Cooking & Baking
Related: About this forumCajun-style Red Beans and Rice
So, after last week's enormous pot of gumbo, this is the last Cajun food you'll see from us for a while, I promise! But this is the side dish we served with the gumbo, and it's classic Cajun-style red beans and rice. Like so much of Cajun food, the flavour profile is based on Holy Trinity (onions, bell pepper, and celery) which is the Cajun equivalent of French mirepoix (onions, carrots, and celery). And even though this recipe has a lot of ingredients in common with the gumbo, it manages to resist being samey, and comes out as a great complimentary side-dish to the big rich and flavourful gumbo.
The type of beans you use can be your favourite, it doesn't need to be kidney beans. If you like pinto beans, use'em. Likewise, the aromatics can be switched around a little in this. My hubby (the chef for all of our videos), doesn't particularly like bell peppers (they give him terrible acid reflux) and also finds green bell pepper particularly boring or insipid in dishes like this, so he replaced one of the bell peppers in the recipe with a poblano pepper. You can also adjust your seasoning however you like at the end with Tabasco, Worcestershire, or more Cajun seasoning like we used in the gumbo. Also, if you can't get andouille sausage, a nice flavourful sausage of your choice will work well in here. Anything from kielbasa to chorizo!
Luciferous
(6,081 posts)Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)The darker red kidney beans seem to have a different starch makeup than the more pale colored ones and make a significant difference in the final outcome. I use Camellia, but have found other pale colored kidneys work just as well.
sweetroxie
(776 posts)I hate cooking these days, but I'm sorely tempted.
Saviolo
(3,282 posts)Everything just goes into the pot and cooks. You do need to brown the sausage and the veggies, but then they just go into the pot to finish.
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)One for bbq shrimp ( butter and rosemary is the way I remember)
Saviolo
(3,282 posts)But hubby grew up in Texas and spent time in NOLA growing up, and loves Cajun food, so I guarantee we'll see more of it!
trof
(54,256 posts)Rich and creamy beans and done from dried beans to yummy in 30 minutes.
No soaking.
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)trof
(54,256 posts)Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)To look for that..he lives in Birmingham.
I lived in French Quarter for 3 years...they typically used chunks of ham in red beans and rice. There are a number of dishes I wish I could recreate...bbq shrimp (basically Cajun seasoning, butter and fresh rosemary), garlic soup, and roulades (think that's how you spell it) which was basically
a melt in your mouth pot roast chunk with juice on top of grits ( supposedly hangover cure).
trof
(54,256 posts)Where yat?
I always wanted to have an upstairs pad with a balcony in the Quarter.
Preferably over a sleazy bar.
We always take 2 0r 3 lbs. of Conecuh to our daughter & family in Boston.
She hoards it and doles it out very sparingly and only on special occasions.
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)for a while. It is an incredible experience since there are almost no rules. From CT...but married a Texan. So major fish out of water. Lived in Boston too for three years. And DC, Jacksonville, and California near LA. Food great everywhere but here . Where are you?
trof
(54,256 posts)Kali
(55,013 posts)so I am going to try this soon!