Red Beans and Rice

It has been awhile, but someone asked me for my Red Beans and Rice recipe.  I actually thought I’d already put that together here on the site, but apparently not.  So here it is…  First, we’ve got to get re-familiarized with roux, so see: the-importance-of-roux

In this instance, we want a darker roux, something like a nice chocolate / brick color.

Prepare roux: 

Ingredients:

• 4 Tbsp. butter (unsalted)
• 4 Tbsp. All-purpose Flour

Follow the instructions from the-importance-of-roux to prepare a chocolate / brick roux.  Set aside roux to cool.

Prepare Rice:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups white rice
• 4 cups water
• 2 Tbsp butter
• salt to taste

Method:

Using a medium sized lidded pot, start on the stove, at high heat.  Add water and bring to a boil.  Add butter and salt.  Add rice and stir.  Allow to come back to a boil.  Cover with lid.  Reduce temperature to low.  Cook until water is just absorbed, typically ~20 – 30 minutes.

If you are using an instapot or other multi-cooker.  Use per instructions and white rice setting.

While the rice is starting to cook, now is a great time to start chopping and preparing the main course.  So grab a beer or wine, crank up some music and practice those knife skills.

Prepare Red Beans

Ingredients:

• 3 to 4 strips of bacon
• 2 stalks of celery, 1/8 inch dice
• 2 medium green bell peppers, 1/8 inch dice
• 2 medium red bell peppers, 1/8 inch dice
• 1 medium onion, fine dice
• 1 shallot, fine dice
• 1 Tbsp Tony’s Creole seasoning mix
• 3 cloves of garlic, fine dice
• 2 tsp. dry thyme
• 1 tsp. dry tarragon
• 2 Tbsp. tomato paste
• ~3 cups of Beef Stock (Kitchen Basics preferred)
• 2 cans of red beans, 1 can juice poured off
• cayenne pepper – to taste
• 7 drops Worcestershire Sauce (Lea & Perrins preferred)
• 1  Andouille sausage, sliced in 1/4 inch dice *optional
• 2 Tbsp. fresh parsley, rough chop
• Tabasco Sauce – to taste

Method:

In a large skillet over medium high heat, brown bacon, rendering bacon until crispy. Remove bacon to paper towel and reserve for garnish.

Pour off all but 2 Tbsp. of bacon fat.  Allow skillet to cool slightly.  Add onion and shallot, and sweat until onion is transparent, approximately 1 – 2 minutes.  Add 1/2 Tbsp of Tony’s Creole seasoning mix.  Be sure to scrap up any fond, the brown bits on the bottom of the pan.  Add other diced vegetables, peppers, celery and saute over medium heat.  Cook for 3 – 4 minutes.  Add the other 1/2 Tbsp. Tony’s Creole seasoning mix while sauteing.  Add tomato paste and mix.  Cook for 2 – 3 minutes mixing occasionally.  The idea is to brown the tomato paste, but be careful it doesn’t burn.  Add thyme, tarragon and garlic.  Cook for 1 minute.  Add reserved roux and mix in.  At this point, the mixture appears pretty tight, but once we add liquid, the sauce will form.  Add 1 cup of beef broth.  Use a spatula to mix in and be sure to scrape the bottom of the pan in case some of the tomato paste or roux is adhering to the bottom.  Slowly add the rest of the broth, whisking to form the sauce.  Allow the sauce to cook until simmering.  Cook for 5 minutes.  Add the red beans, gently folding in the beans to the sauce.  Add cayenne pepper to taste.  Add Worcestershire Sauce.  Add Andouille.  Allow to cook until beans are warmed through, approximately 5 – 10 minutes.  Add 1 Tbsp. of the parsley, reserving the rest for garnish.  Add Tabasco to taste.  Taste test and adjust seasoning as needed.

Serve

To serve, dice bacon and set aside.

In a flat bowl, ladle in red beans and sauce.  Top with a scoop of white rice.  Add garnishes of bacon and parsley.  For those who like it hotter, add a couple dashes of Tabasco Sauce.

