Red Beans and Rice

Happy New Year, everyone!

I thought I’d start off 2013 with a post that has nothing to do with holidays or new beginnings or New Years in general. It’s just something that I made recently that turned out pretty well.

My entire experience with red beans and rice is what I’ve gotten from Popeye’s on those few occasions when hubby really needed a Louisiana food fix. I wasn’t a huge fan of it, but it was all right, and since I had a few pounds of Cajun sausage in my freezer, I thought this would be a nice dish to try for him. I’m a nice wife sometimes.

I started off with a pound of dry red kidney beans. Dry beans intimidate me but Google is my friend.

I started off with boiling them and letting them sit for an hour or so.

Meanwhile, I chopped up some veggies (onion, green pepper, celery) and sauteed them in olive oil with some garlic

Then I forgot to take pictures for a few steps. Basically, I rinsed the beans and then put them back in the pot with about 6 cups of fresh cold water. I also added a few bay leaves and some cayenne pepper.

Then I added thyme…

Blurry sage…

Similarly blurry parsley (I need to focus on photography skills in 2013)…

And Penzey’s Cajun spices.

And I’m going to be perfectly honest, I don’t know what this is. It’s not in the recipe. Could it be just a dark picture of partially-added Cajun spice? Probably. But I couldn’t swear to it.

Oh yeah, don’t forget to add the veggies!

Here ya go. Bring it to a boil, and then simmer for two and a half hours. I think I did closer to two hours. I also think I added a healthy dose of salt, too. I have learned that Cajun food requires it.

Then add your sliced sausage, imported by the inlaws (no pictures; sorry!), and simmer for another half hour or so.

Up until this point, I was seriously, seriously questioning this dish. Once the sausage was in, though, it took on a whole different quality. The Cajun sausage here really made a difference in the aroma and in the taste of the broth.

Serve over fresh, hot, fluffy rice. And that’s it!

The smokiness of the sausage really mixed well with the sage and thyme. Like I said, I was skeptical of this dish until the sausage was added. But then it got yummy. Really yummy. I’m not sure how to describe this.

But I am pretty sure this was better than Popeye’s!

Here’s the recipe, if you’d like to give it a shot. Not sure how it would be without real Cajun sausage but if you’re like me and from the North, you might not know the difference

Bringing Cajun Flair to a Yankee Thanksgiving

Hey, everyone!  Jolie's husband Andy here.  I'm back again with another guest post.  No liquid libations to speak of this time, though.  Nope, this post is all about Thanksgiving.  Yup, FRIED turkey, delicious cornbread dressing, and of course, yummy pecan pie.

Let's start with the turkey, shall we?  My mom's youngest brother, my uncle Mark, is a whiz in the kitchen.  They are pure Cajun (or coon-ass as we say in Louisiana) and I've learned lots of dishes, tips, and tricks from them.  My uncle moved to Florida with his family about 10 or so years ago and I've reconnected with him on Facebook these past few years.  I genuinely hate Facebook, but it really is an easy way to stay in touch with family and friends.  Ok, back to the turkey.  I caught up with my uncle to get some turkey frying tips.  We talked for about 20 minutes and he gave me the necessary pointers to ensure success.

The most important thing is safety.  Because we have Thanksgiving dinner at Jolie's parents' house, I ran the idea of frying the turkey by her mom.  She was concerned about the house/garage being burned down.  I assured her that wouldn't be an issue.  There are two important steps to making sure you don't end up with a grease fire.  First is to know how much oil you're going to need.  Do this by placing your turkey in the frying pot and fill with water until the turkey is submerged with about an extra inch above the bird.  However much water you've used, that's how much oil you need.  Next, once you heat up the oil, you have to pat the turkey down to remove excess water and SLOWLY and CAREFULLY lower the turkey into the fryer.  This could take 5-10 minutes.  Whatever you do, you can't just drop the turkey into the hot oil, it will spill over the top and you WILL have a grease fire on your hands.

