Red Beans and Rice

I know that the beans are traditionally served on top of the rice, but I really prefer to mix mine in as I am cooking the dish. It helps to blend the flavors. I have made this dish several times. Once, following the recipe exactly, the others with a bit of improv. The recipe is actually from The Great American Detox Diet, by Alex Jamieson. Her book is very fascinating, and I think it would be a good read even if you don't plan on following it. We are partial "detoxers". I've made several of her recipes and health issues aside, they have each tasted wonderful. She has a great cold and flu tea that I swear got me through last years flu season unscathed.

Ok, back to this dish. Each component of the dish is cooked seperatly with different herbs and spices. When they are all combined at the end it results in a very nice layering of flavors. The intensity of these flavors seems so surprising, since the dish itself is very simple. Another aspect that I really like about the meal is that it is very versitile; it can be vegan, vegetarian (if you add a bit of cheese at the end), or an omnivor's dish by adding meat or cooking your rice in chicken broth. I think that chopped chicken would be a nice addition if you want to add some meat in. I really love flexible dishes like this. I am always drawn to them.

Next time I may use this as a stuffing for squash, or make a clear broth and have soup.

Recipe:

15 oz can red kidney beans (1 1/3 C. cooked dry beans) drained & rinsed
4 TBS extra virgin olive oil
2 C chopped onion (red and vadalia both work)
3 gloves of garlic, minced
2 bay leafs
2 C. chicken or vegetable stock (I use water and then add buillion paste)
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp ground mustard
1 bell pepper, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1-2 C. any other vegetable you want to add (zucchini tends to be my preference, though I didn't add any this time. Roasted squash might be nice, too.)

-Cook rice as package directs, using broth instead of water for extra flavor

-When the rice has about 10 minutes left:

-Cook beans in 1 C. water with red pepper flakes, oregano & a dash of cayanne (if you want to spice it up a bit more) by boiling water, adding the beans and spices, and then turning down to a simmer.

- Heat extra virgin olive oil in a skillet. Add onion & garlic with thyme & ground mustard. Add the remaining chopped vegetables. Cook until tender. About 10 minutes over medium heat.

-Drain the beans after 10 minutes.

-Combine, rice, vegetables & beans. Serve warm.

-Enjoy!!!

Jambalaya

"Hey y'all, here something that I know you're just gonna love!". OK, if you couldn't guess, this used to be a Paula Deen recipe. I love Paula because she loves food, and she makes everyone else love food. Well, this is all a bit of a digression. I say the recipe "used" to be Paula's because Greg and I changed just about everything about it. We roughly got proportions from her recipe, and a general season base. Instead of shrimp we used chicken ($), instead of dried onion and garlic we used the real deal, instead of beef bullion we used chicken, and instead of long grain rice we used brown. We also added a few spices: sea salt, sage, ground mustard, & ground coriander. I think all of the changes we made to this one really make up for the lack of creativity in the last few posts. It was really fun and energizing to take our time and dissect a new recipe again. I'll have to remember that feeling next time I just don't feel cooking anything fun.

We do thank Paula for her inspiration and her proportions, because we absolutely love this dish. The flavor and texture are great, and it really transported us to the South. It's also pretty healthy (again, I think this makes up for my last few posts, this was turning into a dessert blog!) and very filling. It's easy to cook, though it takes a bit of time since there are different stages.

What I think is most fun about this recipe is that it is a combination of Creole and Cajun cooking! I didn't realize we were mixing cooking styles until I looked them up afterwards. From what I can gather, Creole jambalaya has the tomatoes and the meat is not browned. In Cajun jambalaya, the meat is browned and the "trinity" is added: onion, celery and green bell pepper. In our recipe, we cooked the onion with spices, added our (yellow) bell pepper, then added our meat, browned it, then added our tomatoes, rice and chicken stock.

Recipe:


1/2 lbs Andouille sausage
1 lbs chicken
1 C. instant brown rice
1 C. chicken stock
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1 small bell pepper, chopped
2 gloves garlic, crushed or micro planed
14 oz. diced tomatoes
8 oz. tomato sauce
2 bay leafs
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp sage
3/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp dried mustard
1/4 tsp ground coriander
Sea salt and ground black pepper
Olive oil

-In a large stock pot or dutch oven, add olive oil, onion, bell pepper, garlic, sage, thyme, ground mustard, ground coriander, cayenne pepper, sea salt, black pepper and bay leafs. Stir to combine, cook until the onion is transparent but not yet caramelized, medium heat, 5-10 minutes.

-Cut the chicken and sausage into small bit size pieces. Add these to the onion mixture. Stir to combine. Turn up to medium high heat. Let the meat brown on one side.

-Add the rice, tomatoes, tomato sauce and chicken stock. Stir it all and scrap any pieces of meat of the bottom of the pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and let simmer for about 10 minutes (or as directed for your rice). Once the meat is cooked through and the rice is tender, remove from heat and let stand. Serve warm and enjoy! Also goes great with a slice of chocolate cake!

-Enjoy!!!

Gazpacho

This past week has been super hot. Each day has been in the mid to high 80's or low 90's, and only getting down to the 70's at night. It's hard for me to want to eat and cook (or anything else) when it is that hot. I know it will only stay this way or get worse, so I figured we needed to start acclimating, and that gazpacho would help!

My Mom used to make gazpacho in the end of the summer when we realized that there were way to many tomatoes and cucumbers for us to put on salads or sandwiches. I remember taking a large yogurt container full of this cool raw soup to football practice/training in August, and that it was always super refreshing.

Since we don't have a garden, Greg and I ventured out to the local farmers market this morning to gather our bounty. I figured that there would be a noticeable difference between store bought tomatoes and the farmers market ones, but I had no idea just how much better they would be! There was so much meat on these baseball and larger sized tom's that you could have easily eaten one like an apple! They were just wonderful!

Staying to form, I browsed as many gazpacho recipes that I could find, and saw that there are really only three main ingredients: tomato, garlic, and bread. Yes, bread; I don't remember my Mom putting any in hers, but every other recipe calls for bread! Other common ingredients included: cucumber, bell pepper, cumin and paprika. Celery, jicama, and jalapeños were listed on several recipes, but I don't like that the celery flavor overpowers other more subtle flavors, so I opted to not use any. My end result is really not so much a true recipe, but a "technique" as my Mom would say.

The end result was pretty good. I like that the bread adds texture and substance to the soup, without changing any flavors. Next time I would put more cucumber and less Worcester sauce, but try to keep everything else about the same.

Recipe:

2 pieces of bread
5lbs of tomatoes
1 large cucumber
1 red bell pepper
3 cloves of garlic
1 1/2 C. of tomato juice (I'm sure V- 8 would also work fine!)
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cumin
2 tsp Worcester sauce (I recommend using less, though)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper

- Chop up half of the tomatoes, cucumber, and bell pepper. Keep skins, juices and seeds. Place into a large pot. Thinly slice the garlic and add to the vegetables. Tear apart both pieces of bread and add to the vegetables. Add the tomato juice, paprika, cumin, Worcester sauce, salt and black pepper. Blend this mix until it has formed a smooth puree.

-Finely chop the remaining vegetables. Add to the puree. Chill and serve cold. Stirring a spoon full of sour cream through the soup is also a delicious garnish.

-Enjoy!!!