Red Beans and Rice Recipes

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.

Hi everyone,

I wish I could just put Emeril’s recipes on this blog, but because of copyright restrictions I can only post the links to his recipes. They look delicious! Lots of flavor, but not too spicy. Both recipes have a lot of meat. The first link is to Emeril’s website, the second link is to the food network’s website.

Link to Emeril’s Red Beans and Rice Recipe on Emerils.com

Link to Emeril’s Red Beans and Rice Recipe on the foodnetwork.com

Remember me saying there are many recipes, and even individual cooks have multiple recipes for red beans and rice? Here’s a prime example. These two recipes are different enough from each other to produce two subtly different, and I’m sure, equally mouthwatering dishes.

I’m going to try these recipes soon. I don’t have all the ingredients to make them exactly as published, so it will have to wait for a trip to the grocery store.

If you try one before I do, please leave me a comment with the recipe you tried and let us all know how you liked it.

Chef Lou is the Ozarks Cooking Columnist for News-Leader.com of Springfield, MO

This recipe looks really spicy! It has Tabasco sauce, crushed red pepper and Tony Chachere’s.

Serves 8

• 2 thick slices of salt pork
• 1 cup red bell pepper, small dice
• 1 cup green bell pepper, small dice
• 1 cup onion small dice
• 1 pound smoked sausage
• 3 cans red beans, with liquid
• 1 cup diced tomato
• 1 cup tomato juice
• 1 tablespoon Tony Chachere’s Original (creole) Seasoningor blackening powder
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 2 teaspoons Tabasco sauce
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• salt and black pepper to taste

Sauté the salt pork in a large skillet to render out the fat, then remove the salt pork. (You want about 1/4 cup of rendered grease.)

Add the vegetables and sauté in the rendered fat until tender.

Add the sausage and cook on medium high for about five minutes. Toss in the tomato and the canned beans.

Add all of the spices and seasonings.

Simmer for about 15 minutes.

Serve over plain white rice.

Source:
Spice up red beans and rice with fresh additions

by Chef Lou Rice, Ozarks Cooking

Note: if you substitute dry red beans for canned red beans, remember to sort, rinse and soak them, and cook them for 4 or more hours until very tender.