I love Southern Louisiana style home cooking in the way that only someone from another region of the South who has spent the last 20+ years in Europe can love Southern Louisiana food. It’s not even my home, but by now the distinctive flavors feel that way.

It’s also thankfully pretty easily adapted to make good use of the ingredients you have on hand, very much like my own home cuisine. Just watch actual Cajuns cook. Your dish may not turn out quite the same, but it’ll still be delicious.

I first learned to cook a lot of things back in the ’90s, partly from Chuck Taggart’s classic The Gumbo Pages recipe site (which dates back to before HTTPS was standard). Need to shout out his basic Creole seasoning recipe, which is what I used here. It’s much lower on salt than the average run of commercial blends. If you want to use one of those for this dish, I would suggest either going for a lower sodium version or cutting back on the salt used elsewhere in the recipe. Maybe substitute low sodium beef broth with a saltier Creole seasoning.

More recently (as in, the past 15 years or so!), I have also learned a decent bit about home cooking by watching J.B. at Louisiana Cajun Recipes (007bondjb) on YouTube. He reminds me a lot of my uncle, but more Cajun, and he’s an excellent cook. I would strongly recommend checking out some of his videos.

Tonight’s Plan

Anyway, it had been too long since I cooked up anything jambalaya-adjacent, and we had several kinds of meat to use up which should work great for that. Including more of that turkey version of a distinctly Swedish take on chorizo, which reminds me more in flavor of a cross between Polish-influenced smoked sausage and Louisiana chaurice:

Besides the basic chicken and sausage here, you can also include other cooked meats you may have. I’ve seen lots of Cajun pastalaya recipes that also called for pork, so the little bit of leftover roasted pork tenderloin that we needed to eat was a no-brainer here. I decided I was also more in the mood for pasta tonight than rice.

If you would prefer a red Creole version of pastalaya using tomatoes, I can strongly recommend Chuck’s take. Tonight, I was more in the mood for a brown Cajun style, relying on the pan gratin from the other ingredients and whatever seasoning for all the flavor and color.

Some people do like to add a little Kitchen Bouquet or other similar browning sauce for extra color, but here we won’t.

Our basic cast of characters for tonight:

Plus a couple of sauces for more seasoning:

That bottle of local brand (US made) hot sauce looks terrible, because it’s at least a year old and was left out exposed to light for too long. But, it still tastes fine–and it is the major Louisiana-style hot sauce that I can readily find here. I think it probably is from Louisiana. And it’s still better for this than the next closest sauce we have. I really need to pick up a fresh bottle of the stuff. Hopefully y’all have better-looking sauce, or the time and energy to make it to the store for some.

The Worcestershire isn’t what I would normally pick, but it’s not bad. The standard British-made Lea & Perrins uses malt vinegar, because of course it does. I ran into this problem a lot with the popularity of barley malt when we lived in the UK. Sneaky malt products also caught me out a few times, even as carefully as you have to learn to read labels with celiac. This random US-made brand I found from an Asian supermarket is at least gluten free. When I bought it, they were out of the regular kind. But, the compromise “Wine & Pepper” variant isn’t half bad, and the flavor should work fine in this.

On Pasta Choice

Any short shape you want should work fine, really, as long as it’s not particularly fragile for a one pot dish. Bowties and broken spaghetti both seem to be very popular choices for pastalaya. Elbow macaroni or shells should also be good. So should fusilli.

Mr. Sweden actually picked up some Garofalo gluten free bowties in a mixed pasta multipack from Costco, and we still have a bag of them. I know those work great for one pot dishes. But, we had half an open box of penne, so I just went with that tonight. It really is up to you.

Whatever you do choose, it’ll give you a delicious and hearty meal without all that much effort involved. This is another one where the total cooking time may look a little intimidating, but not much of it is active and hands on. You can go and do other things while the vegetables sweat down, and then the pasta simmers. Just check back to give a stir occasionally. Add a salad, and you’re set.

Gluten Free Cajun Style Chicken and Sausage Pastalaya

This is like jambalaya, but using pasta in place of the rice. A brown, Cajun style pasta dish using the classic combo of chicken and smoked sausage makes for a flavorful and hearty simple one pot meal with not much hands-on work required.

