Red Beans and Rice

Last night, a friend and I got together to talk over our Lenten plans. A little more prayer, a few days of fasting, and some new spiritual reading. I love the cycles of the church year - the times of feasting and fasting, the ever-present chance for renewal and growth and deeper relationships.We enter the spirit of Lent by admitting that there is work to be done. And it makes the joy of Easter so much greater!

For today, though, it's still Mardi Gras. So we'll have a comforting bowl of rice and creamy beans - and maybe a drink or two - a little decadence before our forty-day fast.



The holy trinity of cajun and creole cooking. Cue heavenly light and angels singing.



What are your plans for Lent? Are you a give-up-chocolate-and-call-it-good type of person? Do you usually overcommit yourself and end up feeling like a dismal failure? How do you feel about fasting?

Red Beans and Rice
adapted from Heirloom Beans



Note: You are welcome to soak the beans overnight before making this. But if you want it for dinner tonight, I've found that the soaking is unnecessary. This would also be a perfect crock pot recipe, if you're so inclined. Dump it all in the slow cooker in the morning, and then when you get home, just make some rice and you're good to go!

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
3 slices bacon, chopped
1 cup chopped yellow onion
2 celery ribs, chopped
1/2 medium green bell pepper, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound small red beans
1 ham shank or 3/4 cup diced ham
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
creole seasoning, black pepper, and cayenne to taste
cooked long-grain white rice, for serving
1 pound andouille sausage or kielbasa, in 1/4-inch rounds
sliced green onions, for serving

In a soup pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, add the olive oil and bacon and cook until bacon is crispy. Remove bacon to a paper towel-lined plate and save for another use (or, ahem, eat it as a healthy snack while you're cooking). Add the onion, celery, green pepper, and garlic and sauté until soft and fragrant, about ten minutes. Add the beans and ham, and add enough cold water to cover the beans by one inch. Add bay leaf, thyme, and oregano, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, partially covered, until the beans are tender, about 2-3 hours, adding more water if necessary. Season to taste with creole seasoning, black pepper, and cayenne.

Raise the heat and boil the beans uncovered for 15-20 minutes, to thicken. Use a wooden spoon to mash some of the beans on the side of the pot. Meanwhile, sauté the sausage in a large nonstick skillet until browned on both sides and heated through. To serve, place a scoop of rice in a shallow bowl and spoon beans over. Arrange a few slices of sausage on top, and sprinkle with green onions.

Mushroom and Leek Wild Rice

Thanksgiving in my parents' house always goes about the same way.  Mom wakes up super early and makes coffee and homemade cinnamon rolls with nuts and raisins.  I'm the next to get up, and then we'll sit down together and start going through the stack of old, splattered, hand-written recipes that make up our family's traditional dinner.  Bajee's stuffing, supremely moist and studded with fruit and pecans, Grandmom's traditional cornbread stuffing, candied yams, cranberry sauce and orange-cranberry relish, fluffy pale green jello salad, crescent rolls, the obligatory green vegetable, and 3 kinds of pie: pumpkin, cherry, and pecan.  Nothing changes, and I wouldn't want it to.  This is the one day a year when I believe that nothing can be improved about the meal.

We cook all day, stopping briefly to eat the cinnamon rolls when they're ready and catch a glimpse of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  I always feel slightly bewildered when I see recipes for things like appetizers and starters for Thanksgiving.  It boggles my mind that people would put time and effort into fussy, complicated appetizers for people to eat before the biggest meal of the year.  There are so many problems with that!  First, who has time to make them?  Second, if people are munching on appetizers and snacks all day, how will they have room for dinner? 

Even though I think appetizers and new side dishes have no business near a Thanksgiving dinner, I am not immune to the pull of these things in other contexts.  So I'll make sausage, fig, and cranberry stuffing, or twice-baked sweet potatoes with chipotle-pecan streusel, or sweet potato cupcakes with toasted marshmallow frosting (!) some other time.  And I'll also eat mushroom and leek wild rice, stuffed into roasted winter squash, all week for lunch.

Mushroom and Leek Wild Rice

This would be a great vegan entree for Thanksgiving, if you tend that way.

1 cup wild rice, rinsed well
1/2 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
3 large portobello mushroom caps
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 bunch leeks, cleaned well, and sliced
1/4 teaspoon celery seed (or 1 rib fresh celery, chopped, if you have some on hand)
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 cup dry sherry
salt and pepper to taste

Place dried mushrooms in a medium bowl, and pour 3 cups boiling water over them.  Allow to steep for 20 minutes, until the mushrooms are soft, and the liquid is caramel colored and very fragrant.  Using a slotted spoon, remove the mushrooms and set aside.  Pour the mushroom broth into a medium saucepan with the wild rice, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered, until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender.  This can take anywhere from 45-60 minutes, depending on the brand of rice you use, so keep your eye on it. 

