New Orleans Cuisine

My Creole & Cajun Recipe Page

This is my blog dedicated to New Orleans & Louisiana cooking! I'll give links to great Creole & Cajun recipes and sites, as well as some of my own recipes. I love talkin' New Orleans, food and otherwise! Incidentally, I'm from Detroit. Go Figure. Lets just say I figured out "what it means, to miss New Orleans" and this site helps ease the pain.

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"Leaving New Orleans also frightened me considerably. Outside of the city limits the heart of darkness, the true wasteland begins."
-Ignatius J. Reilly from A Confederacy of Dunces
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Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Red Beans & Rice

Okay. I've been cooking Red Beans around once a week now for about 4 or so years now, not every week, but just about. I've said before that it's my favorite dish to cook, and here's why. I learn something everytime, also, it's one of those lazy, day off dishes, the longer it cooks the better, well, within reason it gets; my house feels like home with a pot of red beans simmering away on the stove, it's comfort food. Right now, the fireplace is crackling, and the beans are bubblin'. It's home. Anyway, sentiments aside. Here is what I've learned about red beans: It's all about the marrow! Whether it be a ham bone, ham hock, or today it's a smoked turkey drumstick, stripped of meat; bone split. The marrow is what gives the beans that creamy, uh... they're just not the same without it, it's as simple as that! Another thing for the eating, which I find essential, is a salad. Nice little side salad, nothing complicated, a vinaigrette salad. Today I made a creole mustard vinaigrette. In case anyone wants it:

Creole Mustard Vinaigrette

3 Tablespoons Creole Mustard (homemade or I also like Zatarain's)
2 Tablespoons Thinly Sliced Green Onions
1 Tablespoon STEEN'S Pure Cane Syrup (Optional)
2 Tablespoons Red Wine Vinegar
1 Teaspoon Cayenne or to taste
Kosher Salt to taste

Whisk this up.

Drizzle in 1/4 to a 1/2 cup Vegetable or Canola oil whisking until emulsified.

I think the salad, lightens up the double starch meal. A bite of RB&R, a bite of salad. It just goes nicely together. The other thing I learned, from the recipe of Louis Armstrong, no less, is to add a bit of tomato sauce, be it canned or homemade, towards the end of cooking.
But, the best pot of red beans I've ever cooked was made with pickled pork, homemade! I will post a recipe later, but the pork just disintegrated in the pot leaving behind all that flavor. I don't know why I didn't make it again; hell this week I will. Actually one of Louis Armstrong's recipes, I think, actually included it. Anyway more on red beans later.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I was wondering if anyone knew exactly what was in the Red Beans and Rice receipe of Popeyes Fried Chicken. That taste stops me in my tracks every time. Thanks Brad

4:45 PM  
Blogger JB said...

Hey Brad, years ago a friend of mine worked for Al in the early days.

No doubt, their red beans are delicious... and the mystery is.. there's no meat in there.

The secret ingredient to his beans... and the reason they turn into a solid brick when refrigerated... hang on to your hat... is because they add LARD.

11:28 AM  

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