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Servings: 4 servings

Course: Main Course, One Dish

Cuisine: American, Cajun, Louisiana influenced

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

  

Meats Used Here (very flexible)

• 100 g (optional) chopped bacon (3.5 oz., or just under ¼ lb.)
• 200 g precooked smoked sausage of your choice (just under ½ lb.) sliced
• 250 g boneless chicken thigh or breast – I used one big breast (½ lb.) cut into bite-sized pieces
• sprinkle salty Creole seasoning to season raw chicken
• (very optional) leftover cooked meat cut into bite-sized pieces
• neutral oil of choice as needed for frying, depends on your meats

Vegetables

• 2 stalks celery strung and chopped
• ½-1 large sweet pepper chopped
• 1 medium onion chopped
• sprinkle salt to help sweat the Trinity down
• 2-3 large green onions chopped, with green tops set aside
• 3 cloves garlic minced

Seasonings and Everything Else

• 600 ml water (2½ cups, or 1 British pint) may need a little more
• 1 bay leaf which I forgot here
• 2 tsp Low salt Creole seasoning, or to taste recipe link in the instructions
• 1 Knorr beef cube or enough bouillon to make 500ml/2 c. of broth
• 1.5 tsp Louisiana hot sauce
• 1.5 tsp gluten free Worcestershire sauce
• 200-250 g short dry pasta shape of choice (½ lb.) – can also use spaghetti or linguine broken in half

Method

 

Browning the Meats

1. You'll want a nice deep skillet/Dutch oven with a lid to fit, or other heavy-bottomed pan for this. Cast iron is great. This is also a good use for stainless steel and its fondness for holding onto browned bits, which I am using here.
2. I'm using turkey sausage here, so I decided to include some chopped bacon that we also had, mainly for the extra fat. (Plus, how bad could it be?) This is a completely optional step.

   Starting this off in about a tablespoon of sunflower oil, and frying over medium heat just until it starts rendering some of the grease.
   
3. Where most people would start. Once there is enough fat in the pan to keep it from sticking–especially if you're using lean sausage–add in the sliced smoked sausage.
   
4. NOTE: If at any point during these proceedings, it looks like your browned bits in the pan are wanting to start burning? Lower the heat a little, and add a splash of water if you need to. It's all good.

   We want plenty of Maillard goodness for rich flavor, but burning will spoil the party.
5. Keep frying over medium heat, stirring and turning the sausage pieces occasionally until everything is well browned all over.
   
6. Remove the browned meats into a bowl, and add the seasoned chicken to the pan.

   Spread the pieces out well, and adjust the heat a little as required to let them brown too, instead of flooding the pan with liquid.
   
7. After a few minutes, flip those over and let them brown on the other side.

   When that's done, transfer into the bowl with the reserved sausage.
   
8. This leaves us with this nice layer of gratin in the skillet. We want to hold onto all of that, for the flavor and color. Same with the fat, unless more than 2-3 tablespoons came out of your meat. (Spoon out any excess grease.)

   Don't worry, it will all come loose soon!
   

Cooking Down the Vegetables

1. Add your Trinity, and stir around to coat with the grease.

   Turn down the heat a notch, sprinkle with salt to help the juices sweat out, and cover the pan. Let cook for around 10 minutes, stirring maybe once.
   
2. Continue cooking down covered like this until everything is thoroughly softened. Stir occasionally, and add a splash of water to keep it from sticking if you need to.

   I didn't even take this down as far as some people like to, or as I would for some other dishes. But, this stage took probably 30-35 minutes–the vast majority of it hands-off time, when I could do other things between going back to stir and evaluate every so often.
3. When the Trinity is nice and soft, add in the white parts of the green onions. Cook uncovered until they also soften–again, with the occasional stir and splash of water as needed. That'll probably take around 10 more minutes.
   
4. When those are soft too, add the garlic and fry for a couple more minutes until you can really smell it. If you actually remember (unlike me!), add in the bay leaf at the same time.
   

Pasta Time!

1. Add in a small portion of the water, and stir it around to deglaze the pan. Scrape any stubborn browned bits loose to get dissolved.

   At this stage, I also put in the crumbled bouillon cube to dissolve.
   
2. Stir in most of the rest of the water, and the other seasonings. I wasn't sure if it would need all the water, but this penne did.

   The main seasoning I'm using here is based on Chuck Taggart's Creole Seasoning Blend, from his (excellent!) classic Gumbo Pages site. It is purposely low on salt, so I can control that separately.
   
