What to cook for dinner?

[Doodad]

Ok, so I have some fresh pink gulf shrimp, smoked sausage, already poached chicken, some smoked oysters, leftover rice and a full pantry. I was thinking jambalaya of sorts, but wanted to think outside the box. Lack of sleep due to keeping racoons at bay (long story) has clouded my thinking.

All suggestions are appreciated. Fried rice balls with fillings? We are over Mex as this week I made a whole bunch of stuff with Mex flavors that we reinvented over the week.

Thanks

[BadRabbit]

I think those ingredients scream cajun so I would either go with gumbo, jambalaya, or a seafood heavy dirty rice type preperation.

If you just need to get away from the ordinary, you could do Nasi Goreng with Curry.

[Blether]

What a great combination of ingredients to have - as you say, they'll all work together as jambalaya, biryani, pilaf or paella - but you could also choose to pair them up and make two dishes - shrimp / smoked oysters and chicken / smoked sausage, or chicken / smoked oysters and shrimp / smoked sausage, or even the smoked stuff together and the unsmoked paired.

You could make a green leaf salad with two, then rice with the others, say; or serve the shrimp boiled with garlic pieces and chopped chilli in plenty of fresh oil, in the bowl, for diners to skewer and eat, with the smoked oysters separate.

If I had all those today, I'd make a green smoked oyster or oyster-and-shrimp salad with a garlicky-lemony dressing with no eggs or dairy in it, and prepare rice by the parboil-with-plent-of-water-then cover-and-finish-in-the-oven method, saute-ing some onion and whatever else is handy, with the smoked sausage and chicken, and adding that all to the rice before putting it in the oven, along with a splash of lemon, vinegar or wine. Maybe a hint of allspice too ? Or tarragon, at this time of year, though you'd need to have that to hand.

Another day I might choose something very different.

Edited May 21, 2010 by Blether (log)

[Alex]

Or, if you have some saffron around the house, maybe a quick paella-ish thing.

[IndyRob]

One good thing I thought I invented (a quick google search proved me wrong) was a pesto cream sauce. Very simply a cup of cream in a pan with a large spoonful of pesto and reduce. That's the sauce. Into that I stir some cooked linguine and cooked shrimp pieces (seasoned and sauteed quickly in a basil and garlic infused olive oil). I like it just like that, but if I were doing this for an episode of Top Chef, I'd add some lemon juice so I wouldn't be dinged for not enough acidity.

My wife doesn't like shrimp, so I've considered doing the same thing but offering a choice of shrimp or poached chicken. Since it's added at the end, it doesn't really matter.

Although I use pasta, I think rice could be used to equal effect.

The oysters might play a part, but I don't think the sausage would play well with the others in this scenario. But that's just my opinion.

Edit: No, wait. Finely mince up those sausages and oysters and add them to the finished sauce in a judicious quantity. That could be stellar.

Edited May 21, 2010 by IndyRob (log)