So now you can sit back and enjoy an nice filling bowl of comfort food, well, that is, if you didn’t go too heavy with the cayenne.  If you did, I guess you can always just have another beverage. 🙂

Jambalaya (Dwain and Madison’s version)

Created for the family on Thanksgiving 2012

A special thanks to the best sous chef in the family, Madison Beard, for assisting me in helping to prepare this during the family get together for Thanksgiving, 2012.

Jambalaya (Dwain and Madison’s version)

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2 Cups uncooked White Rice

4 Cups water

2 Tsp. salt

2 ribs Celery  –  1/4″ dice

1 cup Red Bell pepper – 1/4″ dice

1 cup Green Bell pepper – 1/4″ dice

1 large onion (about 2 cups) – 1/4 dice

7 Tbsp. butter (salted) *prefer unsalted, but this is what we had

4 Tbsp. Flour (all-purpose)

4 Tbsp Tomato Paste

3 cloves garlic (~ 2 tsp. minced garlic)

4 cups smoked ham (1/4″ dice)

1 package smoked sausage – sliced

1 Tbsp Tony’s Creole seasoning mix

1 Tbsp. Zatarin’s Cajun seasoning mix

1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper – ground

2 Bay Leaves

2 Tsp lemon thyme

1 Tsp dried Oregano

1/2 cup Parsley

1 cup. cherry tomatoes – sliced in 1/8

1 scallion – diced

2.5 – 3 Qts. Turkey Broth

1 lb. cooked small shirmp – shelled, deveined, butterflied *packaged / frozen is fine.

Salt and Pepper to taste.

Preparation

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Prepare mise en place.

In a medium pot, per package instructions, cook 2 cups white rice with 4 cups water, 2 pinches of salt and 2 Tbsp of butter.  Cook and set aside.

In a small sauce pan, prepare 4 Tbsp butter and 4 Tbsp of flour into a dark peanut butter roux.  Note: Remember to only add the flour AFTER the butter has completed foaming.  See: https://luckyandcharmed.wordpress.com/2008/09/03/the-importance-of-roux/ 

In a medium dutch oven over low heat, start by sweating the onions in 2 Tbsp of butter with salt and pepper to taste.  Cook until onions are translucent.  Increase the heat to medium, add celery and red / green peppers and saute for 2 min.  Add garlic and cook for 1 min, stirring to ensure the garlic does not burn.  Add bay leaves and tomato paste.  Mix ingredients to coat the mixture with tomato paste.  Cook for 2 min, with light stirring.  Attempt to slightly brown the tomato paste without burning.  Add spices – Tony’s creole mix, Zatarin’s Cajun spice, cayenne, oregano.  Cook over medium high heat for 1 min.  Add roux and stir to incorporate, cook for 1 min.  Be careful to scrape the bottom of the pot when stirring, to ensure the roux does not burn.  Add ham and smoked sausage.  Stir-fry and allow meat to brown slightly, cooking for 2 min.  Add fresh herbs, parsley (reserving 2 Tbsp for garnish) and lemon thyme,  If desired, deglaze with 1/2 cup white wine, a buttery chardonnay preferred.  *note: we didn’t do this at Thanksgiving, but Madison and I discussed it while we stirred the pot.  Allow the wine to evaporate.  Add 1 Qt. turkey broth, stirring vigorously to ensure no lumps.  As it begins to thicken, add 1 – 1.5 Qt. of turkey broth (amount depends on desired consistency and amount of cooking time allowed).  Turn down the heat and allow to simmer for 20 min.  At the end of simmering, taste and adjust spices for desired picante or flavor.  5 min before service, add shrimp to simmering jambalaya.

Plate cooked rice into a serving bowl.  Garnish with sliced scallion and chopped cherry tomato.

Garnish Jambalaya with reserved parsley, serving in the dutch oven.

Completed dish is served in bowls with 2 scoops of rice with 2 large ladles of Jambalaya over the rice.

*Note: For extra spice, add a couple sprinkles of Tobasco or favorite Sriracha hot sauce.