Ok, now that we have that out of the way, on to the nuts and bolts.  When frying, you want a bird between 10-14 lbs.  I ended up with one that was a touch over 13.  For the injectable marinade, I ordered Cajun Injector brand Creole Butter.  I got it online and it shipped from Louisiana.  Jolie ordered a nice, big stainless steel injection syringe from amazon.com.  Thaw the turkey and inject as you normally would.  I focused more on the breasts than anywhere else.  If there's one thing I can't stand, it's dry, flavorless white meat.  I injected the turkey with the entire jar.  After that, I used some Tony Chachere's Spice N' Herb seasoning.  I sprinkled it very generously all over the skin of the turkey and inside of the cavity.  Once finished, I stuck it in the fridge to marinade.  I did this almost 48 hours prior to frying the turkey.  Minimum marinade time is 12 hours but I knew that giving it 48 would make it that much better.

At that point I got started on the cornbread dressing.  This was another of Uncle Mark's concoctions and it is very good.  I made it for the first time last Thanksgiving and it was a hit with Jolie's family.  I started by mixing up 5 boxes of Jiffy Cornbread Muffin mix according to the directions.  I normally would split the mix into two pans for baking but the foil pans I picked up were too big so I just baked all 5 boxes in a big pan.  The cornbread came out beautifully.  At that point, I boiled a whole chicken in water for an hour.  Season liberally with salt and pepper.  Once the chicken is cooked, removed from the stock and let cool.  Do NOT get rid of the chicken stock.  I knew better than to do this and I fubar'd it by pouring it out.  In the back of my head, a voice was telling me, "you know you're going to need that stock...right?"  I ignored it and poured it out anyways.  Fortunately, Jolie had some chicken bouillon cubes and suggested I use them to recreate my stock.  So I did.  It wasn't bad at all, actually.
Next step was to brown a pound of pork and a pound of beef together on the stove.  I added in some Emeril's Essence seasoning, 5 tbsp of Cajun Power Garlic Sauce (also came from Louisiana), onion powder, garlic powder, salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper.  While that was going, I went ahead and de-boned the chicken.  I kept the chicken stock at a simmer and once the chicken was de-boned and shredded, I added it back to the stock, along with the meat mixture.  Then I added 2 large onions, 2 celery hearts, 2 peppers, and I think that was about it.  I gave the mixture about 4 hours of simmer time on the stove.  30 minutes before it was done, I added in some green onions and parsley.

After the four hours is up, remove the pot from the heat and add to the cornbread.  If you've done the cornbread in two separate pans (unlike me), just pour half of the mixture into each pan and mix with the cornbread thoroughly.  Then cover and refrigerate overnight.  Whenever you're ready to cook, just leave covered with foil and put in the over for about an hour, then uncovered for 30 minutes or so.  I was busy with the turkey so Jolie handled the oven temperature and the timing this year.  The nice thing about the recipe is it makes two batches.  After cooling overnight in the fridge, stick it in the freezer and you've already got your dressing for Christmas dinner done!

(This blurry picture was from last year’s batch. It hadn’t been cooked yet. Imagine if it looked like this, except darker and way yummier.)

Meanwhile, it's time to get the turkey into the fryer.  Add however much oil you previously measured into the frying pot.  Turn on the burner and crank it up until it hits about 375 degrees.  Once it does, VERY slowly and CAREFULLY lower the turkey into the hot oil.  It will spit and splatter, that's normal.  Take your time and don't get in a rush.  If the oil start to rise too much, pull the turkey back out a little until it calms.  After a few minutes, the turkey will be submerged.  Keep an eye on the temperature, you want the oil to stay between 325 and 350.  Cook the turkey for 4 - 4 1/2 minutes per pound.  Mine was 13 pounds and I cooked it for about 50 minutes.  Once it's finished, remove from the oil and let drain in a pan or tray with some paper towels to catch the oil.  Let it sit for at least 15 minutes before carving.

Now on to the pie.  Normally I make these pecan pies from my mother's recipe a few times a year.  I buy store bought pie crusts and have at it.  This year, Jolie made her "from scratch" home made pie crust.  That crust is so flaky and terrific.  Anyways, I was kind of worn out from doing the turkey and dressing so I asked her if she would mind handling the pie.  She graciously obliged :D

So, that's about it.  The turkey was PHENOMENAL.  There wasn't any left, all of it was eaten.  Although I botched the chicken stock for the cornbread dressing and had to re-create it, you'd never know.  It was as good as ever.  The pecan pie was delicious, as well.  Sorry for the long post, but I hope you all enjoyed it!

Dirty Rice

I was looking for more things to do with the shallots that my Aunt had sent me a few weeks ago. Hubby had some ideas, having grown up using shallots in Cajun rice down in Louisiana. This was my attempt to combine his verbal accounts with a copycat recipe for Popeye’s Cajun rice (aka dirty rice).

