Monday Supper
Monday supper in New Orleans is red beans and rice. We didn’t intentionally plan for ours to be made on a Monday, but the meal plan rearranging sort of did that part for us. I like traditions, so next time we have this I want to make sure it’s on a Monday then too.
I wasn’t so sure about making this from scratch because I was afraid it would not compare to the actual dish that I have had in New Orleans, but I think it came pretty darn close (this coming from a girl who hasn’t eaten it locally for almost six years now.) Regardless, everyone agreed it was delicious!
Red beans and Rice
Red Beans and Rice:
* 1 pound dry kidney beans , soaked overnight
* 1/4 cup olive oil
* 1 large Vidalia onion , minced
* 1 green bell pepper , minced
* 3 cloves minced garlic
* 3 stalks celery , chopped finely
* 6 cups water
* 3 bay leaves
* 2 dashes cayenne pepper
* 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
* 1/4 teaspoon dried sage
* 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
* 3 dashes Old Bay seasoning
* 1 pound Andouille sausage , sliced, cooked
* 1/4 tsp dry mustard
* 1/4 tsp sea salt
* 15 grinds black peppercorns
* 1/4 tsp garlic powder
* 1 1/2 cups homemade chicken stock
* 2 strips of bacon (uncooked)
Chop the veggies – pepper, onion, celery, and garlic and saute in the olive oil. Meanwhile, drain and rinse your beans that have been soaking and put them AND the raw bacon strips into the 6 cups of water and 1 1/2 c chicken stock and bring to boil. Dump in the sauteed veggies w/the oil and give a good stir. Reduce heat to a simmer and add your bay leaf and all the spices. The spices will sit on the water, but don’t worry! Keep stirring every 20 minutes or so. Don’t cover the pot- you want it to evaporate. Make your rice while you wait (about 2 cups dry rice cooked in 5 cups water- you want it to be very creamy rice.) After about 2 1/2 hours, when your beans are very soft, dump in the sausage (pre-cooked: we grilled ours ahead of time) and stir. Simmer for about 30 more minutes then serve over the rice. Make sure you put Tobasco on the table for anyone wanting some heat; mine was kid-friendly and not very spicy.
Great sides, if you can have them would be any fried veggie- okra, yellow squash rounds, pickles!! Cornbread to sop up the juices (cornbread is an eating utensil in the south!) and some collard greens and crispy fatback, oh my! Even better if you can add a ham bone to your water instead of the bacon too.
Southern iced tea w/ a little honey
As it was, we were able to grill some zucchini (that no one ate because they chowed down on the red beans and rice instead!), iced tea with a touch of honey, and for dessert: Bananas Foster. We gobbled down the Bananas Foster before I thought to take a photo!
Sweet Tea:
This is slightly different from traditional iced tea that I grew up on. If you want the “real deal” then you have to use white sugar, but this suits our diet and still tastes good!
*8 small tea bags or 4 large ones (You want Orange Pekoe- like Lipton or Luzianne. I use half caffeinated and half decaffeinated for my tea, but all one or the other will still give you a good taste!)
*1/2 c honey
*filtered water
Put the tea bags in a small saucepan 3/4 full of water (tear off any paper tags first and then submerge the strings if they have any.) Bring to a rapid boil and boil for about 5 minutes then simmer for another 5 minutes OR turn off the heat and let sit for about 20 minutes to steep.
Pour this hot tea into a gallon pitcher. If using a cold glass pitcher, put a metal spoon in to absorb the heat so you don’t crack the glass!! Add the honey to the hot tea and stir until it’s dissolved. Add water to fill the rest of pitcher and stir again. Best flavor if left to refrigerate overnight first, but if you have to have some now, make sure you have it over plenty of ice!
Super-fast Bananas Foster:
*Bananas (you choose how many)
*Nuts (enough for a sprinkling through everyone’s serving, so adjust depending on amt of bananas you use)
*Butter (enough to saute the bananas and nuts plus about 2 tablespoons for extra syrupy goodness)
*Maple syrup or honey or a combination of the two (about 1 tsp for each banana used)
*Cinnamon (to taste- I used 1 tsp per 5 bananas)
Melt butter in skillet, add other ingredients and give a stir until warm. Serve with fresh cream or ice-cream. If you can have bourbon, you can add this and flame it up, but I’m skittish about setting food on fire anyway, so we skip it. Serve with coffee made with chicory (Trader Joe’s sells some now!) and you can pretend you are in the Big Easy.
The heat and humidity here today suited this meal perfectly. Ahhhh…. summer. 
This post is part of Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, a blog carnival hosted by SimplySugarandGlutenFree
Mmmm. I love red beans and rice and have not had it in a while now.
Okay, a little bummed there is not pic of the bananas foster, but all the more reason to make some so I can see for myself, right?
Thanks for the recipes!
Shirley
I know! I realized after we had gobbled it down that I forgot to snap a picture! Sorry about that!!