Hungarian Beef Stew

I always seem to have to find this over and over again.  So here’s one just for my archive and sanity.  I keep thinking I’ve posted this before.

 

http://onlygrassfed.com/cooking-tips/recipes/86-one-pot-hungarian-beef-stew.html

Ingredients

3.5 – 4 lbs of grass fed chuck roast cut into chunks and salted (you can use stew meat or any roast cut into chunks, but Chuck is the best)

12 oz roasted red bell peppers

1/3 cup Hungarian Paprika (Cooks Illustrated swears by the Spice House brand)

2 TBS tomato Paste

4 large onions diced (these dissolve to create the sauce)

5 carrots cut into 2 inch chunks

2 beets, cubed

2 tsp sea salt

1 bay leaf

1/4 cup plain organic goat yogurt

2 tsp vinegar

 

Key Tip: This recipes is all about the paprika and you need to use a high quality variety that is still fresh and flavorful.  The brighter, more vibrant the color, the more likely it’s higher quality.  We get ours from the farmer’s market, but you can always go by Cook’s Illustrated’s test winner which is the Spice House Blend.

Preparation:

1. Cut your roast into stew sized chunks, salt, cover and set aside. 
2. Blend the roasted red bell pepper, paprika, tomato paste, and vinegar in a food processor or blender and set aside.
3. Put a large cast iron skillet on the stove over medium heat (a quality cast iron dutch oven is a must have pot in your kitchen. they cook fantastically, brown beautifully and clean up is a dream.  This one from Amazon featured to the right is a good deal).
4. Add some cooking oil, add the onions, some salt and cook them for about 10 minutes.  DO NOT let them caramelize.  You’re just sweating them.  The paprika will bring all the smokiness you need. 
5. Next add your blended mix of roasted peppers and paprika.  Stir it in and cook  the mixture for another 10 – 15 minutes until the sauce starts to stick to the bottom of the pot and form a gummy paste.  This is creating flavor!
6. Add the uncooked beef to the pot.  Notice, unlike most recipes, you do NOT sear or brown the meat first.
7. Add in the carrots, the beets and one bay leaf.  Add some kosher sea salt, and then mix everything in.  Cover with a lid and place in a 325 degree oven for 2 to 2.5 hours. Notice that we are not adding any liquid at this time.  That’s because the onions provide plenty of liquid as they slowly cook down.
8. After the 2 – 2.5 hours, remove from oven and add no more than 1 cup of beef broth.  Mix it in, cover again and put it back in the oven for another 30 minutes.
9. Remove the pot from the oven, take out the bay leaf and then add 1/4 cup of plain goat yogurt and a splash of vinegar. Stir to mix thoroughly.

Serve this over potatoes or noodles.  The color is vibrant and bold, but the flavor is surprisingly mild, yet rich.  The first serving is great, but the leftovers are even better because the spice penetrate even further.  

Vegetable Soup

I’ve noted a large creep up on the scale. This is probably due to a very meat-centric diet, of late.  To remedy that, I just cooked a big pot of veg soup. This will tide me over on lunch for the next couple of days, which will keep me available to enjoy the holidays!

A note on the Parmesan, I saw this on some cooking show, I just can’t remember which one! An easy way to get the most out of your Parmesan pieces is to reserve the crust and freeze them.  Basically, when you buy a piece of Parmesan, there is always that last bit of hard darker brown crust, that usually is thrown away.  Instead, reserve and freeze it. Then you can enhance the flavors of stock or soup by trimming,  and then just letting it simmer with the soup.  Later, just remove and discard the leftover piece. Now you have a greatly enriched soup!

