Ham Perloo (Purlow)

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Easter has come and gone. And with that comes the true joy of the season - ridiculously cheap hams. I don't even like ham as a meal, but I somehow like ham if it's *in* something. This dish definitely scratches that itch, so every year we run out and grab a ham, to make this and some split pea soup.

This dish that seems to be common in the south, and has about ten names - pilau, perloo, pirloo, purlow, pilaf, plov - so I'm not going to bother guessing at the right spelling of this. The other fun thing is that recipes online range from incredibly bland (cook some rice in what's basically ham water) to incredibly complicated (something resembling jambalaya). The closest I found to something reasonable was one of Emeril Lagasse's recipes, but it needed a bit of tweaking to squeeze out a bit more flavor and cook things in the right order. The recipe below is therefore modified a bit from his website with a few extra ingredients and steps.

This ham purlow dish is far from fancy, but it is definitely memorable. I recommend it if you have leftover ham or want a more mild version of jambalaya.

Jambalaya Pasta

What do you do when you have a single andouille sausage, some cooked pasta, a big bag of okra, and a few leftover ingredients from making gumbo?  Probably nothing, maybe a sausage sandwich.  But I figured I'd throw everything in the fridge together to make a 'jambalaya pasta', which borrows the spirit of jambalaya but combines some other European flavors.  It's really a flamed tomato cream sauce pasta with a few other key ingredients added for good measure, but this turned out much better than I had hoped.


Jambalaya Pasta
by me

• 1 tbsp canola or light olive oil
• 1 shallot, sliced thinly
• 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 andouille sausage, casing removed
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup diced tomatoes
• 2 cups cooked pasta (I used campanelle)
• 1 cup okra, sliced
• 1 tbsp brandy
• salt and pepper, to taste,
• file powder, tableside
• 1 tsp chopped parsley, for garnish

Some (not all) of the ingredients.  Sorry, it was an evolving recipe.  But everything is in the list above.

In a heavy saute pan, heat oil over medium heat and crumble in sausage, breaking up into bite-sized chunks and stirring with a wooden spoon until nicely browned.  Remove to a plate, and reduce heat to medium-low.  Saute shallot and bell pepper for 2 minutes until shallot is translucent, and then add garlic and saute for 30 seconds longer.  Add tomatoes and okra and stir to combine.  Pour in brandy and allow to incorporate into the mixture for a few minutes - this will bring out aromatic compounds in the tomatoes that you can't get any other way.

Add cream, bring to a simmer, and reduce to low and cook for a few minutes longer.  When sauce looks to be at the correct thickness, season to taste, and add in the cooked pasta.  Toss to incorporate.

The only picture that emerged during the cooking process.

To serve, plate immediately and sprinkle parsley on top.  Pass a small bowl of file powder at the table.

Plated pasta, pre-file garnish.  Don't skip that, it's got great flavor