Red Beans and Rice

[javadog]

Originally Posted by masraum

I'm assuming the ham should be pretty salty.

Well, the usual ham in Cajun country is tasso, which is s little drier and saltier than the sweet, pumped-up crap your mom probably cooked at Thanksgiving. The meat usually doesn't contribute much salt to the dish.

A word about salt, for the newbies. Salt doesn't vary all that much in salinity by weight but it does vary quite a bit if you use measuring spoons. A tablespoon of table salt is going to make a dish a lot saltier than a tablespoon of kosher salt, because the table salt crystals are smaller than the kosher salt crystals, so you can pack a greater weight of table salt in a tablespoon than you can kosher salt.

Be careful with your salt... You can always add more but it's hard to take it back out.

[javadog]

A variation of red beans and rice that I made the other day for lunch, using the recipe changes I outlined earlier in the thread. Not as soupy as most recipes, more meat than most.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by Erakad

My MIL got her recipe while living in Lake Charles LA in the 50s. Her's is made with ham (boil a ham bone until the residual ham falls off, then remove the bone), red beans (dry and soaked 2 days prior), then a rue made of onions, celery, green pepper...preferably lard. We've modified with bacon grease and andoille sausage (for additional heat/flavor). My kids, now grown, but will still come running when we make it! My MIL has passed on, but her red beans legacy remains for us all.

Oh man! Bacon grease subbed for lard would be a good call, and some andoille along with the ham - sounds like a keeper.
My mom cooked great ham and bean soup. Her "secret" was to cook the beans until they just started to come apart so the bean paste thickened the soup. It took all day.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Tobra

My wife makes red beans that are as good as I ever had, gumbo, fried chicken, ribs, all that down home stuff, good enough to win at cook offs, more than once.

Red beans and rice are good, but if she can make gumbo, !!!!! For a while I worked at a company that had a lot of employees from Louisiana. Every fall we had a chili cookoff and every spring we had a gumbo cookoff. Two best days of the year.

Originally Posted by javadog

I like the meat to be in the dish, not just flavor the dish, so I have started using smoked pork neck bones.

Yes, meat in the dish, flavor and to eat. It may be amazing peasant food, but thankfully, I’m not that kind of peasant so I like meat in the dish.

The Cuban black beans and yellow rice don’t need meat, but I do prefer a good red beans and rice with some meat in it.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by javadog

A variation of red beans and rice that I made the other day for lunch, using the recipe changes I outlined earlier in the thread. Not as soupy as most recipes, more meat than most.

It looks tasty, but I like it when the beans cook to a thick sauce.

[wdfifteen]

I have been itching to try some RB&R since this thread first popped up. I made up something based on the theme, probably not authentic, but came out tasty anyway.



Started with a couple tablespoons of bacon grease.



Browned some ham and andouille and added a little sauteed onion and a chopped clove of Georgian Fire garlic.



There are no small red beans available around here, so I used pinto beans. After soaking them for 24 hours I pressure cooked them for 11 minutes and they still weren't done enough to suite me, so I boiled them hard for a while - until they were falling apart and made a thick broth.



Served with a piece of fresh cornbread and a good beer.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

There are no small red beans available around here, so I used pinto beans. After soaking them for 24 hours I pressure cooked them for 11 minutes and they still weren't done enough to suite me, so I boiled them hard for a while - until they were falling apart and made a thick broth.



Served with a piece of fresh cornbread and a good beer.

I'd say that was just about perfect. I assume authentic would be "whatever beans I've got."

[craigster59]

I know it's blasphemy but I'm just fine with Zatarain's RB&R. It's a good, quick weeknight meal we eat a few times a month.

When I was working on a film in Atlanta I went to the local market and they had fresh Andoullie sausage so I grabbed a few boxes of Zatarain's. Cooked it up and stored it in a bunch of tupperware. When I left to go back to LA I left it for one of the locals and he called later and commended me on my great Southern cooking!

[javadog]

Red beans ought to be available about everywhere. I'm sure even Walmart carries them and you're seldom more than 5 minutes from a Walmart in this country. For those hard-to-find varieties, or for better quality beans, I suggest:

https://www.ranchogordo.com/

We are coming into Cassoulet Season. Order your beans now...

[javadog]

Originally Posted by masraum

I'd say that was just about perfect. I assume authentic would be "whatever beans I've got."

Nah, the type does matter. Although, the basic recipe for beans I gave earlier works with most of the usual suspects.

[Erakad]

When not in the mood to cook, there's a small (chain) restaurant in Longmont (CO), Lucile's Creole Cafe, that makes a very decent red beans...almost as good as the wife's. Rare find to find decent red beans that aren't home made!

[RWebb]

red beans are NOT red kidney beans

just sayin'

[javadog]

Originally Posted by RWebb

red beans are NOT red kidney beans

just sayin'

+1

I don’t know why kidney beans exist.

[Cajundaddy]

Figures I would check in on this thread around dinnertime and begin with the salivating. WD that bowl looks mighty tasty!

Roast chicken with rice and greens are on the menu for tonight. Mrs. Cajun works later today than I do so I am the chef du jour.

[Instrument 41]

We smoked a bunch of meat this week. Have a few chickens. Once we pick the bones we'll boil the carcass so we make our own stock. The smoked stock in the beans is really good, when mixed with the right meat. We also use the smoked stock in the gumbo.

[RWebb]

that's the way to do it

and... Geaux Tigers !!

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by javadog

Red beans ought to be available about everywhere. I'm sure even Walmart carries them and you're seldom more than 5 minutes from a Walmart in this country.

I refuse to buy food from Walmart. The idea that you can go to the same place and get underwear, a set of tires, and dinner just doesn't compute.

[javadog]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

I refuse to buy food from Walmart. The idea that you can go to the same place and get underwear, a set of tires, and dinner just doesn't compute.

Okay. Whatever blows air up your skirt.

[fintstone]

Navy beans, ham and brown rice with hatch green chile.

[T77911S]

Originally Posted by masraum

Red beans and rice with sausage when good is great, but I've had some that was super bland.

I also like Cuban black beans and yellow rice.

we have tried, even tried black beans and rice, no flavor.

as said, when good, its reeeeeeally good.