3. If you're adding any cooked leftover meat, you can decide how likely it is to benefit from more cooking. If it'll be fine, add it in with the chicken and sausage. I was using up what was left of that roast pork tenderloin, and I was afraid that might get tough. So, it went in close to the end.
4. Bring to a boil, and add in the cooked meat and dry pasta. Taste for seasoning. You'll want the broth a little saltier and more seasoned in general than for a soup, same as with rice dishes. The pasta will soak up a lot of that.

   This is about the liquid level we need, with one-pot pasta dishes in general. You'll want to poke the pasta down with a spoon, so that not too much is sticking up out of the broth. Something like penne will want to poke up more than smaller or flatter pasta shapes. It's fine.
   
5. Bring down to a simmer, cover again, and cook gently stirring every 5 minutes or so until it's done. You'll want to stir up from the bottom in sort of a folding motion, to make sure everything gets its fair turn fully down in the broth. (Again, more necessary with some shapes than others.)

   The pasta will take longer to simmer like this than the box's cooking time would suggest. That's normal and expected. This took about 20-25 minutes.
6. When the pasta is nearly done to your taste, make any seasoning adjustments and stir in any extra meat or other ingredients which wouldn't take longer cooking. It should absorb most of the broth, and what's left should be thickened by the pasta starches. We're not aiming for a very saucy dish here.

   Let rest, covered, for 10 minutes. Scatter the green onion tops over it before serving.
   
7. Dish it up, and enjoy!

   This is great served with just some salad on the side. Tonight we had more of that prepackaged oil-and-vinegar cabbage salad.
   

Tonight I was firing the oven up for a loaf of bread (that recipe is still under development), and got the urge to also bake something sweet while that was going anyway. This cake needed to bake at a slightly lower temperature (while also mostly preheating the baking stone on a lower rack in the process), so it worked great to do that that while the bread finished rising just a little more at “oven’s running” room temperature.

Today I settled on trying to throw together a half-batch version of this super-simple “Cinnamon Flop Cake” that I saved off r/Old_Recipes months ago.

Actually went scrolling back through my saved posts over there, looking for something sweet and easy I’d hoarded back that we had all the ingredients for. 😅 This one sounded promising. As it was, I ended up complicating the thing more by adding the obligatory pinch of salt and a little vanilla which sounded like it should be good. The coffee cake you make when the cupboards are getting a little bare, and you’re about to flop over?

The original recipe evidently came from Delicious AMISH RECIPES by Phyllis Pellman Good (“People’s Place Book No. 5”), which looks like it was published sometime during the ’80s.

It does use dairy, but no egg. And cakes are usually very simple to make GF. This should work well using most commercial 1:1 flour blends which are not formulated specifically for breads. It should also be easy enough to take dairy free, by using plant-based alternatives in place of the milk and butter.

One tip up front, though? Don’t try to skinch out on the butter on top. It adds a lot of flavor, besides a gooeyness and texture almost like it has a crumb topping.

I inevitably tore up the first piece out, especially trying to extract it from the pan with that spoon while it was still warm from the oven. But, that really is buttery-gooey in the middle, particularly. It’ll no doubt stay together better once things cool down and firm up more.

The only real quibble here is that I could have used more cinnamon on this one. Didn’t want to overdo it, but “that looks like a good heavy dusting all over” didn’t go quite as far as I thought. Still just about what I needed tonight, particularly with my blood sugar trending down anyway from staying busy instead of eating properly. 🙄

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Gluten Free Cinnamon Coffee Cake For Two

A very simple, egg free coffee cake made with ingredients you probably already have on hand. Perfect for fika!

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Baking Time25 minutes mins

Total Time35 minutes mins

Course: Baking, Cakes

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Comfort Food, Egg free, Gluten free

Materials

• 1 cup flour (250ml)
• ½ tsp. xanthan gum if your blend doesn't already have gums
• ½ cup sugar (125ml)
• ½ tsp. vanilla extract or vanilla sugar
• 1¼ tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. if it’s double-acting
• pinch of salt
• ½ tbsp. melted butter (around 10g)
• ½ cup milk (125ml)
• ½ tsp. vanilla extract or vanilla sugar

For The Pan

• ½ tbsp. butter (around 10g)

For Topping

• 3-4 tbsp. brown sugar loosely packed
• 3 tbsp. butter (around 40g)
• ground cinnamon to taste

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350℉/180℃.
• Gather your dry ingredients. This cake will go together quickly.

