Red Beans and Rice with Andouille Sausage

Making red beans is a process, a long process, so it's best made on a day when you have the time to dedicate to it.  This Saturday flirted with rain much of the day and wasn't particularly inviting, making it the perfect day to make red beans.  We started late, and by started I mean at the very beginning, the quick-soak of two hours, around 5 p.m., and ate dinner around 11:30 p.m.  Do yourself a favor and start much earlier than that.

A tasty dish from my trusty Paul Prudhomme' Louisiana Kitchen cookbook!

Ingredients:
1 pound dry red kidney beans                                                                                                            

Water to cover the beans
6 large ham hocks (3 1/2 to 4 pounds)
      **we modified this ingredient, see notes section
16 cups of water, in all
2 1/2 cups finely chopped celery
2 cups finely chopped onions
2 cups finely chopped green bell peppers
5 bay leaves
2 tsp. white pepper
2 tsp. dried thyme leaves
1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 1/2 tsp. dried oregano leaves
1 tsp. ground red pepper (preferably cayenne)
1/2 tsp. black papper
1 Tbsp. Tabasco sauce
1 pound andouille smoked sausage (or other pure smoked pork sausage such as kielbasa), cut into 3/4 inch pieces
4 1/2 cups hot cooked rice

1.  Cover the beans with water 2 inches above the beans.  Let stand overnight.  Drain before using.

2.  Place the ham hocks, 10 cups of water, the celery, onions, bell peppers, bay leaves and seasonings in a 5 1/2 quart saucepan and stir well.  Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer until meat is fork tender, about 1 hour, stirring occasionally.  Remove ham hocks from pain and set aside.

3.  Add the drained beans and 4 cups of the water to the pan; bring to boil, reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add the remaining 2 cups of water and simmer 30 minutes, stirring often.  Stir in the andouille and continue simmering until the beans start breaking up, about 35 minutes, scraping bottom of pan often.  (If they start to scorch, stop stirring and transfer to another pot without scraping any scorched beans into the new pot.)  Add ham hocks and cook and stir 10 minutes more.  Serve immediately.

4.  Serve with rice (or over it if preferred).

Few foods take to beer the way good Cajun food does.  Make sure you have some of your favorite on hand to heighten the New Orleans-away-from-New Orleans experience.

Notes:

- We used the quick soak method for the beans, but I think next time I will use the overnight soaking method.  The beans didn't break up as much or become as thick as they seem to when you soak them overnight.
- We used light red kidney beans and the color just didn't seem quite right.  I will definitely use dark red kidney beans next time.
- We substituted the ham hocks with a very meaty pork bone left over from a picnic roast we seasoned and roasted on the grill a week or so before.  And, I threw chunks of meat in the beans while they cooked for all those hours instead of waiting until the last 10 minutes.
- We did not add all of the water it says to add.  I omitted the last 2 cups the recipe calls for and we still had to cook the beans an extra 30 minutes for them to thicken up.  This may also be a result of using the quick soak method.
- As you can tell from the image above, we did not put the sausage in the beans.  We prefer it grilled and served on top.

Review:

Sandy:  4.5 stars

This is comfort food for me.  I wish the beans had gotten a little thicker and I wish they had been darker red.  Next time I will soak the beans overnight and be sure to get the dark red kidney beans. The flavor was spot on and reminded me of those I had in the French Quarter.  And, we had a good amount of left overs, so it makes for a really good, quick dinner another night.

Tony:  5.0 stars

It doesn't get any better than this.  Red beans and rice is one of my favorite dishes.  The andouille tasted just like that we bought in the streets in New Orleans.

Cost:
onion - 0.48
green bell pepper - 1.20
celery - 1.09
andouille - 3.50 (on sale)
kidney beans - 1.59

All of the other ingredients are staples in my kitchen, so I did not need to purchase them.  Although, now, I'm out of time...er, thyme.

Banana Crepes

Hey, Foodies! Dessert for breakfast is the best. And, keeping with that tradition, we will be serving Banana Crepes for this week's Food Adventure.

Things you will need:
1 cup of flour
1 cup of milk
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons of butter, melted
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
2 bananas

To get started, melt the butter and pour all ingredients except the bananas in to a mixing bowl and whisk until smooth. This batter is thinner than a traditional pancake batter, so expect it to be runny. Heat a large pan on low heat until hot. Lightly grease the pan so the crepes do not stick to the sides of the pan. Spoon a ladle full of the batter into the center of the pan; it should start cooking immediately if the pan is hot enough. Then, roll the batter around the edges of the pan to make a big and thin crepe pancake. It could take a couple of trips around the pan before batter takes a firm hold.

Next step, toss in half a banana so it gets a little bit soft and warm. I prefer the fruit hot because I like a hot breakfast. Once the edges of the crepe start to turn a golden brown, get a spatula and fold the edges over. Looking good! You can't have pancakes without sausage, and Tennessee Pride is the best. I love this stuff. Be sure to have some Ready Whip on stand-by so you can do whip-its after breakfast. Time to eat!

Tony's Rating : 3.9 ( Minus .10 points for lack of confectioner's sugar)
Sandy's Rating : 4.0

To me, this dish tastes like banana cream pie - ridiculously good. It appeals to the 5-year-old in me. The hot and spicy sausage gives the sweet some salt. Its like a party in your mouth!

Sandy here.  I love bananas and cream and this was like having dessert for breakfast.  The crepe was nice and chewy, like a good forty-niner pancake, and the heated bananas are delish!

