Cover of Sammy CahnOctober 17, 2011By JIM LUTTRELL
A great fan might make it to a dozen tailgate parties in a season. That would fall a bit short of Joe Cahn, the self-proclaimed commissioner of tailgating.
Cahn sold his cooking school in New Orleans in 1996 to tailgate at every N.F.L. stadium. He saw the trip as a good way to see the country and had visions of his own television series, “Charles Kuralt With Food,” he said Sunday while in town for an official visit at Monday night’s Dolphins-Jets game. Since then, he says, he has been to 800 games and traveled some 800,000 miles.
So, Cahn seemed like a good source to contribute to our collection of tailgate party recipes, and he obliged with Joe’s Jambalaya. “This is my favorite recipe because you can put just about anything in it,” said Cahn, 63. “If it walks, crawls, swims or flies, it can be thrown into jambalaya. Everything goes into one pot, so cleanup’s a breeze.”
Cahn, of course, has seen tailgating trends come and go, like brats replacing hot dogs or the predominance of smoked sausage in the Midwest. And at Sunday’s Bills-Giants game he saw “a lot of Italian sausage, a lot of sausage and peppers.” He continued: “The fun part of New York is you see everything. The tailgating is a reflection of everyone who lives in this area and everyone who visits this area.”
Beyond the food, though, Cahn has a romantic view of the pregame parking lot party.
“It’s like walking through thousands of backyards with no privacy fences,” he said. “I don’t know at what point in this country we stopped having neighborhoods. It used to be that if you had a fence it was chain-link, and only then if you had a dog. Now everyone has 6-foot wooden privacy fences.
“When you’re tailgating, you don’t see people watching television to keep company. You don’t see people surfing the Web. What you do see is people in conversation. People standing around talking. Young and old people talking together. You might not have a conversation about politics or religion with a kid, but we will argue about who should be starting or who has the better quarterback with anybody.”
Like any good commissioner, Cahn secures sponsorships to finance his ventures from parking lot to parking lot, including over the years “everything from soft drinks to chili to sausages.” This year, he’s working with the Aluminum Association on their Can Crusade, pitching the idea that aluminum cans are better for the environment and for tailgating.
Cahn will be roaming the parking lot at MetLife Stadium on Monday night, not standing over a pot of his jambalaya. “Roger Goodell will be here,” Cahn said. “Will he be playing football? He’ll be here making sure everything goes right on the field. I’m the commissioner. I’ll be walking around making sure everyone’s having a good time.
“Nobody leaves a tailgate unhappy. We might leave the ballgame unhappy, but not the tailgate.”
It’s not too late to contribute a dish. Use this form to send us your recipes, and please include a picture of your fare and perhaps an interesting back story. We’re still looking for some great barbecue. And who’s serving breakfast?
Joe’s Jambalaya
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch pieces
- salt and ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 pounds sausage cut in quarter-inch slices
- 4 cups chopped onion
- 2 cups chopped celery
- 2 cups chopped green bell pepper
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 5 cups chicken stock or water flavored with chicken bouillon
- 2 tablespoon seasoning salt
- 2 tablespoon Kitchen Bouquet (browning and seasoning sauce)
- 4 cups long grain rice
- 2 cups chopped green onions
(12 to 15 servings)
Method
- Season chicken with salt and pepper.
- Brown in hot oil in 8-quart Dutch oven or stockpot over medium-high heat.
- Add sausage; cook 5 to 7 minutes.
- Remove chicken and sausage from pan; set aside.
- Add onion, celery, green bell pepper and garlic; cook, stirring, 7 to 10 minutes or until vegetables begin to wilt.
- Stir in chicken stock, reserved chicken and sausage, seasoning salt and Kitchen Bouquet.
- Bring to a boil.
- Add rice and return to a boil.
- Cover and reduce heat to simmer.
- Cook 10 minutes; remove cover and quickly turn rice from top to bottom completely.
- Replace cover and cook 15 to 20 minutes or until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender.
- Stir in green onions.
- For brown jambalaya, add 1 heaping tablespoon brown sugar to hot oil and caramelize, or make a roux, or use Kitchen Bouquet.
For red jambalaya, add about one-quarter cup paprika or use half stock and half tomato juice or V-8 for your liquid.
For seafood jambalaya, add cooked seafood when rice is cooked.
If using an electric stove, reduce cooking time by 3 to 4 minutes.
Four Tips: Use 1 cup of rice for every 2 cups of vegetables (onion, celery, bell pepper). Use 1 1/4 cups of liquid for every 1 cup of uncooked rice. 1 cup of uncooked rice will make 3 cups of cooked rice, season accordingly. Cook jambalaya for a total of 25 to 30 minutes, stirring well after 10 minutes.
Taken from The Quad of The New York Times; source article is below:
Tailgating Recipes: The Commissioner’s Jambalaya
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