Daddy-o's Red Bean Supreme

less one bean...

Dad's Red Beans and Rice recipe has been on the list for a while. The problem, you see, is that you eat them on Monday. It's one of many food tradtions in New Orleans. Monday in New Orleans was traditionally laundry day. So, while the washing was done, the beans would soak and cook. Hungry on Monday? Red Beans and Rice.

For this reason, I've not cooked them on a long and lazy Sunday, like so many pot roasts and gumbos. I've waited for a magical Monday and have come up short. Last Sunday, however, I toook a look at my Cooking Goals list and it was the Cajun elephant in the room. I had to do it. I went to the store and bought my litany of sausages and meats. I bought my beans and poured them into Lady LeCreuset to soak overnight. In accordance to strict family tradition, I removed a single bean (you may email me for details on why...). The next day I brought the recipe to the office with me to review and mentally prepare. This is when I started adding up my time. Chop, brown, remove, repeat. Medium heat, covered, 2 1/2 hours. Low boil, 1 hour. I realized that, at this rate, dinner would be served at midnight. I'd have been better off staying at home doing my laundry! But with my beans in the soaking pot, I was in too deep to reschedule my undertaking. It was, as they say, on.


If you find yourself in a situation where you have more cook time than energy to cook, might I recommend you find yourself a soux chef. I was lucky enough to find one such resource in our friend Chip, visiting from the great town of Appomattox, Virginia. From the James Beard school of thought, a new cullinary undertaking sounded good to him (especially since he'd be sharing the wealth when we eventually did eat!). He chopped up the Holy Trinity (onions, peppers, celery!) and all of the meat. When I got home from the office, I was ready to rumble. With someone making sure the house wasn't catching fire, I even had time to run to the gym. SuperChef!!


At 9:45, we ate dinner. The beans and rice were everything I wanted and more, and I served them with white bread and lots of butter. Memories of red bean sandwiches came flooding back from my childhood- my grandmother used mayo but, for me, butter is better. As with many popular New Orleans dishes, Red Beans and Rice are better the next day. With this in mind, I'll probably push this whole process back one day and cook everything on that long and lazy Sunday I mentioned. I woke up the next morning still full from dinner and, honestly, not wanting Red Beans and Rice for a while. I threw the rest in the freezer and look forward to another Red Beans and Rice Monday soon- this time, in only ten minutes.

Queen Shafer's Pie Crust

Once in a rare while you meet someone with a completely earned sense of self-importance. If you are lucky enough to meet Queen Shafer, who rules over Starkville, Mississippi and its pies, you'd better come hungry. This self-coronated genius of both quiche and crustie is the mother of a great friend of mine. She makes the mother of all pie crusts. She shared her recipe on her blog, http://www.piecrusts.wordpress.com/ and I quickly assembled the pieces for the pie. She swears by White Lily flour- check. She uses a pastry blender and, with my love for recipe-specific cooking equipment, we can give that a check, check, check. I assembled the ingredients and prepared to begin.

Assembled ingredients. Water for personal endurance.

The blending went well, probably because I put both my back and heart into it. I left it to chill in the fridge for a while, it being another 83 degree May day in Atlanta. I rolled the dough out, and honored it with an old chicken pot pie filling. Everything came out great- the crust was as tender and light as she had promised and, with the exception of a little sticking around the edges, that pot pie flew off the plate. That's one more off the list! Man, that feels good!

Thank you Queen Shafer for sharing your lovely recipe. I'll be making your tasty little fruit filled Crusties with it next.

Red Beans and Ricely Yours,

Charlene

Alfajores- it takes two!

On the list of things I just have to cook this year, I placed these yummy little Alfajores cookies from the food blog Chez Pim. These cookies are just gorgeous little shortbread somethings with lovely fluted edges and a Dulce de Leche filling that, surely, came down from heaven. Friends provided the cookie cutters as part of my birthday present, a type of "enablers kit" of goodies that supports my habit. This kit came also with a Madeline pan, which we'll get to soon. I digress.

So the baking begins. I confidently sift, salt and stir. I flour and roll. I toss in the oven, and in ten short minutes I have- a mess. Essentially, the cookies joined forces through some glutenous uprising and formed one giant cookie, without my permission and surely without my fluted edges. This, my friends, reveals my real Achilles' Heel. I do not like missing the mark on a recipe, and the feelings of discouragement are generally prohibitive. I typically do not re-try a recipe that I don't get right the first time. Digging deep, I don't like failure and if at first I don't succeed, I try something else.