Total cost to make everything was under 5 bucks, and most of the stuff we stock at the house. The most expensive Item was the Tennessee Pride. Cheap and easy just how I like it. Until next time my friends.
All men must dine! ~Tony

Beef Burgundy Stew

It's mid-February and the freezer is looking a little low on soups and stews, so what better to make than a nice pot of beef burgundy stew that will fill both our bellies and the freezer.  For this, I return to that trusty Betty Crocker Cookbook Tony showed you last week, gather the items and get to work.  It takes a couple of hours to cook, but it is well worth the wait.

For this recipe you will need:

2 Tbsp. margarine or butter
5 medium onions, sliced
3 lbs. beef stew meat, cut into 1" cubes
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. chopped fresh or 1/2 tsp. dried thyme leaves
1 tsp. chopped fresh or 1/2 tsp. dried  marjoram leaves
1/4 tsp. black pepper
3 c. beef broth
3 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
3 1/2 c. red Burgundy wine

Preparation:

1.  Melt the butter in a 3-quart pot over medium heat.  Cook onions and mushrooms in butter about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onions are tender. Remove, drain and reserve.

2.  Cook beef and garlic in the pot over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until beef is brown; drain.  Sprinkle with salt, marjoram, thyme and pepper.

3.  Mix broth and flour; pour over beef.  Heat to boiling, stirring constantly.  Boil and stir one minute.

4.  Stir in Burgundy.  Cover and simmer 1 1/2 - 2 hours, stirring in onions and mushrooms 5 minutes before end of simmer time.

Serving recommendation:  crusty French baguette

Our modifications:

- More garlic!  Two cloves of garlic for that much meat and onions is not nearly enough.  I increased it to five cloves, with two of the cloves being very small.

- The beef broth we bought was in a four cup container, so we used it all.

-  We didn't drain anything, leaving all of the juices from the food in the stew to blend with the added sauces and flavors.

-  We didn't add all of the wine at the same time as outlined in step four.  Instead, we added a little to the onions and mushrooms while they were cooking to prevent them from burning.

-  We added an additional 2 tablespoons of butter when we cooked the meat since all of the previous butter was in the bowl with the mushrooms and onions.

-  My spice cabinet is lacking on occasion, and in this instance I found myself without marjoram.  Oregano, however, is a very close relative, so I substituted with it.

-  We added 1/2 tsp. dried rosemary.

-  As usual in our house, we did not add the salt.

-  It was a busy day and we started on this dish late, so we sped up the cook time.  We left the meat at a low boil, hotter than the simmer it called for, for 45 minutes then proceeded with step 4.

-  We served it with a five-grain baguette from Publix we warmed in a preheated oven.  To do this, preheat your oven to 350 a little before you add the mushrooms and onions back to the stew.  Then, when you add the mushrooms and onions, turn the oven off and stick the baguette in the oven to warm.

Sandy's rating:  4.0
Tony's rating:  3.5

Tony's comments:  We took a short-cut, and it may have been better had it simmered together longer.  As far as a stew goes, there's a lot of meat, onions and mushrooms in it, so it's very satisfying and filling.

Sandy's comments:  I typically make smaller orders of this and just throw all of the ingredients in the Crockpot together to let them simmer all day.  The flavors become really rich when cooked together for a long time.  This batch of stew was good, but I would recommend avoiding our shortcut and letting it cook.  You will get a richer flavor that soothes the soul and makes you feel good.  This recipe makes a LOT of stew, and it freezes well.

Cost to make:
3 lbs stew meat - approx. $12.00
onions - approx. $1.50
mushrooms - $4.80
5-pack of garlic - $1.99
cheap Burgundy wine - $6.99
beef broth - $2.59

About $30.00

Note:  Oregano, pepper, thyme, flour and butter are staples in our kitchen; therefore, I didn't have to buy them.

Apple Puffy Pancake

Hey Foodies! Superbowl Sunday Funday. What a way to start off this epic holiday of food and football than with something hot, really easy and delish. For today's food adventure, I present for your dining pleasure.. the Apple Puffy Pancake.

I start out by melting 1 tablespoon of butter and grease up 1 cake pan so I have something to pour my batter into. Next you will need...

2 tablespoons of butter

2 large eggs

1 apple chopped

1/2 cup of bread flour because that's all we have =)

1/2 cup of milk

1/4 teaspoon of salt

2 tablespoons or brown sugar.

1 teaspoon of cinnamon. 

If you're making this for two, double the recipe.

NOTE : Try not to confuse with cloves or cumin otherwise it might get a bit strange.

Beat those damn eggs! With a whisk mix ingredients do not overbeat. Then pour into cake pan.

Bake 25-30 minutes until pancake is puffy and a golden brown.  And that is why I love this dish so much because its just that easy and tastes so good. The original recipe I got from the Betty Crocker Cook book but I kind of bastardized the recipe to suit my own personal preference. I like to serve with a fat side of bacon to give the sweet a little salty. Good stuff, with a hot cup of black coffee there is nothing finer. 

I love this book!

Tony Rating :4.0

Sandys Rating 4.5

Our commentary :

I think this dish is the bomb, To me, it tastes like a fresh German pastry. Fantastic! So many flavors. Eggy and fluffy and oh so good. I do not make this often enough. 

This is a real treat for breakfast.  It's like apple pie-custard-croissant blend.  And it looks like a crown on the plate!  Delish! - Sandy

Cost to make 1:

2 eggs  $0.25

2 Tablespoons of butter $0.40

1/2 cup of bread flour $0.25

1/2 cup of milk $0.25

1 apple $1.00

Total = about $2.15 for 2 people with a little added for any spices/sugars you need to stock

The cinnamon and brown sugar we had, so that did not cost us anything. Eggs, milk and flour are things we regularly stock and cost is based on rough estimates. The most expensive item was the apple. Until next time my friends. All men must dine. ~Tony