Comfort Food - Red Beans and Rice

Webster Dictionary defines comfort food as food prepared in a traditional style having a usually nostalgic or sentimental appeal.

Red Beans and Rice is a comfort food in our house.

My husband was stationed in Virginia for nearly a decade and we loved every minute of it. During our tenure, we became with close friends with a two families. Cheryl and Victor adopted us into their family. They become adopted grandparents to our children, since all the grandparents lived across the country. With Cheryl and Victor, we had the loud, extended family gatherings. Holidays were not just a meal with them. These were events, with good company, great food and always served with Cheryl's yeast rolls made from scratch.

Our other extended family is Ron and Cindy. Here are two people from radically different parts of the country. Cindy is from Vermont; Ron is a crazy Cajun from Louisiana. Ron and I trade Roux and Andouille sausage for BBQ sauce. Since certain ingredients are only available once a year, I usually have a debt to make up when it comes time to make BBQ sauce.

I will not attempt to make Ron’s Gumbo it is just too perfect. Red Beans and Rice I have been tinkering with for several years now. Whenever I ask my family what they want to eat, my youngest and fussiest eater asks for Red Beans and Rice.

I usually make Red Beans and Rice in a crock-pot, so this requires a few days advance planning.  I know there are times when you want it now, not two or three days later. I am going to provide the recipe for both versions.

Two things to look out for when buying a ham hock:

•         Try to find one with as much meat as possible. I have found the best ones at the local farmers market.

•         Have a potato on hand. Once I bought a ham hock from a different grocer, the ham hock was incredibly salty. If the red beans are too salty, cut raw the potato into chunks and place in your pot, remove before serving.

Red Beans and Rice

Cook time 3-4 hours on stove top

1 pound of dried red beans

1/2 to 3/4 pound smoked ham hock
1 1/4 cups water
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon red pepper
1/4 cup bacon drippings
1/4 teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
4 to 5 cups long grain rice, cooked

*I use Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning instead of spices above. I would say use at least 1 Tablespoon*

Wash and sort red beans before placing in deep pot with 8-9 cups water. Bring to boil for 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat, cover and let set for 2 hours.
Drain off water and refill pot with fresh water before placing back on heat at moderate to slow boil. Add ham hock and seasonings to pot. When meat is falling off the hock, remove from heat until cooled enough to remove meat from the bone. Before placing meat back in pot, use a potato masher and mash half of the beans, this should cause a creamy texture. (Alternative is to remove two cups of beans and place in food processor for 4-6 seconds) cook slowly on low heat stirring often. Add cooked rice and gently stir well before serving.

Red Beans and Rice in a Crock-pot

1 pound of dried red beans

1 pound smoked ham hock

 Water
1 to 2 Tablespoons of Tony Chachere’s Creole seasoning
4 to 5 cups cooked long grain rice

Wash and sort red beans before placing in deep pot with 8-9 cups water, soak twelve to twenty-four hours. Drain and rinse beans before placing in 6-quart crock. Add ham hock and enough water to cover both beans and hock before adding Creole seasoning. I put a light coating of seasoning over the entire pot. Replace lid and cook on low for six hours

Remove ham hock, place on a plate to cool while you tamp the red beans with a potato masher for one minute. This will cause thickening giving the beans a creamy sauce like texture. Shred meat from the ham hock and stir back into the bean mixture. Replace lid.

I actually turn off the crock-pot at this point and let the pot stand for one hour. If you cook often with a crock-pot, you know they stay hot for a long time. This will give the beans to thicken up more without cooking them further and making red bean paste. If you end up with paste, just stir in ¼ cup of water.

Serve over cooked rice and cornbread with honey, Yum!

 

 



Spiced Coffee

It is no secret I have a love hate relationship with coffee. Growing up, my bedroom was closest to the kitchen. My parents loved to grind their own coffee beans, before grinding your own was fashionable. Every morning I woke to beans being poured into the antique crank coffee grinder. The grinding seemed to take hours in "kid" time, in actuality it took no longer than five minutes.

I took my first job when I was a junior in high school and for Christmas, I thought I would get my parents something special without saying "Hey can I have money to go Christmas shopping?" Poking around Sun Valley Mall, I came across Williams Sonoma. My mom loved to shop this store for all of her gourmet club meetings. I had my "A Christmas Story" moment when there in the window was a Braun electric coffee grinder! Electric had to be quicker method of getting those dang beans ground so I could sleep, right?

Christmas morning came with happy parents laughing I did not like the hand grinder and bought them an electric one. There I sat smiling ear to ear, because on December 26, I was going to sleep in past six! I woke the next morning to a sound, which could be compared to a locomotive running wide open, the steam whistle blowing while chugging through a convent! Did I mention I hate coffee?

For me to drink coffee it has to be 60% dairy, 30% sugar, and 10% coffee. I have to kill the taste of the coffee somehow. I still do not understand how something that smells so wonderful, tastes so bad!

When my husband was stationed in Texas, I worked in a county probation department. Where I became friends with Terra. Even though, we were born one day and at least fifteen years apart we clicked like we had known each other for years. For our birthdays, we would bring each other a Starbucks Venti Carmel Frappuccino. One day Terra let me try her coffee with cinnamon in it, hmm not too bad... but I still needed it fully loaded with sugar and milk.

Yesterday morning after enjoying a slice of Pumpkin Bread, I decided to try something. I had made an 8-cup pot of coffee earlier, (I told you I love the smell of coffee.) I threw out the coffee filter and grounds, then added a fresh filter to the basket. To the basket, I added 1 teaspoon of nutmeg, cinnamon, and ground cloves (I would suggest cutting the cloves back to half a teaspoon.) I also added something I knew would not work but I tried it anyway. I added 1/2 cup of white sugar into the mixture. Next I poured the coffee from the carafe back into the coffee maker and re-brewed it (I can see my dad saying here "oh yuck." Nevertheless, in reality I did not re-brew the coffee since it did not go through the grounds again.) The sugar did not work that well, since it would not dissolve quick enough to make it through the filter without me having to stir it.

Minus the sugar mess, the coffee came out tasting wonderful. The spices gave it a warm rich taste that made me think of winter. I would pair it with the Pumpkin Bread Recipe or even Gingerbread during the holidays for something extra special.