Vegetable Soup
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1 med. onion julienne
2 stalks celery diced
3 med. carrot diced
4 oz. Crimini mushrooms diced
1 med. turnip diced
2 cups cooked farro
4 med. yukon gold potatoes diced
*peeled and cooked in the microwave for 5min on power-level 5
2 tbsp. tomato paste
2 cloves garlic crushed
2 tbsp. dry oregano
2 tbsp dry basil
1 tbsp tarragon
2 bay leaf
1/2 tsp dry rosemary
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 can whole tomatoes
1 bag frozen corn
1 bag frozen green beans
1 bag frozen broccoli pieces
1 box Kitchen Basics Beef Broth
1 large piece reserved Parmesan crust
2 tbsp. Olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
In a large stock pot over medium heat, add olive oil.  Heat until fragrant.  Saute onions dressed with salt and pepper to taste. After a minute add mushrooms. Allow to mushrooms to brown and breakdown, about 2 minutes. Add carrot, celery and saute for 3 minutes. Add tomato paste and mix to combine. As the tomato paste browns, add in spices; garlic, cayenne, oregano, basil, tarragon, bay leaf and rosemary. Stir to combine and allow to cook for 2 minutes. Open a can of whole tomatoes and pour off the juice into the pot and stir to combine. The tomato paste and the juice should begin to form a thick sauce. By hand, take the tomatoes from the can and hand crush into the pot. Stir and let cook for 1 minute. Add frozen vegetables; corn, green beans and broccoli. Add beef stock and stir to combine. Add Parmesan piece. Cook for 5 minutes. Add in farro and potatoes. The farro and the potatoes will help thicken the soup. Set heat to medium and let the pot simmer for 25min. When ready, remove the Parmesan and discard.

Serve with garlic bread or a cheese toasty.

Four Pepper Chili con carne

Here is the chili recipe that I whipped up the other night.  Sorry to all my friends and family down Texas way, but this isn’t Texas chili (no beans), nor is it competition chili (1/4 inched diced cubes of steak, instead it uses ground beef to keep it inexpensive).  This is just standard, cheap and spicy chili con carne for a cold day.  It goes great with your grilled cheese sammies.  Lucky isn’t so hot on spicy foods, so if this is for everyone, I will remove or reduce the amounts of chipotle peppers used.

Four Pepper Chili con carne

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2 – 2.5lbs ground beef – 3 – 4 patties

1 medium onion

1 Green Bell pepper – 1/4″ dice

1  Ancient Sweets Red Pepper – 1/4″ dice

1 Poblano Pepper – 1/4″ dice

4 chipotle peppers from a can of Chipotle in Adobo sauce – whole

2 cloves garlic – pressed

3 tbsp Dwain’s not-so-secret spice mix

1 sm. can of tomato paste

1 box Kitchen Basics Beef Broth

1 med. can of Brook’s chili beans

2 tsp cocao powder

2 tsp dried thyme

Salt – to taste

Pepper – to taste

Heat a large pot over high heat until just smoking.  Sear the meat patties until brown, then break up into desired size.  Lower heat to medium high and add in onion.  Salt and pepper as desired.   Cook for about 1min, then add in all peppers except the chipotle.  Stir and cook for 2 minutes allowing the vegetables to begin to soften.  Add in 2 tbsp of Dwain’s-Not-So-Secret-Spice mix, thyme, cocoa powder and garlic.  Stir to incorporate and cook for 1 min.  Add in tomato paste and mix to combine.  Cook until tomato paste begins to carmelize, approximately 4 minutes.  Add half the beef stock and stir.  The tomato paste acts as the thickening agent for the soup, so we add in half and stir to determine the desired consistency.  Add in more beef stock if desired.  Add in Chipotle peppers, add more peppers if you like more spice!  Turn down the heat until the chili is just simmering and allow the chili to cook for 30 minutes stirring occasionally.   Add in the chili beans and stir to combine.  Check the consistency and add more beef stock as desired.  Add in the final tbsp of spice mix.   Allow beans to heat through.  Stir, taste and adjust seasonings.  You can remove the chipotle peppers if desired or mash them into the chili.

Makes about 8 – 10 servings

BASICS: How to properly brown meat

The following technique is a basic technique than once mastered leads to an overall improvement in flavor in ALL your associated recipes!

Summary

For best results:

• Portion meat into patties
• Meat should be dry
• Salt the meat before browning
• Use High heat
• Brown then breakup meat

The following technique is a basic technique that is helpful in many recipes.  The goal here is to sear the meat to create characteristic “nutty, meaty, roasted, toasted, burnt, or caramel” flavors.