  I used a combination of around 25% each by volume of oat and sorghum flours, mixed with 50% of a starch-based commercial white flour blend here. Any multipurpose blend not specifically made for bread should work here. Only include the extra xanthan gum if your blend doesn't already contain it.

  The baking powder here isn't double-acting, so I use a little extra in a lot of things. Use the smaller amount if yours is.
  
• I decided to use vanillin sugar today, since it's just to add a hint of flavor to a cake where that's not the main note. You can use extract instead, and this should go in with the wet ingredients.
  
• Gather your liquid ingredients including all the butter. Reserve about ¾ of the butter for your topping.

  Chunk up the butter, and use a small portion of it to grease your baking pan well. I used a 1L capacity IKEA "oven to table" Pyrex storage container, which comes with a handy lid to clamp on top once your baked goods have cooled down.

  Set aside another small portion of butter to melt for the batter.
  
• Stir your dry ingredients together in a bowl. This batter is simple enough that I just mixed the whole thing with an eating tablespoon.

  Stir in your liquid ingredients, and pour the batter into the pan.
  
• Sprinkle on a good amount of cinnamon, and top with the brown sugar. I used a mix of light and extra dark for flavor, but choose whatever you prefer.

  Arrange cubed butter around the top, pushing it partway down into the batter.
  
• Bake for 20 minutes, then check for doneness by poking a skewer or toothpick into the middle. It's done when the stick comes out clean. Mine took 25 minutes in that pan in our oven.
• Enjoy! This is particularly good while it's still warm, with a nice cup of coffee or tea.
  

“Cabbage Pudding” is an old standard of husmanskost, or Swedish traditional home cooking. It is very similar to the local version of cabbage rolls, but less complicated to put together.

I have really enjoyed trying different Swedish dishes since we’ve been living here, and trying my hand at making some of them. Expect to see more of that soon. It’s probably been several years since I put together any proper cabbage rolls at all, and I’ve never cooked the Swedish style. The type I’m more used to are more coalfields Hungarian influenced, cooked with tomato which then gets used for a sour cream sauce. (Likely also the subject of a future post.) But, the tomatoless take here is also delicious.

The only cabbage we currently had was already cut into, and I felt like fixing something slightly less involved anyway. So, I decided it was a good time to go ahead and put together this equally scrumptious “lazy” version. (Also for the first time.) It’s not a quick dish to make either, but most of that is the baking time.

Much like with meatballs, boiled potatoes are evidently the most classic accompaniment, but this should go equally well with mashed potatoes or even rice. Yesterday I opted for some buttery parsley potatoes. This also uses a rich gravy made with the pan juices, and generally cream.

Also classic is a dollop of lingonberry on the side, for a pop of sweet-tart contrast. You can use lingonberry jam (or even whole berry cranberry sauce, if that’s difficult to find). But, best is rårörda lingon (“raw-stirred”). It’s properly made with the raw berries, just stirred and crushed around enough to release some juices then sweetened to taste. Here, a jarred version is also readily available, which we’re using here. But, it’s generally much less sweet and jammy tasting, so you get more of the fresh tartness. To my own taste, that works much better with savory dishes. But, I am not a huge fan of salty-sweet flavor combos in general.

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Kålpudding – Swedish Lazy Cabbage Rolls

A Swedish home cooking classic, featuring juicy meatloaf nestled between layers of buttery caramelized cabbage and served with a rich and savory cream sauce. This makes for a delicious and filling weekend meal when the days turn colder.

Prep Time30 minutes mins

Active Time1 hour hr

Total Time1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Course: Casseroles, Main Course

Cuisine: Swedish

Keyword: Comfort Food, Fall, Gluten free, Winter

Yield: 4 servings

Materials

For the Cabbage

• 600 g white cabbage (1⅓ lb., or 5-6 cups) in bite sized pieces
• 1 large onion, or two smallish chopped
• 2 tbsp butter
• salt and white pepper to taste, can substitute black pepper
• 1 tbsp ljus sirap / golden syrup or to taste, could substitute slightly less brown sugar
• coarsely ground pepper

