied
1 tablespoon Old Bay Seasoning
4 crusty rolls, split
4 green leaf lettuce leaves
1 large beefsteak tomato, sliced

Preheat a grill pan or large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.

Place the chicken or turkey in a bowl. Add the sausage, half the chopped celery, half the chopped green bell pepper, the onions, half the garlic, the thyme, hot sauce, salt, pepper, and about 2 tablespoons of the EVOO.

Combine the mixture and form 4 patties. Grill for 5 minutes on each side.

Heat a skillet over medium-high heat. Add 2 tablespoons of the EVOO, the remaining bell peppers, remaining garlic, and the corn kernels, and season with salt and pepper.

Cook the corn and bell pepper, stirring frequently, for 3 or 4 minutes, then add the scallions and red beans to the pan and heat through, 2 or 3 minutes. Add 1/2 cup of the chili sauce and cook for 1 minute more. Turn off the heat and let stand.

Combine the remaining chili sauce with the remaining celery, the mayo, and the grainy mustard and reserve.

Coat the shrimp with a little EVOO and the Old Bay Seasoning, salt, and pepper. Grill alongside the burgers, pressing the shrimp down with a small heavy skillet or a small skillet with a heavy can inside to prevent the shrimp from curling up. Cook for 2 minutes on each side.

Place the roll bottoms on plates and top with burgers, shrimp, lettuce, and tomato slices. Slather the bun tops with chili-mayo-mustard sauce and set in place.

Serve the Cajun corn and beans alongside.

4 SERVINGS

This is the recipe I was supposed to cook on Easter this year when I cooked the Broccoli Frittata for the Easter breakfast at church. So I came back to this one. It had a lot of ingredients and complicated instructions, so it took a long time to make. It did, however, turn out better than I expected because while I was making it I really thought it was going to be bad. The burgers were basically celery and veggie burgers with a little turkey and giant chunks of sausage. The sauce looked disgusting, and the corn and beans were only flavored with chili sauce. Once I tasted it though, it was worth all the hassle. The burgers had a nice Cajun flavor, the sauce, although bad looking, was very tasty, and the corn was good (I ended up using my frozen corn because the prep was taking too long; it takes me a while to cut kernels off of corn cobs). The only thing I didn't like about the meal was that the beans were not soft enough. Here are some things I would have changed: 1) make only 1/2 the amount of sauce; there was way too much, and 2) either use bigger shrimp or more shrimp; seeing that tiny shrimp on that enormous burger was just a joke. You could probably even get at least 6, maybe 8 burgers out of this recipe. They were so big!