This is provided via the chemical reaction called, the Maillard reaction.  The Maillard reaction (pronounced may-YAR) is a chemical reaction between an amino acid and a reducing sugar, usually requiring heat.  The browning reactions that occur when meat is roasted or seared are complicated and occur mostly by Maillard browning with contributions from other chemical reactions including the breakdown of the tetrapyrrole rings of the muscle protein myoglobin.  Furthermore, high temperature, low moisture levels, and alkaline conditions all promote the Maillard reaction.   In cooking, low moisture levels are necessary mainly because water boils into steam at 212 °F (100 °C), whereas the Maillard reaction happens noticeably around 310 °F (154 °C): significant browning of food does not occur until all surface water is vaporized.

So what does all this mean?  Well, to promote that great seared flavor, we need to provide the best environment for the Maillard reaction, ie. high temperature, low moisture and an alkaline condition.  This means we need to have a really hot pan with a flat surface to provide maximum surface area for heat transfer.  A raised grill surface, for say a grill pan, is also effective, but it is effective because they maintain a high temperature (cast iron), but also because the channels allow for the moisture to be channeled away.  However, the browning will be only on the areas in direct contact with the cooking surface, eg. grill marks.  For this instance, I will focus on using a flat surface pan.   Other conditions, such as high alkaline environment, really just means, salt your food well before you sear.  The last item, low moisture is important.  This means if we are to sear a steak, we would want to pat the meat down with a paper towel to wick away excess moisture.

For ground meat applications, this also has an impact.  Instead of just placing the ground meat in the pan, which then would allow all the juices to mingle and essentially just boil the meat rather than sear, we can patty the meat.  This will provide a means to provide portion control and a large surface area to brown without the release of all the juices.  Also, by using patties and a large pan, we can ensure that there is enough space between patties, so the moisture release from one patty, doesn’t bleed over into another, causing more boiling than searing.  Once you have seared the meat to get the lovely browning, you can then break up the patty into smaller bits to provide you the desired consistency, for say Beef Strouganhoff or Chili con carne.

In our household, they easy way to allow this is to purchase the ground meat, but then create patties using a plastic hamburger press.  The patties are then separated by wax paper into 3 – 4 patty packs, which are then placed in a freezer bag and frozen until needed.  This means I already have items portioned for separate preparations, I just need to thaw and I will be ready to go.  *note: just remember to fully thaw and dry them right before browning!

One note on seasoning before searing.  You need to be careful.  You can salt without any issue, however, most people might attempt to season with pepper or herbs.  There are two problems here.  One, if we are using fresh herbs, this just introduces another moisture provider, which will not allow the browning we are looking for.  Two, you have to be careful not to burn the seasonings.  Herbs and spices release wonderful oils under heat to season the meat.  However, they can also burn leading to not so great flavors.  Specifically look out for paprika and fresh garlic, which can easily burn.  My recommendation is to use just salt and pepper, then apply the seasonings on the grill after the meat is broken up.  If I am attempting to keep the patty together, I might consider working in the spiced throughout the patty, rather than just on the top.

On a short side note, you have probably heard, I sear it to seal in the juices.  This is a fallacy, it just doesn’t happen.  You sear to get the wonderful flavors, not to form a rocky crust which somehow envelops the meat to contain the juice.  See here for more detail.

Recipe

1.5 – 2lbs meat *pattied into 3 – 4 patties

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

Using 1 large, flat surfaced, grill pan, preferably cast iron, heat over medium high heat until just smoking.  Wipe down patties with a paper towel to remove excess water.  Salt and pepper the patties on both sides.  Place the patties on the grill with 1 – 2 inches of space between them, they should not be touching.  Allow the patties to brown 1 – 2 minutes depending on the intensity of the heat.  Flip the patty, moving the patty to an area that was not previously used for maximum heat.  The patty should be a light brown to dark brown color, if the color is more black than brown, you waited to long.  Brown the other side.  Once the patty is browned, break up the patty using a wooden spoon into the desired size.

