Red Beans and Rice
Louisiana's Monday-night dish - a vegetarian version, where the smoke usually given by andouille comes from smoked paprika and a long simmer with bay and thyme. Beans break down on the edges and stay whole at the heart; the broth thickens to a gravy. Spooned over white rice, with hot sauce on the side.
Overview
The Monday dinner of New Orleans, the dish traditionally cooked on washing day because it could simmer unattended on the back of the stove while the laundry got done. You soften the Cajun trinity of onion, celery and bell pepper in oil, then bloom smoked paprika and Cajun seasoning in the heat. Soaked red kidney beans go in with stock, bay and a generous handful of thyme, and the pot simmers slowly until the beans are tender. In the last thirty minutes, you partially mash some of the beans against the side of the pot. That mash is what thickens the broth into a gravy and gives the dish its defining velvet texture. A splash of vinegar and a hit of hot sauce at the finish. Ladled over white rice with a smoky andouille link on the side, the way Louis Armstrong used to sign his letters: "Red beans and ricely yours".
Ingredients
- 350 g dried red kidney beans (soaked overnight)
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 onion (large, chopped)
- 4 celery sticks (chopped)
- 1 green pepper (chopped)
- 6 garlic cloves (crushed)
- 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon cayenne (or to taste)
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 ½ litres vegetable stock (or water)
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
- Hot sauce (to taste)
- Cooked long-grain white rice (to serve)
- 4 spring onions (sliced; to garnish)
Method
Stage 1 - Trinity
- Drain the soaked beans.
- Heat the oil in a heavy pot over medium heat.
- Cook the onion, celery and pepper 8-10 minutes until softened.
- Add the garlic, smoked paprika, oregano, thyme, black pepper and cayenne; cook 1 minute.
Stage 2 - Simmer
- Add the beans, bay leaves and stock.
- Bring to the boil; reduce to a steady simmer.
- Cook 1 hour partly covered.
Stage 3 - Mash and thicken
- Add the soy sauce and salt.
- Use a wooden spoon to mash some of the beans against the side of the pot - about a third - to thicken the broth.
- Continue cooking uncovered another 30 minutes until the beans are creamy and the gravy is thick enough to coat a spoon.
Stage 4 - Finish
- Discard the bay leaves.
- Stir in the vinegar.
- Taste; adjust salt and hot sauce.
Stage 5 - Serve
- Spoon over white rice; top with sliced spring onions.
- Pass hot sauce and extra vinegar at the table.
Notes
- Soak the beans: Unsoaked kidney beans need a longer cook and the texture suffers. Overnight soak is best; a quick-soak (boil 1 minute, rest 1 hour) works too.
- Mashing thickens: Cajun gravy comes from the beans themselves, not a roux or flour. Mashing is the whole technique.
- Vinegar wakes it up: The cider vinegar at the end is what makes this taste alive instead of muddy. Don't skip it.
Storage
- Keeps 5 days refrigerated; tastes better the next day.
- Freezes 3 months.
More like this
Gumbo z'Herbes
The "gumbo of herbs", the green Lenten gumbo traditionally made by Cajun and Creole families during the fasting weeks before Easter, when meat was off the table but the bowl still had to be filled. You build a dark roux first, flour cooked in oil to peanut-butter brown over a long patient stir. The Cajun trinity of onion, celery and bell pepper goes in to soften, then a mountain of finely chopped greens (collards, mustard greens, turnip tops, spinach, chard - the more varieties the better) piles into the pot with stock. Forty-five minutes of slow simmer takes the greens to meltingly soft and turns the broth into a deep nourishing green-brown. Hot sauce, filé powder and a scoop of white rice finish each bowl. Lenten or not, the dish stands on its own as one of Louisiana's quieter masterpieces.
Crispy Honey Garlic Chicken
An Asian-American takeout standard reimagined for the home kitchen, with one specific upgrade: 10 cloves of garlic, chopped rather than minced, so the pieces stay visible and bite back. The flavour is the canonical sweet-salty-spicy balance of American Chinese cookery, honey for sweetness, soy for salt and umami, sweet chilli sauce (Mae Ploy or similar Thai bottled brand) for vinegared chilli warmth, garlic for sharpness across the back. Crisp comes from a cornstarch dust on the chicken, which gives a more even, lacier crust than flour does and stays crisp longer once the sauce hits it. The chicken thighs themselves stay juicy because they're cubed, not pounded; the small pieces cook fast and the seasoning penetrates. Smell when the chicken hits the sauce is honey-and-soy hitting hot oil, which is one of the more universally appealing kitchen smells. Easy and fast, active cooking under 20 minutes once the marinade has rested. The dish has no claim to traditional Chinese cookery; it's the product of decades of evolution in American Chinese restaurants and the home-cook adaptations that followed.
Gai Yang
Gai yang ("grilled chicken") is one of the cornerstones of Isaan cooking, the cuisine of north-eastern Thailand that has spread across the whole country and into Thai restaurants worldwide. The defining flavour is coriander root, an ingredient barely used in Western cooking but central to Thai marinades. Pounded in a granite mortar with garlic, white peppercorns and a pinch of salt, it forms an aromatic paste that's then mixed with fish sauce, oyster sauce and a touch of sugar. The chicken is butterflied (spatchcocked) so it lies flat on the grill, marinated for at least 4 hours, then cooked slowly over moderate charcoal. The proper Isaan technique is patient: 30 minutes or more, turning often, sometimes pressed flat between two bamboo splints, so the skin slowly crisps and the meat takes on smoke without burning. The flavour is savoury-funky from fish sauce, peppery-warm from white pepper, deeply garlic-and-herb from the paste, with no chilli in the marinade itself; heat comes from the dipping sauce. Difficulty is low for the home cook: a good mortar or a small food processor makes the paste in 2 minutes, butterflying a chicken is a single cut down the backbone, and any covered grill or kettle does the cooking. Eaten by hand with balls of sticky rice and dipped into nam jim jaew, the toasted-rice-and-tamarind dipping sauce.
Jerk Chicken
A wet jerk paste: scotch bonnet chillies, garlic, ginger, spring onions, thyme, allspice (whole or ground), brown sugar, soy sauce, lime, oil, salt and pepper, pureed in a blender. The chicken (bone-in skin-on thighs and drumsticks, or spatchcocked whole bird) marinates for 12 hours minimum. Slow-grilled over indirect heat with a pile of pimento wood chips or allspice berries on the coals for the signature smoke; alternatively, an oven-bake at 180°C with a final blast under the grill, supplemented with allspice in the marinade.