So, I slept on it. The delicious Dulce de Leche was chilled in the fridge and my supportive friends waited in the wings hoping for their return on investment. I emailed Pim herself, writer of the recipe. I emailed photos and a play-by-play, and we couldn't come up with a single thing I did wrong. Pim's response? Just try it again. Oh, Pim. You don't understand.

I came home that night and saw my list on the refrigerator. The Alfajores cookies seemed bolded. I thought about my list, and what it meant, and what it means to love food and feeding the ones I love. At that moment, I adopted the concept of...wait for it....Trial And Error. And you know what, I may be the last aspiring foodie to adopt that policy. What took me so long? Oh, I don't know. But I do know that I made those cookies again that very night, and they were flawless. I'm attaching pictures of both, to release my shame and show others that our friends Trial and Error are an integral part of the culinary experience. And it felt sooo good to cross those cookies off my list.

Got something you tried and think you "failed"? Not likely. Ask questions, and even without answers, try again.

Red Beans and Ricely Yours,
Charlene

The tragic first try...

Good looking and delicious!

Ready, Set, Re-Resolve!

So I've scratched my idea of 20 new recipes in one year. Why? Because it's May and I've tried so many more than that! They may be little inventions here and there: a quick combination of ingredients I find at the Farmer's Market, or an accidental substitution, but I am beginning to think that goal just is not good enough. So I've decided that making a list of this year's "ultimates" is the better way to go. Things that, on a lazy weekend or early night off of work, I can really commit to working on. That way, recipes that are actually important to me can begin to fold into my core go-to's. I'm making this list, checking it twice, and then taping it to the refrigerator. My suggestion is for you to do the same. Is Grandma's lasagna really dynamite? Put it on your list, and tape it to the fridge. I don't have kids, but I do have a hungry boyfriend- the "ooh, when are we having this lasagna?" commentary is motivation enough to keep it in drive. And eventually, so too will be the glory of conquering a new recipe, and checking things off your list.

Red Beans and Ricely Yours,

Charlene

A Long Time Coming

There are a few things I learned in Mississippi.

There's a phrase not often muttered. Alright, alright- inflammatory Mississippi comments aside, my time in college there taught me a thing or two about a food thing or two. One such lesson involved a recipe for chicken spaghetti. But we'll leave that for a later post dealing directly with cholesterol levels. Mississippi taught me about unapologetic pilings of dessert. I associate that state with banana pudding, the beloved chess square, and Mississippi Mud Pie.

Fair, New Orleans could have taught me about some of those, but who doesn't love dessert more than a college girl pulling her first all-nighter? And so, I dedicate this post to the Mississippi Mud Cupcake. I made these months and months ago, told one million friends how good they were, then they fell off the grid in favor of cool-weather cobblers and the like. Here are the pictures, ya'll.

Eat 'em up.

Red Beans and Ricely Yours,

Charlene

Where's the beef? Or chicken, or shrimp...

The only photo-proof of my labors. Crabmeat cheesecake.

UPDATE: 20 Recipes in 12 Months?

Okay, kids. Here's what I've done so far!

1. Herb-skinned Baked Chicken

2. Shrimp Remoulade (in a fried tomato "basket" no less!)

3. Crabmeat Cheesecake in a Roasted Pecan Crust

4. Seared Sea Scallops- marinated in Lemon-Parsley Syrup

5. Eggplant Pirogue- stuffed with Lump Crab and Shrimp

6. Plaucheville Pot Roast- hailing from the cotton and cane fields of Avoyelle's Parish.

7. And tonight- Turkey Osso Bucco with Mashed Cauliflower!

As you can tell, my hands have been too full for posting! I'm almost halfway done, and its only March! In true March style, I'm coming in like a lion, so I can go out like a Lamb. Mmmm, Lamb.

Red Beans and Ricely Yours,

Charlene

Happy New Year from Lagniappe Gourmet!

New Year, new food. That's right: I've made a resolution. I will cook twenty new recipes by the end of the year. I'll let you know how they go, and post photos when I can (or when I remember!) In the meantime, if you have a recipe you've always wanted to try- and would like me to instead, post it here! If I make it, you might just get an invite to the test kitchen!

Red Beans and Ricely Yours,
Charlene