Taigan Fetch Magazine by Taigan

In the Picayune Creole Cookbook, red beans and rice is called “the favorite dish among Creole families” and heaped with singular praise: “The beautiful color and excellent flavor of the Red Bean has won for it a place among the most highly esteemed legumes.” Since that book was published in 1901, red beans have become so synonymous with New Orleans that men wear gold bean-shaped cufflinks with their Mardi Gras white tie.

The dish was traditionally served on Monday—washing day—since it could be simmered on the back of the stove and didn’t require the close eye of the cook. Even now, restaurants throughout the city list it at as a Monday special, and it’s the perfect easy offering for Lundi Gras parade watchers.

Among my favorite recipes comes from John Besh’s My New Orleans, The Cookbook. Add French bread and cold beer (and maybe a brandy milk punch to start), and you have a classic Lundi Gras meal.

Julia Reed

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RED BEANS AND RICE

Serves 6

2 onions, diced
1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 stalk celery, diced
2 tablespoons rendered bacon fat
1 pound dried red kidney beans
2 smoked ham hocks
3 bay leaves
½  teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 green onions, chopped
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Tabasco
3 cups cooked Basic Louisiana White Rice

1.  Sweat the onions, bell peppers, and celery in the rendered bacon fat in a heavy soup pot over medium-high heat.

2.  Once the onions become translucent, add the kidney beans, ham hocks, bay leaves, and cayenne, then add water to cover by 2 inches.

3.  Increase the heat and bring the water to a boil.  Cover the pot, reduce the heat to low, and allow the beans to slowly simmer for 2 hours.  Periodically stir the beans to make sure that they don’t scorch on the bottom of the pot, adding water if necessary, always keeping the beans covered by an inch or more of water.

4.  Continue cooking the beans until they are creamy and beginning to fall apart when they’re stirred.

5.  Remove the ham hock meat from the bones, roughly chop it, and add it back to the pot of beans.

6.  Stir in the green onions and season with salt, black pepper and Tabasco.  Serve with white rice.

BASIC LOUISIANA WHITE RICE

Makes about 4 cups

1 tablespoon chicken fat, extra-virgin olive oil, or butter
1 small onion, minced
1½ cups Louisiana long-grain white rice
3 cups Basic Chicken Stock
1 bay leaf
1-2 pinches salt

1.  Put the fat, oil, or butter and the onions into a medium saucepan and sweat the onions over moderate heat until they are translucent, about 5 minutes.  Pour the rice into the pan and stir for 2 minutes. Then add the chicken stock and bring to a boil.  Add the bay leaf and salt.

2.  Cover the pan with a lid, reduce the heat to low, and cook for 18 minutes.  Remove the pan from the heat, fluff the rice with a fork, and serve.

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