Red Beans and Rice, with meat or not?

[Burma Jones]

Happy Mardi Gras to all y'all outdere. Special love to the Gulf Coast. My Pop makes Red Beans and Rice with Fatback and Andouille, but the Red Beans and Rice I got in the School Cafeteria in Alice Birney Elementary in Metarie had no pork at all.... I prefer the mouth feel you get with a liberal amount of fatback and the spice of the Andouille.......

If you haven't had Red Beans and Rice, shame on you.........

[KamaAina]

1. I never had it with fatback before

that sounds pretty country! In the Carrollton section of N.O. we made it with plain old smoked sausage, not even andouille.

Will be doing up a Zat's dirty rice (the only Zat's available at my Japan-owned local!) today or tomorrow in honor of the season.

T'row me somethin' mistah!

[Burma Jones]

18. Even Popeye's Dirty Rice is good

[BikeWriter]

25. Yep, it's not bad, but I'd rather make my own.

[ragin_acadian]

2. do you boil the fatback, or slice it?

i just like to drop in leftover ham and homemade andouille. cooking the bell peppers, onions, celery, and parsley in bacon fat is good too, but nowadays i just brown them in the roux.

[Burma Jones]

9. Render the fatback to make the roux, so sliced I guess

[ragin_acadian]

13. wow, that sounds really tasty! is it a family recipe?

do you use that method in other dishes?

[Burma Jones]

21. As far as I know, only for RB&R and Clam Chowder

New England style Chowder, not the Tomato kind.....

If I make anything else with a roux, it's butter and flour.....Cream of Crab soup comes to mind......

Damn, I've been lucky to have spent almost all my life either in Louisiana or by the Chesapeake

[JitterbugPerfume]

3. i am eating black beans and rice

right this minute yummy


i made it yesterday

[tjdee]

4. Good god I never knew it could be made with meat!

Wow, this is like a a whole new world for me right now, I'm seeing stars...

[Maddy McCall]

27. No shit!

Same here. Redbeans MUST have some form of pork in it, or it isn't Redbeans.

[trof]

5. Usually with andouille sausage.

Kielbasa will do in a pinch.

[Burma Jones]

22. I've had it with Kielbasa

That was in Chicago.....

[Magrittes Pipe]

6. Depends.

For Southern beans & rice, if I want a main dish? Oh yeah, gotta have andouille or a similar sausage -- and adding fatback sounds good, too.

For a side dish, I can go veg. Or, if I wanna do a Caribbean-style thing (that's usually black beans, though).

[Burma Jones]

23. Had beans and rice every meal, even breakfast, in Costa Rica

real good.....

[sendero]

7. Unlike chili..

.... where the addition of beans renders it un-chili (or something awful like that "skyline chili" which is glorified hamburger stew :)), one's preference for red beans and rice is just a preference.

You can make perfectly good beans and rice without meat, but I do like a bit of sausage or pork in mine - that makes them so much better!!!!!!

[Fenris]

8. No meat during Lent.

At least that's the way my mom made it.

[flamingyouth]

10. Mmmmm

Your mom's cooking. Drool. :9

[BikeWriter]

11. Andouille or pork preferably, yes.

[Taverner]

12. Ahem...it's called rice and PEAS dammit!

And it's only served with Jerk Chicken, peppered with a liberal amount of Scotch Bonnet Peppers.

[Burma Jones]

17. That's good too

I get it at Negril's, along with Jerk Goat......

[BikeWriter]

24. Ain't no peas in red beans and rice.

[Richard Steele]

14. Must have pork fat. Not that it matters much here in NC...

...because the best RB&R I get here comes out of a can.
Andouille? More like an-DON'T-y in this neck of the woods!

But I just went to the kitchen and checked the can,
and the ingredients include pork fat. So I voted for same.

'Where's my Gumbo' would have been a fine choice.
I was in NO for a wedding Jan '05, and, at the garden party
the following day the gumbo was just amazing...
shrimp the size of my little finger, and I swear they found some
fresh-picked rice somewhere to make it.

I walked into that party, and I WADDLED out 4 hours later...

[Burma Jones]

20. You'd think that in a part of the country that does BBQ so well

they would RESPECT the Sausage, although Carolina pulled pork BBQ, with a spicy vinegar sauce, could make one forget.........

[Richard Steele]

28. There are a few who still really _DO_ respect the sausage here.

There is a 'lawn & garden' shop here in Durham where you can
find genuine 'old-school' CURED sausage...
it needs no refrigeration, just hang it on the wall and watch
it get tastier as the months pass!

It is fantasticaliciously good sausage, but it is certainly not Andouille.