Meat Filling

• 500g mix of ground beef and pork (1 lb.) or ground pork
• 300 ml cooked rice (1¼ cup) good use for leftover rice
• 1 large onion, or two smallish chopped finely
• 2 tbsp butter for softening the onion
• 1 egg
• 100 ml heavy or double cream (⅓ cup)
• ½ tsp table salt
• ¼ tsp white pepper or use black
• ⅛ tsp ground allspice
• 1 tbsp soy sauce (gluten free if needed)
• 2 tbsp liquid beef stock concentrate
• OR enough Better than Bouillon or crushed cubes to make 500ml/2 cups of broth, plus an extra teaspoon of soy sauce and enough water to make about 2 tbsp total

Cream Sauce

• 200 ml pan juices from the casserole (or ¾ cup) plus water as needed to make the full amount
• 150 ml heavy or double cream (or ½ cup; see notes)
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 50 ml milk (or ¼ cup) plus extra if needed for consistency
• 1 dash ground allspice
• white pepper to taste it probably won't need more salt

To Serve

• 750 g firm-cooking boiling potatoes (or 1½ lbs.)
• butter as desired
• 1.5 tbsp chopped parsley fresh or frozen
• lingonberry jam preferably the less sweet rårörda lingon
• OR tart whole berry cranberry sauce

Instructions

Ingredient Prep

• Assremble and prepare your vegetables.

  I cut the cabbage in advance, and wished I'd used more as called for here.
  
• If you're cutting/peeling larger potatoes, keep them to the side in water to cover.
• Soften the more finely chopped onion in butter. Reserve to the side to cool.
  
• Start the oven preheating to 180℃/350℉.
• In the same pan, start frying the cabbage and other onion over medium heat. After coating in the melted butter, add some salt and pepper and cover to let it steam in its own juices to soften for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  
• In the meantime, assemble the ingredients for the meatloaf layer.
  
• Place all the filling ingredients into a suitable mixing container, and combine well.

  Mixing with your hand(s) is the way to go here, and disposable gloves are awesome.
  
• This will result in a pretty loose mixture, but don't worry. It will firm up when it's cooked.

  Tip: One quick and easy way to test for seasoning while you can still adjust it, is to place a bite of the raw meat mixture on a suitable dish and microwave it for maybe 30-45 seconds or until it looks cooked. You could also fry it. This did need a little more salt.
  
• The cabbage may be close to done by now. Once it is on the slightly more tender side of tender-crisp, remove the lid. Fry for a few more minutes, stirring occasionally.

  You want at least a little browning. Near the very end, drizzle on a little syrup (or sprinkle sugar). Taste to adjust seasonings. I have to say I was initially skeptical of the syrup addition here, but just a subtle hint of added sweetness did work well. That will also help it caramelize if you want it browner, but I didn't want to risk seriously overcooking it to take it very dark.
  
• Grease an 8"x8"/20cmx20cm baking dish. Layer roughly half of the cabbage on the bottom.
• Add on an even layer of the meatloaf mixture.
  
• Top with the remaining cabbage.
  

Cooking

• Bake the casserole for 45 minutes.
• While that's cooking, put on the potatoes to boil in well-salted water.
  
• When those are done, drain well and gently stir in some butter and the parsley. Don't worry about absolutely even distribution at this point.

  Cover and set aside. They should stay plenty warm until everything is done.
  
• Assemble your sauce ingredients, and have a heatproof measuring cup ready to go.
  
• When the baking time is up, carefully pour the collected juices from the baking pan into the measuring cup. Top the liquid up with water to 200ml (or ¾ cup).
  
• Put the casserole back into the oven for another 10 minutes.
• Pour the cup into a small saucepan. You can measure out your cream in the same cup. Pour that into the pan too.
  
• Add in the seasononings. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat.
  
• While that heats, stir the cornstarch into the milk for your thickening. Turn the sauce heat down to barely simmering, and whisk in the milk and starch mixture to thicken.

  Adjust seasoning and consistency to your liking, with a little more milk and/or starch. Hold at a low simmer for a minute or so. We're looking for the slightly thinner side of a medium thickness here.
  
• When the casserole is done, let it rest out of the oven for 10-15 minutes before cutting and serving.

Serving

• Serve with the parsley potatoes, sauce, and a dollop of lingonberries on the side. Enjoy!
  

Notes

On the sauce measurements: That’s not an exact measurement conversion, but more how I would make it using US measurements. A little different proportions, but it should give you a very similar sauce either way.