re: A question for those of you who put tomatoes in jambalaya

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I was born and raised in New Orleans and I always heard that Creole jambalaya had tomatoes and Cajun jambalaya did not. I don't know how accurate that is since I am neither Creole nor Cajun, but that's what I always used to heard the old folks say.

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There is a very strange aversion to tomatoes in most Cajun one pot cooking I find in most people. I don't understand it to be honest with you, but yeah, you will always tend to find a lot more tomatoes in Louisiana French Creole dishes to that of Cajun. If I had to guess, I'd say this boils down to the fact that New Orleans being a port city had a lot more access to tomatoes and many other ingredients than did Cajuns who tended to source their products from what they killed or grew locally at the time, so when jambalaya made it's way to the area it developed traditionally by what they knew and had access to, and so while New Orleanians and surrounding areas were using more tomatoes, it became much more common in their dishes.

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IMO if you make jambalaya brown and use kitchen bouquet to do so, I would rather eat a tomato infested jambalaya any day.

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Sure, because the whole point in color comes from the browning of the meat and gradeaux at the bottom of the pot, so you can imagine that the sausage and butt probably doesn't have much browning to it.

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There is a very strange aversion to tomatoes in most Cajun one pot cooking I find in most people.

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I'll disagree, but just a little bit. It is true that most Cajun one pot cooking is brown and very rural. I believe tomatoes belong in none of those traditional dishes the Cajuns brought with them or learned early upon arrival. However, by the time I grew up, there were always fresh tomatoes in the garden growing, but they were used more as a salad/side than a main ingredient in a dish. A big plate of rice and gravy with some salted tomatoes and cucumbers on the side is pretty damned good food.

I'd see tomato based sauces in seafood preparations WAY more than anything else. Think sauce piquante with whatever your seafood of choice is (or maybe chicken) or a catfish courtbullion. But, on the whole, when it came to fowl, pork, beef, etc., you'd be way more likely to see browned, smothered, fricassed, or gumbo and stew type treatments than anything tomato based.

The one exception other than seafood dishes that comes to mind that I ate growing up is something like a stuffed bell pepper or cabbage rolls. Those usually have a tomato based sauce, but those treatments are way more of a German contribution to the cuisine and you tend to see that preparation more in parts of the world close to where Germans settled, like Robert's Cove and the cities near it, like Rayne, Crowley, Church Point and so on. These kinds of non-traditional preparations entered the Cajun culinary landscape because the German neighbors taught us how to make them and we could use the produce we had when it was ripe to extend proteins and make a dish that we really didn't come here with, but learned to make because we realized it was pretty good stuff to put into your face.

Goddamnit. Now I'm hungry.

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. A big plate of rice and gravy with some salted tomatoes and cucumbers on the side is pretty damned good food.

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My face got contorted and now I'm smoking a Benson and Hedges.

I need five more weeks and I will sit down with this exact meal from my garden along with a pitcher of sweet ice tea and I will be in heaven.

Then I'll move to my signature Bunny Bread, Blue Plate mayo, thick sliced Cooks ham, fresh sliced Cherokee Purple tomato and salt and pepper sandwich.

I'm going to take a nap.

Just squeeze some ketchup over it.