Dwain’s Red Sangria

After our recent trip to Chicago to see a friend and partaking of some Sangria at Cafe Iberico, I decided to do a riff on Sangria of my own.

Red Sangria
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1 bottle 750ml Red Wine – cheap is good, in this case I used Sutter Home Zinfandel  which was a whole $6 at the County Market
1/3 cup. Orange Juice
1/3 cup simple syrup w/ kirschwasser (Lucky’s choice sprinkling on her cakes)
1/3 cup Triple Sec
1/3 cup Brandy / I used Calvados because it is what I had

1 cup white grapes split

1 cup blue berries

1 cup strawberries split

2 plums sectioned
1 lime sectioned
1 cup cherries split
1 long sprig mint
2 sprigs basil
3 whole star anise
Seltzer water *we just used Faygo flavored water for top up

In a large pitcher combine all fruit;blueberries, strawberries, grapes, plums, limes, cherries and herbs (mint and basil) and spices (star anise).   Pour in 1 bottle of wine and other components; triple sec, brandy, syrup and orange juice. Stir to combine. Put in the refrigerator to chill for at least 2 hours.
To serve, portion some fruit into a glass, then pour the glass 3/4 full. Top up with seltzer.

Pigeon Peas, Forbidden Rice with sorta Gremolata

Recipe to follow… 😉

Fridge Cleaning: another make it up as you go lunch, Thai Curry Poached Eggs with Steamed Rice

I work from home, so that enables me to cook my lunches most days. The key is fast and easy. So here’s a riff on thai curry panang I came up with today. I’ve been traveling for work and dinners were very heavy on the meat content.  So, I’ll be trying to cut back a little this week. That means, trying to be creative in a low-meat kind of way.  My go-to meat substitute is eggs.

Breakfast doesn’t usually go off at the home front without eggs. Usually, I just put a couple fried eggs on top of whatever left over is available and call it breakfast. Same idea here for lunch. Though, I thought I’d seen a similar idea on a cooking show.  All else, I know the Japanese love their eggs over rice bowls.  I just prefer mine a little more cooked.

The basics of this dish is make a quick curry with veg on-hand, then bring the sauce to a low simmer and crack the eggs into the sauce. Let them poach until firm.

Thai Curry Panang (Dwain-style anyway)
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1/2 cu of coconut milk (solids from can)
1 small onion halved and sliced fine
1 clove garlic
2 tsp. thai red chili’s (mine were from the store-bought jar)
1 tsp. lemongrass (squeezy bottles in stores are great for this)
1 tsp. ginger
1/3 cu. carrots diced on bias
1/3 cu. celery diced on bias
2 tsp peanut butter
1 tsp. Soy paste
1 tsp Fish Sauce
1/4 tsp thai basil
2 large eggs
1/2 cup Chicken stock
Sriracha to taste
Cilantro for garnish (optional)

Over medium high heat, in a wok or sided saute pan, place coconut milk solids. Let solids melt and bubble until most of the water is removed, essentially making it coconut oil, about 1 min. Add onions, garlic, lemongrass, ginger, thai red chili and cook for 30 seconds while stirring. Add celery and carrots, toss to coat and stir fry for 2 minutes. Add peanut butter, soy paste and fish sauce to pan and stir into sauce. If sauce is too thick add chicken stock to thin to just coating the back of a spoon consistency. Lower heat to medium, allowing the sauce to simmer and soften the vegetables, approximately 2 minutes. Add thai basil, stir to incorporate. Thin sauce as required with chicken stock again. Crack whole eggs into sauce, allowing for space between. Allow eggs to cook, spooning sauce over egg yolks occasionally. Cook to desired hardness.
To plate, Spoon sauce and vegetables into a wide bowl, being careful not to break the eggs. Add steamed white rice in a mound in the center. Carefully plate the eggs over the rice. Garnish with cilantro and a little more Sriracha.

Note: additional veg, if I’d had it on-hand, would’ve been sliced sweet red peppers.

On the road in STL

Trying to blog from my trip via my handset. This ought to be interesting. At least you know the posts will be short!