Cooked some Cajun-style red beans and rice today. You can't make a *small* batch of these, a pound of red beans makes a *huge* batch.
Came out okay despite the fact that I can't get the right ingredients here. I substituted a small hunk of salt pork for the tasso, and some kielbasa for the andouille, and fiddled with the seasonings to try to get some of the flavors that the andouille and tasso usually add. It sufficed. (Tasso is basically pepper-cured salt pork, andouille is basically a highly spiced kielbasa).
Now I have to figure out what to do with all these beans... do you think I can convince people at work to eat them? Otherwise I'm going to have beans and rice, rice and beans, for the rest of the week...
-- Badtux the Culinary Penguin
Sounds delicious. I'll be right over.
ReplyDeleteIf you were in the Silly Cone Valley I might take you up on that offer. But no, it looks like I'm going to eat all these up long before then. One of the things that was a bit astonishing to me was just how expensive beans have gotten. $2 for a 1 pound bag of small red beans? WTF?! $5 for a small chunk of salt pork? WTF?! Only good thing is that the chunk of salt pork will make a *lot* of beans, since you only put a small piece into what you're cooking to add a bit of fat/flavor to it.
ReplyDeleteHmm, which brings to mind the reason for the salt pork -- because the beans taste mighty bland without it. I wonder if olive oil and salt would work just as well? But then, I wonder if it really matters unless you have cholesterol problems, since this is just a very small chunk (maybe a tablespoon) basically sliced off the frozen hunk of meat, flavoring up a *big* batch of beans?
You probably already figured this out but you can freeze your cooked beans in serving sized containers. As to the cost of beans you might try the "Mexican food" isle. At my local market stuff like beans are much more expensieve in the "gringo" isle and much less for the same product with the label in Spanish.
ReplyDeleteProbably even come from the same place just with a differen't label.
w3ski
w3ski, that is true for pinto beans, I can get pinto beans (what Mexicans typically cook) in giant 5-pound bags for around $2 a bag, or roughly 1/5th the cost of small red beans.
ReplyDeleteYes, I know about freezing my cooked beans. I also know from sad experience that if I do so, six months from now I will find the containers in my freezer, realize that they're well past end of life, and end up flushing the contents down the garbage disposal machine.
So just call me Tux McToots today ;).
- Badtux the Musical Penguin
Up here we have an assortment of Beans in the Mexican isle; Reds, even black I think, not just pintos, and I So know what you mean about flushing frozen stuff away. Sad but true, and it so goes against my thriftyness but I toss a lot of frozen stuff that turned to ice crystals long ago. If I was more anal I could maybe set it up on a monthly schedule but that is too much work.
ReplyDeleteBon Appetite
w3ski
No andouille in Cal? WTH? Even I can get andouille in Iowa.
ReplyDeleteCJ, I can get something that purports to be andouille here in the Silly Cone Valley. It just ain't andouille -- believe me, I'm from Louisiana, I know my andouille.
ReplyDelete- Badtux the Cajun Penguin