While the rice is cooking, preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with foil.  Gently scrape the gills from the portobello mushrooms using a spoon, taking care not to scoop out the mushroom flesh.  Slice into 1/2-inch-thick strips.  Arrange on a foil-lined baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper, and roast for about 10 minutes, until mushrooms are tender. Set aside.

Place olive oil in a wide shallow saucepan or skillet over medium heat.  Add leeks and saute 2-3 minutes, until soft.  Chop porcini and portobello mushrooms into bite-sized pieces and add to the pan.  Add seasonings and stir to combine.  Add sherry, and deglaze the pan, scraping up any brown bits.  Stir in wild rice, and season with salt and pepper to taste. 

Yield: 4-6 servings

Note: This dish tastes great as is, but if you're not vegan, stir in a couple of tablespoons of butter after removing the finished dish from the heat.  The butter adds a silkiness and finesse that makes it taste even more like a special occasion.

"Your life is an occasion.  Rise to it." -Mr. Magorium

Chicken and Rice, But Good.

Remember the dinner I had dreamed for last night?  Pasta, peas, asparagus, cream, mint?  I was on my way to making it.  I was!  I bought cream and mint!  I was sure I had some form of long, flat pasta at home.  I eagerly told the Coppertop Guy of my delicious dinner plans, and he replied, like a normal, red-blooded American man,

"What about the meat?  I DEMAND MEAT FOR DINNER!"

Just kidding.  What he really said was, "Would you please, beautiful wife of mine, pretty please put some chicken in the pasta as well?"

Well, it was somewhere in between those two, anyway.

So we picked up some chicken thighs.  I was grumbling about how the chicken was going to ruin my whole idea of this meal, and then I opened up the cupboard and realized there was not fettuccine or linguine or tagliatelle in there.  None at all.  So I scrapped the pasta plan and hatched a brand-new, chicken-centered one.  I put together some of my mom's pilaf, and whipped up what turned out to be a pretty awesome dinner.  And now the chicken is all gone again, and tonight I will make a fresh attempt to convince my hubby that pasta with veggies, cheese, and cream is a perfectly filling meal, even without the chicken.

And then I made the world's greatest chocolate cake, which I will tell you about later.  For now, I will just say this: I don't think I've licked a bowl and spoon that thoroughly since I was eight years old.

(I took a picture of this dinner with my phone, but it is quite un-appetizing.  You'll have to imagine it.  Or make it yourself.)

Chicken and Rice, But Good

1 package chicken thighs (there were 5 thighs in my package, probably about 1.5 pounds)
2 T flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
2 T olive oil
2 T vegetable oil
1/2 onion, chopped
3/4 cup dry white wine (or leftover Prosecco, like me!)
1 T butter
1 cup chicken stock (or more, if needed)
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
drizzle of cream (maybe... 2 tablespoons?)

Pat chicken dry.  Over medium-high flame, heat a large pan with a tight-fitting lid, and add the oils.  Combine flour, salt, pepper, and garlic powder in a small bowl and dredge chicken pieces through it.  Place chicken in preheated pan and sear on both sides, until lightly browned, 3-4 minutes per side.  Remove chicken to a plate, and add the onion to the pan.  Turn the heat down to medium, and saute the onion for a couple minutes, then add the wine and deglaze the pan.  Cook the wine until it is reduced by at least half; the onions will be brown and soft, and the wine will be thick.  Add the butter and chicken stock and stir to combine.  Replace the chicken in the pan, sprinkle with dried thyme, and cover.  Turn the heat to medium-low, and simmer for 15-20 minutes, until the chicken is cooked all the way through.  Remove chicken to plate at tent with foil.  Thin sauce slightly with chicken stock, remove from heat and add cream.  Adjust seasonings, and serve over pilaf.

My Mom's Pilaf

My sister and I used to think it was so funny that our pilaf had "worms" in it.  The "worms" are really just spaghetti noodles that are broken into 1-inch pieces and then browned in butter before you add the rice and chicken stock.  They are fun and delicious.

2 T butter
A handful of spaghetti, broken into 1-inch pieces
1 cup white rice
2 cups chicken stock
salt to taste

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan.  Add the uncooked spaghetti noodles, and saute until quite brown.  Add the rice and toss to coat with butter.  Add the chicken stock, stir, and bring to a boil, cover, turn the flame to low and simmer until all the liquid is absorbed, about 15-20 minutes.