I started off with a stalk of celery.

And diced it up pretty finely.

Then I did the same with a green bell pepper.

Next, I turned to the shallots.

And diced a couple of those babies up, too.

Finally, I used a few cloves of my Aunt’s homegrown garlic.

With all that prepped, I started browning a pound (or maybe a pound and a half) of ground beef.

Then I added my diced celery and green pepper.

Finally, I added the garlic and shallots.

When it was done, I drained the grease and added some long-grain rice.

And then water, of course.

Along with some seasoning.

A little bit of Cajun seasoning…

And a little bit of cayenne.

Then I put the lid on and let it simmer for a while.

When it was done, I fluffed the rice and gave it a taste. It was a little bland, so I added some Tony’s creole seasoning. I didn’t use it before because it’s so salty, but at this point I decided it could use the extra flavoring.

All mixed in, this is what it looked like.

In the end, it could have used more seasoning. I had been real careful not to overdo it because I’ve ruined food by using too much creole seasoning, but I really should have dialed it up a notch. Other than that, though, not bad. A good first attempt at dirty rice!

Jambalaya: First Solo Attempt

A year ago, I asked my sister-in-law to show me how to make jambalaya and wrote a post about the experience. Around that same time, I talked to a few different members of hubby’s family about how they make the dish, since everyone seems to do it differently (and have strong opinions about the right way to do it). Somehow, though I intended to try it on my own, I never got around to it until last week. Hubby and I were moving out of our little home and I was going through the freezer, unearthing all kinds of buried treasure, when I stumbled across some frozen Cajun sausage given to us by my sister-in-law. It was decided – finally time to attempt jambalaya on my own!

Here’s my SIL’s base recipe, with her sister’s version scribbled on a post-it note below it.

Only slightly intimidating, though I’d only ever even eaten jambalaya twice (unless you count that time at a Maryland restaurant, but I’m not sure the Cajuns would count that).

I started off prepping my vegetables. First, celery.

Then some onion. I really need to re-read my camera’s manual so I stop taking shots like this.

And some green bell pepper.

Here’s everything together:

Next, grab a big ol’ chunk of pork loin roast.

I cut the pork into cubes, spread them on a plate, and seasoned heavily with salt, ground black pepper, and a bit of cayenne pepper.

Next, I turned to the (thawed) sausage that had come to us all the way from Louisiana, only to sit in my freezer.

Here’s the biggest change that I made between last year’s version and this one: putting sugar in the pot and letting it melt and caramelize before adding the meat. With the original recipe (sans sugar), I had really struggled with the concept of caramelizing sausage and couldn’t figure out how this was different than sautéing it. Google hadn’t helped me, either. Hubby’s family members differ on whether or not jambalaya should be started with sugar, but I decided to go with it because caramelizing sugar makes more sense to me than caramelizing sausage.

It only took a few minutes to start melting.

Then it’ll start to brown, slowly, slowly.

Be really, really careful with it. Just a tiny drop splashed up when I got a little overenthusiastic with my stirring. The drop landed on my skin with a hiss and resulted in a blister (which mysteriously never hurt). Sooooo yeah. That step should be done by an adult and very carefully.

When the sugar was starting to get dark and cooked, I dropped in my pork and let it start cooking. The sugar helped with both the color and the smoky taste.

The pork released a lot of water. I let it cook off while the surface of the pork seared. Lots of steam!

Next, I added my sausage. This released even more liquid so I let this simmer for quite a while in hopes of letting the liquid cook off.

I had trouble getting a good picture of it and I certainly couldn’t capture the aroma, which was pretty good. Smoky and sweet.

Finally, I added in my veggies. Again, I let them cook down and then simmered off the liquid for a while.

When I was satisfied with that step, I added water and then seasoned with salt, black pepper, and cayenne.

I let that go for quite a while, then added some uncooked rice. At that point, just turn down the heat, cover, and let it continue to simmer.

An hour or so later, this is what you have!

Nom nom nom. I think I underseasoned it a bit and ended up adding salt while I was eating, but other than that, I was pleased with the result. I liked the way it turned out, and hubby’s enthusiasm was encouraging, too.

We’re moving further north, though. I’m not sure where we can get appropriate sausage for me to do this again…