Browsing Tag

rice

Beans and Legumes, Chicken, Pork, Soup

Easy Red Beans and Rice with Smoked Andouille Sausage

I learned to cook in New Orleans when I was a student at Tulane. My favorite job was working in one of the earliest cooking schools and gourmet shops in the country, run by Lee Barns. Lee had gone to Paris as a student and then to Le Cordon Bleu, the famous French cooking school that Julia Child attended. There I met and assisted Paul Prudhomme, Giuliano Bugialli, and a host of others. I chopped, washed up and ran the register.

The next block over was my favorite fishmonger, Christiana. She was a woman of large girth and smiling face. I would tell her what I wanted to make and she’d pick out shimmering filets, whole snappers with eyes glistening, succulent oysters, or crawfish for etouffee, telling me what to look for and how to cook it.

Those were the days before nouvelle cuisine. Most dishes contained cream, butter and often alcohol. I’d go to different specialty shops for the best fish, meat, cheeses and staples. The small neighborhood stores often had a counter or a back door from which they served oyster and shrimp po-boys, crawfish pie, or spicy jambalaya. My favorite roast beef sandwich came from the side door off a small grocery store. You had to grab a fist full of paper napkins because the au jus ran down your arms as you took a bite. It was take-out only so we would go to Audubon Park and sit on a bench to eat. Friends lingered over meals then. There was time to cook all day.

Now our lives are busier and a cream sauce is for a special meal. One of my favorite simple meals then was red beans and rice, traditionally served for lunch on Mondays. If you went to an upscale restaurant, red beans and rice was probably what the staff ate in the kitchen. In one of Enola Prudhomme’s cookbooks, Paul’s mother talked about guests at her restaurant finding out what the staff was having in the back and asking for that.

This Red Beans and Rice recipe with Andouille Sausage takes some shortcuts. You should have it on the table in about 40 minutes. If you leave it on the stove a bit longer, it will only get better.

Red Beans and Rice with Andouille Sausage

Serves 6

 Ingredients:

3 cans                 red kidney beans, rinsed (always rinse canned beans)

3 strips                smoked bacon, cut into lardons (¼“ pieces)

12 oz                   Andouille smoked sausage – optional (I often use chicken Andouille)

1 ½ c                    onion, chopped

½ c                     celery, chopped

1t                        garlic, chopped

½ c                     bell pepper, chopped (green pepper is traditional, but you can use red instead)

1 ½ t                   Worcestershire sauce

1t                        cayenne pepper (if you like it hot, add more)

3T                       parsley, chopped

1 ½ t                   oregano, chopped

1 ½ t                   thyme, chopped

½ t                      smoked paprika

1                         bay leaf

¼ c                     tomato sauce

2 to 3 c              water for the red beans

2c                       rice, long grain

3 ¾ c                 water, cold, for the rice

salt and pepper to taste

Utensils:

Measuring cups and spoons, a Dutch oven or large pot, and a medium saucepan

Method:

Fry the bacon lardons until crispy then remove from the pot.

Bacon strips cut into lardon

Bacon strips cut into lardon

Pour away all the grease except 2T. Sauté the onion in the remaining bacon grease until translucent. Add the celery, bell pepper and a good pinch of salt. Sauté for 3 minutes. Add the Worcestershire sauce, parsley, oregano, thyme, smoked paprika, cayenne, bay leaf and tomato sauce and stir for 1 minute. Add the beans and enough water to just cover the beans and vegetables. You may have to add more water later, depending on how long you cook the beans.

in the pot

Taste, and if necessary, adjust the seasoning. You may want to add more cayenne, salt and pepper.

After about 15 minutes, add the sausage and cook for another 15 minutes.

As soon as the red beans are cooking, fill the medium saucepan with the rice and 3 ¾ c cold water and set on the stove to cook. Follow the rice package’s directions.

To serve: In the middle of a plate or open bowl place a mound of about ¾ c rice. Ladle the red beans around the rice. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

Shrimp

Quick Shrimp Creole

Shrimp Creole Dish

Quick Shrimp Creole

I just spent a week competing in a regatta on the Gulf Coast. A lot of the area around Bay St. Louis, site of the regatta, was wiped out during Katrina a decade ago. While there are still foundation slabs sitting derelict on patches of ground, the community is rebuilding and the bare slabs are now in the minority. If you have time, go down and see this thriving community. They sure know how to eat well and have fun.

The food was great and the old southern hospitality welcoming. I miss living in places like New Orleans and the Gulf Coast where every neighborhood joint has great food and where eating well was an important part of life before the foodie craze. Don’t get me wrong – it is wonderful that an interest in food – good food – is now a favorite pastime. But there is just something different about a place where sharing a meal is a way of life and not something done on the way to somewhere else.

I came home ready to make some of my Cajun and Creole favorites. I love to spend half a day making Shrimp Creole but that means we only have it now and again. Here is a riff on this Creole classic – Quick Shrimp Creole – that is easy enough for any evening’s dinner. I’ll share my “long version” in the future.

Quick Shrimp Creole

Ingredients

3T butter (or bacon grease for the added flavor)
2T all purpose flour
1 ½ c chicken or seafood stock
1 c diced onion
½ c green bell pepper, diced (or substitute red bell pepper)
½ c diced celery
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 bay leaf
½ c ketchup (yes, ketchup)
14oz can of diced tomatoes (or two medium tomatoes, seeded and diced)
½ t cayenne
½ t smoked paprika
salt and pepper
1t dried thyme (or 2t fresh thyme chopped)
1t dried basil (or 2t fresh basil chopped)
1t dried oregano (or 2t fresh oregano chopped)
1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined ( I use 26-30 count)

Utensils

1 large sauté pan or skillet, 2c measuring cup, teaspoon

First you make a roux :- ) Melt 3T butter in a sauté pan over medium heat. When the butter is melted, sprinkle the flour over the butter and whisk until smooth and the mixture turns a medium caramel color. Add the onion, celery and bell pepper. Cook until the onion is translucent and the celery and bell pepper have softened. Add salt and pepper to taste. Next add the garlic and sauté for 2-3 minutes more. You want to make sure the garlic is no longer raw. Clear a little space in the mixture and add the cayenne and paprika to this empty space. Within a minute or when you can smell the cayenne and paprika, stir in the ketchup, tomatoes, thyme, basil, oregano, bay leaf. Slowly add half of the stock and stir until thickened slightly. Add more stock until you get it to the desired thickness. Simmer for 10 minutes. Add the shrimp and simmer on low heat till the shrimp turns pink. Taste again and add salt and pepper, if necessary. Serve with rice.

This quick shrimp creole freezes well.