Really Good Red Beans and Rice

[Malawry]

I have a hankering for red beans and rice. I used to make a vegetarian version years ago, but now I want to try and make the real deal. What makes a great dish?

[Chris Amirault]

Paul Prudhomme's recipe in Louisiana Kitchen is great.

ETA: And what makes red beans and rice great is having some serious meaty smoked ham hocks on hand for the meat, flavor, and collagen.

Edited February 5, 2007 by chrisamirault (log)

[hwilson41]

I have a hankering for red beans and rice. I used to make a vegetarian version years ago, but now I want to try and make the real deal. What makes a great dish?

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Here is a good place to start. I've fiddled (simplified) the recipe somewhat to our tastes, but that is a good starting point.

[shellfishfiend]

You need a smoked meat: sausage or a ham hock.

I always added a touch of either vinegar or lemon juice.

A sprinkle of chipotle Tabasco right before serving is great.

I stir in chopped green onion just prior to serving.

You didn't ask, but pickled okra goes really well with red beans and rice.

[Milagai]

duh! I wasn't aware that there was a meater version

of red beans and rice! In my mind, "red beans and rice"

equates to "rajmah chaaval" and that is a straight up

vegetarian dish that needs no tweaking

or improvement whatsoever....

Milagai

[Malawry]

I was specifically referring to the Louisiana type dish. And since I am no longer a vegetarian, I plan to use pork products in my version. Milagai, can you tell me more about rajmah chaaval? It sounds delicious, too!

[Milagai]

I was specifically referring to the Louisiana type dish. And since I am no longer a vegetarian, I plan to use pork products in my version. Milagai, can you tell me more about rajmah chaaval? It sounds delicious, too!

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Rajmah = red kidney beans.

Chaaval = rice.

Voiila!

Great comfort food, and very very simple,

yet so psychologically and physically satisfying.

Can do it on autopilot.

Can be made in the crockpot

for cold winter days.

Google turns up a zillion recipes for rajmah.

One that looks right is here: http://www.greatindianrecipes.com/great-in...recipe-167.html

Another site that has useful pictures is here:

(this version adds potatoes): http://www.route79.com/food/rajmah.htm

For chaaval, make basmati in usual way. Just plain white rice.

Try these recipes, but please no piggy parts in rajmah,

save those for the LA version......

Milagai

[Mayhaw Man]

Ok, so I just used Recipe Gullet. That's how much I like you. I even checked to make sure that it worked, which it doesn't always (at least not for me).

Here you go-Easy New Orleans Style Red Beans and Rice

Tonight, as with most Monday nights since the levees failed, I will be going to a friend's house over on Magazine St and enjoying a couple of bowls of these (or some similar-my friend Pableaux is a proponent of the pressure cooker method-which I abhor on principle-but which in reality works really well) with an ever growing group of new friends and some very old ones, as well. I love red beans and rice. There is a comfort associated with this dish that, for me, is hard to get with many others. They are what they are, and, ultimately, there's not much to them. But for now, they have come to represent comfort, friends, good conversation and some solace that has been difficult to find in the last year and a half.

Plus, they taste good. I hope you make them and enjoy them. Please feel free (I insist!) to adjust the seasonings. I make these at least twice a month, but I never, ever measure anything (though I do accurately know about the veg. content-so you can follow that pretty well, I think). I can tell you that they always take more salt than you think that they will.

Also, if you like them super creamy, just remove about 1/4 of the beans and mash them or whizz them up and put them back in. Wallaaah! Creamy beans.

Get some crusty bread, maybe a salad if you want one, and some big ass red wine and dig in.

I hope that you enjoy them.

Best,

B

[Malawry]

Thanks, Brooks. I like you too, and that's exactly what I was hoping for. *mwah*

Milagai, I was hoping for guidance on seasoning for this rajmah chavaal dish.

[Milagai]

Milagai, I was hoping for guidance on seasoning for this rajmah chavaal dish.

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Malawry, what do you mean by seasoning?

The spices and quantities are given in the

recipes.

Sorry, if you were making a joke, it's totally

lost on me....

Pliss to 'splain?

Milagai

[Jack Fisher]

It may be a sacrilage but I think that "Popeyes Fried Chicken" red beans and rice are outstanding. Does anyone know what gives them that flavor.

[dockhl]

It may be a sacrilage but I think that "Popeyes Fried Chicken" red beans and rice are outstanding. Does anyone know what gives them that flavor.

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Try this !

http://www.thomhackett.com/Recipes/popeyes...an-and-rice.htm

or this :

Popeyes Red Beans & Rice (Close Clone Recipes)

Ham hocks, which are reasonable at most markets, are placed in the oven for several hours so that the fat drains out. There's your rendering. As for the beans, find red beans (they're smaller than kidney beans) in two 15-ounce cans. If you're having trouble tracking down red beans, red kidney beans will substitute just as well .

Beans

2 pounds smoked ham hocks

2 15-ounce cans red beans

1/2 cup water

1/2 teaspoon brown sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

dash garlic powder

dash onion powder

Rice

2 1/4 cups water

1/4 cup butter

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup converted rice

1. First you must render the fat from the smoked ham hocks. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and place the ham hocks in a deep pan. Cover pan with foil and bake for 4 to 5 hours or until 1/4 cup of fat has rendered from the hocks.