And, as far as this area being known for BBQ, it's kinda a mixed blessing.
The well-deserved fame of Carolina BBQ has lead a great many
half-assed wankers to believe they can be restaurateurs,
just because they can afford a storefront
and a sign that says 'BBQ' to adorn it.

You REALLY have to 'ask around' to find the places that serve 'the real deal'.
Some are famous, expensive eateries...and some are cinderblock bunkers in the woods.
But when you finally find it, wherever you find it, it's DAMN good!


(totally off-topic: DU spellcheck doesn't know the word 'wankers'. LOL!)

[Orangepeel]

15. My Mom used ham (n/t)

[Burma Jones]

19. Country Ham, all nice and stringy, is good in RB&R

I've had it that way in Houston.....

[leftofthedial]

16. even a little andouille is good

[BikeWriter]

34. ANDOUILLE (I love me some andouille in beans!)

5 pounds pork butt
1/2 pound pork fat
1/2 cup chopped garlic
1/4 cup cracked black pepper
2 tablespoons cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon dry thyme
4 tablespoons salt
6 feet beef middle casing (see butcher or specialty shop)
Cube pork butt into one and a half inch cubes. Using a meat grinder with four one quarter inch holes in the grinding plate, grind pork and pork fat. If you do not have a grinding plate this size, I suggest hand cutting pork butt into one quarter inch square pieces.
Place ground pork in large mixing bowl and blend in all remaining ingredients. Once well blended, stuff meat into casings in one foot links, using the sausage attachment on your meat grinder. Tie both ends of the sausage securely using a heavy gauge twine.

In your homestyle smoker, smoke andouille at 175-200°F for approximately four to five hours using pecan or hickory wood. The andouille may then be frozen and used for seasoning gumbos, white or red beans, pastas or grilling as an hors d'oeuvre.

http://www.gumbopages.com/food/andouille.html

[leftofthedial]

38. gracias amigo

this is gumbo, red beans and rice, and nekkid titties week round here.

(oops. he said "titties.")

[BikeWriter]

39. That may have been tittles, but I like your word better.

[Maddy McCall]

26. Redbeans cooked without a big hamhock in there is not true Redbeans.

Period.

[BikeWriter]

29. You're right, Maddy, hamhocks make a pot of beans.

[Burma Jones]

31. hmmmm, you may be onto something

I'll throw one in next time.....

[BikeWriter]

30. Have you ever had Tasso in a pot of beans?

[yellowdogintexas]

32. Red Beans and Rice is best made with a ham hock.

Easily obtained at the grocery store in the South, and much leaner than fatback (although I have eaten my share of beans cooked with fatback, as well as green beans, turnip greens, etc.)

The ham hock just gives the most wonderful flavor, the marrow cooks out into the beans, and you put lots of green onions and garlic in them...oh boy.

Now I am craving them.

[BikeWriter]

33. Uh huh, you got a craving, didn't you? I'm due a pot myself!

:)

[EstimatedProphet]

35. I'm making it veggie for the faculty tomorrow

We have veggies on the staff, so I'm making something everyone can eat.

[yellowdogintexas]

41. you want a cheap vegetarian spicy dish: Lentils,, curried

use 2x water to lentil ratio
cut up a medium sized tomato or open a can of diced tomatoes and dump it in
salt and pepper it a little
cut up a medium onion (diced) and toss that in
add 1/2 teaspoon each : cumin, cayenne, turmeric and curry powder
stir it up and bring it to a boil, then lower the heat to medium & let it cook down, add water as needed to keep from sticking/scorching.

optional additions;

cut up celery and carrots
cut up zuchini or yellow squash
minced fresh jalapeno or serrano chili pepper
a nice handful of cilantro, snipped up

You will also want to cook up some nice basmati rice to go with this.

NOW: mince up or smash with your garlic press, a couple of large cloves of garlic, or more if you are a garlic freak. In a small pan, melt at least 1/2 stick of butter, and add the garlic. You want this to cook down but you don't want the garlic to scorch or burn, as it gets a bitter taste. When the butter has cooked in the garlic, you are ready to eat.

Serve the lentils on top of the rice, and drizzle the butter sauce on top of everything.

KILLER ( and very cheap!)

[EstimatedProphet]

42. Sure is, but not very traditional for Mardi Gras

[yellowdogintexas]

43. true, but just the same easy and tasty. Hope the MardiGras

dinner was a success.

[aaronbees]

36. Normally I'd say with fatback...

But had some good red beans and rice that went veggie this past weekend. Just the right kind of spicy sass to it and still delish :)

[Jara sang]

37. What the hell? Beans must be boiled with a hamhock.

Served with andouille sausage.

[Lethe]

40. nothing but beans n rice

and a shitload of Frank's Red Hot