When one mentions Cajun food it isn’t long until the thought of Red Beans and Rice pops up. This is one of my favorite Cajun meals only out shined by a great Po’Boy and Craw fish Etoufee. This also happens to be the time of year when some nice and spicy hearty meals are needed.
Now I decided to shy away from the truly authentic Cajun way of preparing this mostly due to time constraints of cooking down a ham bone, browning sausage and cooking for 2-4 hours. Although I will get around to the traditional way for now I needed a recipe that would take under and hour to make, prep and all. There were a few concessions I had to make but in the long run the recipe came out great and could be made after a long days work without a ton of effort.
After scouring the net and cookbooks I came up with a rough idea of what constitutes a basic Red Beans and Rice recipe. Red Beans, Rice, tomato, onion, garlic and spices are the lowest common denominator her e. There are truly countless Red Beans and Rice recipes out there so how do we know which one to chose or how do I create my own recipe that I know will taste good. Since we want to mimic a traditional recipe we have to substitute for what we are missing. Traditionally the base of the recipe uses a boiled down ham bone to make a stock. This gives off a lot of great flavor due to the fat content of the bone and fatty tissue still attached. So we know we need a “fat” and some stock used for our liquid. I would suggest making your rice with chicken stock. This will not give the same flavor as the traditional but great none the less. As for fat I suggest using butter as well as some oil, olive is preferred choice and we just happened to have some local smoked sausage that would fit beautify in this dish. For the Cajun seasoning we can make our own. The kind you buy at the store is made up of mostly salt so you end up paying a premium for spicy salt. You can make your own if a few minutes without MSG and store the rest for months. So here’s the recipe that I cobbled together that turned out surprisingly well considering time it took to make.
Ingredients:
2 cans of diced tomatoes undrained
2 cans of Red Beans undrained (red kidney beans can be substituted)
1 small onion chopped or minced
1 green pepper chopped
2 cloves garlic minced
1 tbs butter
1 tbs olive oil
4 large Smoked Sausage links cut on the bias about a ¼ – ½ thick
Cajun Seasoning (tbs parts salt, tbs chili powder, ½ tsp cayenne, tsp black pepper, tsp onion and garlic powder, tsp cumin, tbs oregano, 2 bay leaves)
Rice
Directions
In a large skillet melt butter on medium heat. Add green pepper, garlic and onions and start to cook down. When the butter is mostly absorbed and coated on the pepper mixture, add the olive oil and cook until the onions start to get translucent. Add sausage and cook until slightly browned (our sausage had been previously grilled, preferred, so this step was skipped). Add all other ingredients, stir, and raise heat to high and let it come to a boil. After a good boil has started reduce heat to medium low and let simmer for 20-30 minutes or until the liquid thickens to a creamy consistency. Taste and salt if needed. You’re now ready to serve over rice.
This dish was as good as it was easy to make. If you’re looking for some Cajun style food to warm you up during the winter months this will definitely do the trick. At some point I will try the traditional ham bone recipe when I have more time but for now this has been a more than adequate substitute.
I am also looking for some ideas of foods to make on the weekends when I have more time to be enjoyed during the week so if you have any ideas for foods that taste good reheated I’d love to see them. Thanks and enjoy.
Single Ingredient Project 