2. Combine 1/4 cup pork fat with one 15-ounce can red beans plus liquid in a medium saucepan. Add 1/2 cup water, brown sugar, 1/8 teaspoon salt, garlic powder, and onion powder. Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Use a potato masher to smash beans into a paste-like consistency. Add entire contents of remaining can of beans to the mixture and cook for an additional 10 minutes.

3. Prepare rice for 4 servings. For Uncle Ben's converted rice you bring 2 1/4 cups water to a boil. Add 1/4 cup butter and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Add 1 cup of rice, reduce heat to low and simmer rice for 20 minutes or until tender.

4. To prepare each serving scoop 1 cup of beans into a bowl. Add 1 cup of rice on top of the beans and serve.

Makes 2 large servings.

ETA link

Edited February 6, 2007 by dockhl (log)

[Mayhaw Man]

It may be a sacrilage but I think that "Popeyes Fried Chicken" red beans and rice are outstanding. Does anyone know what gives them that flavor.

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Lard.

Trust me on that one. Lard.

Those beans were developed for Al Copeland by a really talented chef named Warren LeRuth.

The guy ran a great place on the West Bank and then went into recipe and concept development. In fact, LeRuth's was the first "real" French restaurant that I ever dined in. It closed probably 25 years ago, but people still talk about the place.

[ludja]

Thanks, Mayhaw Man and Milagai; I'm going to try both recipes.

That link to "Great Indian Recipes" looks a potentially wonderful resource. The section on vegetarian curries alone is huge and there is also a big section on snacks/chaat.

edited to add: I *do* like to use lard or baconfat sometimes with red or pinto beans.

Edited February 6, 2007 by ludja (log)

[007bond-jb]

Here Ya go with photos

http://www.bbq-4-u.com/viewtopic.php?t=7983

[007bond-jb]

Popeys red beans are flavored with a smoky ham soup base, No meat in them. I also think they are made at a central processing plant. LIke Dominoes pizza does with their sauce.

[scubadoo97]

I make red beans and rice kind of like Mayhaw Man does. You need the trinity of onions, peppers, celery and garlic. Since I usually do this at night with minimal time for dinner prep I use canned beans and since my wife or kids won't eat pork products smoked turkey sausage is used instead.

[Pontormo]

I make red beans and rice kind of like Mayhaw Man does.  You need the trinity of onions, peppers, celery and garlic.  Since I usually do this at night with minimal time for dinner prep I use canned beans and since my wife or kids won't eat pork products smoked turkey sausage is used instead.

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This may be a subject worthy of its own thread, but I have been seeing more and more references to smoked turkey wings, etc. lately. While I prefer using smoked ham shanks, or hocks if the meatier shanks are not available, I've noticed smoked turkey things sitting right next to the ham at the supermarket.

Is anyone able to tell me how the flavors imparted by smoked turkey compare to smoked ham when it comes to adding them to dishes?

[scubadoo97]

In my collard greens I made for New Years day I used smoked turkey wings. You will not get that smoked pork taste like from ham hocks but it does impart a nice smokey taste.

[racheld]

It' snowing like a HOOHAH here, and RB&R sounds like just what we need on this collllld night---10 degrees right now, and that's sort of a heat wave.

It's late in the day, but pressure cooker it is. Leftover grill-smoked ham, all the hockish parts all crusty and brown and smoky---yum already.

Thanks, all, and thanks, Brooks for the Pressure Cooker reminder.

[Mayhaw Man]

Popeys red beans are flavored with a smoky ham soup base, No meat in them. I also think they are made at a central processing plant. LIke Dominoes pizza does with their sauce.

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Al Copeland Enterprises makes all of the stuff for Popeyes, and most for Church's, until 2029. It was part of his settlement when he sold everything after blowing the deal when he bought Church's Chicken.

The products-spices, wet mixes, dry mixes (think biscuit mix) are made at Diversified Seasonings in Covington, LA in a huge plant that was completed just before the hurricane.

Al is, well, a piece of work. His story is here, in case you are interested. He's unapologetically flamboyant but a seriously good businessman. I've known him, somewhat, for a very long time. I used to make beer for him, in fact, when Copeland's was serving house branded beer.

[Malawry]

A big pot of beans based on the recipe Brooks posted is working right now. I was in Costco yesterday and they were sampling ham, and the lady was almost done with a ham bone. I asked what she does with the bone when she's done and she said, "Throw it away." I convinced her to give it to me, and now it's simmering away in the pot with the beans.

I was considering using some stock in the recipe and wondered if ya'll could speak to whether or not this is a good use of stock. I have super-reduced veal demi-glace, duck demi-glace, and turkey stocks hanging around the freezer that I could still add, if that's a good use for one of them. Or should I not bother? Is all-water just as good, particularly with a small ham bone in it? (I intend to add diced ham and smoked turkey sausage later.)

[Mayhaw Man]

Stock is always better. Sometimes I use ham stock if I have it, sometimes chicken or whatever. But, to stock or not to stock? Stock.

[Malawry]

OK, I added some veal demi. I whizzed some of the beans in the Cuiz. The end result is a little too soupy, but otherwise quite tasty. Thanks, ya'll!

[Chris Amirault]

Got a guest coming for a working dinner tomorrow and so I made a batch of red beans and rice tonight using some hocks I smoked and froze and a bit of leftover homemade tasso. Anyone else getting this classic on their table lately?