Red Beans and Rice Recipes

One of the most popular dishes known to Louisiana Creole is the red beans and rice recipe. While not much is known about the origins of the dish, many people believe that it was made on Mondays (washday) because the laundry left very little time for cooking or anything else.

Although washdays were certainly a reason for this popular Creole recipe, some also speculated that it was made because it was a cheap food. Since Louisianans were known for their large families, money was often a problem and the dish was reasonable enough to make throughout the week.

Because the dish didn’t require much preparation and could be left unattended for quite some time, it became a popular household food in the early years. To further the ease of cooking and stretch what money they had, a Louisiana family’s Sunday night’s dinner usually consisted of ham, so that the bone could be used for Monday’s dish.

Most Creole cooks claim that the ham must come from a baked ham, pickled pork or salt pork. Anything else simply would not make for an authentic dish. Today however, the dish is created using ham, pork and even sausage.

Many of us assume that the bean used in the dish is kidney, however some cooks prefer small South Louisiana red beans instead, due to their faint flavor verses a kidney bean’s strong taste. Sometimes for variety and often because of the lack of availability, a white bean was used instead of red. The beans were then added to a pot with celery, onions, garlic, cayenne pepper, thyme and salt.

Many Louisianans insist that the beans should be creamy in texture, yet still firm. To achieve this, the cook may choose to mash 1/4 cup of the beans or add a small amount of butter to the pot near the end of the cooking time.

The white rice is generally made in a separate pot and served under or beside the beans. The entire dish is then served with a bottle of hot sauce on the side for those who prefer a spicier meal.

Even though washdays are no longer carried on in Louisiana households, red beans and rice is still a favorite staple with many families all over the world. The dish is even found in Central America where it goes by the name of “arroz con habichuela.”

Still, the dish is perhaps the best known Cajun recipe and can be found in not only local homes, but also restaurants and during the Mardi Gras celebration as well.

Technorati Tags: arroz con habichuela, cayenne pepper, creole, creole cooks, creole recipe, hot sauce, louisiana, mardi gras, red beans, red beans and rice, salt pork, white bean

Here is a story and recipe from a fellow blogger. Please follow the link back to read lots of other interesting stuff!

It was rainy and cold and dark all weekend, which was perfect for my mood. We pretty much huddled in our apartment for two days straight, playing Madden, watching scary movies, eating takeout, playing darts, and drinking beers. It was, to say the least, very renewing.

So today for Sunday dinner we wanted something along those same lines - something renewing, something hearty, something with a lot of protein, something that would get us prepared for Monday morning. The answer was obvious: one of our favorite dishes, my maternal grandmother’s red beans and rice recipe.

This classic Louisiana Creole dish was traditionally served each Monday night, using the leftover ham from Sunday dinner. It also gave women a break from cooking on Monday, the traditional wash day, since the beans are easy to prepare and made to simmer on the stove throughout the day. Sure, you can always run down to New Orleans, where red beans and rice is usually served as the Monday lunch special at local restaurants, or you could cook some up yourself, whenever you pleased.

I find it to be an awesome, original alternative to chili to make for Sunday and Monday night football game get-togethers - it’s spicy and it sits well all day so that guests can fix a bowl whenever they’re hungry. The best part is that it is both easy to freeze and tastes awesome after being reheated. Oh, and it’s dirt cheap to make, which is probably another reason my mom grew up eating it so often along with her seven brothers and sisters on a little farm in Louisiana.

Red Beans and Rice

1 pound bag of dried kidney beans
3 ribs of celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
1 pound smoked sausage, sliced, or ham hocks or left over ham (I put in both sausage and diced ham, and it is awesome)
1/2 t. black pepper
Cayenne pepper (until it’s as spicy as you’d like)
Salt to taste (The sausage/ham will add salt, so be careful.)

* Rinse and sort red beans; soak for at least a couple of hours.
* Drain beans.
* Sauté celery, onion and garlic in 2 tablespoons of butter (or some extra virgin olive oil)
* Add sausage or ham or both.
* Add about10 cups of water, beans and bay leaf.
* Bring to boil; Simmer for 2 hours or until beans are tender. Add more water if necessary.
* Smash some of the beans against the side of the pot to thicken the beans once they are tender.
* Serve over hot rice.

You can also cook them in a crock pot overnight or during the day while you’re at work. I always make a pan of cornbread to go with it. I also make it healthier by trimming the fat off of the ham, using spicy turkey sausage, and eating it over brown rice.

http://seaswell.wordpress.com/

Thanks to Sarah Aswell, who posts a new southern recipe on her blog every Sunday night. Check it out at the above link.

All the recipes on this site can be easily adapted for use with a slow cooker or Crock pot. Make sure you have a sufficiently large slow cooker to hold 5-7 quarts. If you don’t, you can cut the recipes in half to fit in a smaller slow cooker.

Simply prepare everything exactly as the recipe calls for, including sorting, rinsing and soaking dry beans, and sauteing vegetables and meat.

Place all the ingredients (except the rice and garnish) into the slow cooker instead of adding them to a Dutch oven and cover.

• For whole recipes (1 lb of beans): cook on high heat for 1-2 hours, then turn the pot down to low heat for 10 -12 hours.
• For recipes cut in half (half pound of beans): cook on low heat for 8 hours.

Rice must be prepared separately from the beans.