Red beans and rice

[johnpalmer]

I definitely should have picked a better day to do this.

But yesterday I set two cups of red beans to soak. Drained them this afternoon, and filled the pot with water to cover them by an inch or so, and simmered them for an hour and a half. Then I added 1 1/2 cups of brown rice, put on the lid, and let it simmer another 45. (I had to check the water throughout to make sure the rice wasn't absorbing too much.

Then I peeled a cup of garlic cloves. Actually, probably 1.25 cups. I sliced it up a bit, but I wasn't trying to chop it, I was just making sure that they'd all been broken up a bit so they'd lend their flavor to the rest of the stuff.

I put them in a cast iron frying pan and covered the bottom of the pan with olive oil. This is a good bit of olive oil; skimping on the olive oil would diminish the flavor of the end result, and I doubt it would be any healthier for having less fat. Olive oil is one of the best fats you can eat.

Then I chopped up two large onions; they were chopped pretty coarsly, so each piece of onion is about as big as a small french fry.

The onions get fried with the garlic until the onions are thoroughly wimpified. (Soft, and having lost their bite. I'm sure there's a technical term for this, but I don't care.)

Then I'm adding 12 oz of andouille sausage, mixing it all together in a huge casserole dish (or, in my case, two smaller ones), adding enough creole seasoning (yes, I use a pre-mixed blend) to make it mildly hot. Spicy and flavorful is *much* better than hot for this dish, IMHO.

Then into the oven, for about an hour, but if you keep it from drying out, you can keep it in longer without any problems.

And then, alas, I put it in the refrigerator and go to bed. It's been a long day while I'm fighting the last bits of illness.

Comments

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

The onions get fried with the garlic until the onions are thoroughly wimpified. (Soft, and having lost their bite. I'm sure there's a technical term for this, but I don't care.)

Translucent.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

Although I like "wimpified." It sounds like something St. Julia would have said. (-:

[hopeevey.livejournal.com]

Sounds delicious. And it's one of those dishes that usually gets better with sitting.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

This is one of my favorit foods, but I make it on top of the stove, in one pan, with no packaged seasonings. Oddly, it is the celery that makes the most of the difference.

Maybe I'll make that later this week.

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

Nod. I was going to add celery, but they didn't sell celery ribs individually. They didn't even have little containers of celery sticks. If I'd bought an entire stalk, I'd have thrown most of it away.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

It keeps a long time; I have celery from when I made soup last month that's perfectly good. (But yeah, I'll have to dump the rest of it before I use it.)

[kightp.livejournal.com]

Throw it in a bag in the freezer and save it for making soup stock. I've been doing that lately with celery tops, carrot ends, onion skins (they add a lovely golden color to the soup), etc. When you have a lot, just simmer them in water with some herbs till all the flavor is leached out of the veggies and then strain out the liquid, mashing the veggies through the strainer if you want.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

Good idea--I don't know know why I've never done this with celery; I do it with everything else.

I got so excited by John's post, I went and bought some brown rice. I don't usually eat brown rice, but a Korean restaurant near my house offers it, and I like it, so I thought I'd try that. And I bought enough beans and andouille to make RB&R twice. (I wanted to try Laura's recipe again.)

[ruth-lawrence.livejournal.com]

Your recipe sounds yummy :-)

I do hpope you're well soon.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

Damn. If you lived down the block (or that doggoned teleporter was working) I'd barter you a big container of my cassoulet for an equal amount of your red beans and rice.

[grey-lady.livejournal.com]

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

[droops.livejournal.com]

I'm not even a fan of beans and that sounds great. Yummy!