Another Red Beans and Rice
I wouldn’t be Red Beans and Eric without adding recipes for red beans and ricE!
This recipe can be more of a main dish then a side. You can add diced ham to the recipe. Just cook them with the sausage. I like to serve a ham steak with this instead sometimes. As the week rolls on, this becomes a side dish with other meals.
A couple tips I learned with cooking red beans:
When the beans are almost done, and you want it to be creamier, mush a cup or two of the beans. I have a potato masher I use when I ground beef, I use that – I mash the beans right in the pot. You can scoop out a cup and mash them, then return them back to the pot.
If the beans are still not getting creamy, you can add corn starch or burn off some of the liquid. Just put the burner on medium high and get a strong rolling boil going. Once the liquid has steamed off, reduce the heat back down to a simmer. And if it still won’t get creamy, once the pot has been removed from the burner, add gumbo file’.
I’ve also been told that the beans could also be the cause. I used a small red bean from a big “super” grocery store. It’s just the stores brand of beans. I had that problem of the liquid not getting creamy enough for me. This recipe, with the pork hock, had a great smoky flavor. I burnt off some of the liquid then had to add corn starch. It was still not as creamy as I was hoping for. Maybe less water next time?
I just ordered a supply of red beans and rice from the Cajun Grocer. Authentic now! That recipe will be coming soon!
RED BEANS AND RICE
Ingredients:
- 1 lbs red beans
- rice
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 pork/ham hock
- 1 tbsp chopped garlic
- 1 lbs smoked sausage, cut to 1/4 inch slices
- 1/2 pound pork salt, chopped
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/4 tsp basil
- 1/4 tsp thyme
- 2 tsp creole seasoning
- 1/4 tsp oregano
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 tsp salt
With extra virgin olive oil, cook the pork salt for about 5 minutes. Once there is about a tablespoon worth of the fat at the bottom of the pan, remove the pork salt.
Add the vegetables and saute for about 10 minutes. After the 10 minutes, add garlic and cook for an additional 3 minutes.
Add the sausage and pork hock to the pan add cook for 5 minutes.
Pour the beans into the pot along with enough water to cover by one to two inches. Add the bay leaves, basil, thyme, creole seasoning, cayenne pepper, oregano and salt and pepper to the pot.
Bring to a boil then simmer on low. Partially cover for 2 hours. Check seasoning, then cook for an additional hour uncovered.
Cook the rice towards the end of the beans being done.
To serve, place the red beans in a bowl along with a scoop rice. Garnish with green onions and parsley. Don’t forget the bread and enjoy!
Tuna Fish Po’ boy
Not your typical New Orleans po’ boy but… you may think that this is just a sub but it’s not. What makes a po’ boy a po’ boy is the french bread. Sandwiches from different deli’s or Subway or ones you may make that are on white bread or a hoagie or sub bun is just a sandwich by another name. The po’ boy is on a french bread.
My Tuna Fish Po’ boy came out of nothing else to make. I had the ingredients on hand and thought it’d be clever to make. It tasted great! My wife loved it and I loved it. It’s just one of those things to pass along. In case your in the mood for a tuna sandwich, it’s just a way to add a twist to it.
On thing I’ve noticed about New Orleans, is that everyone is willing to help out everyone else. I’ve been to a few concerts here in the Detroit area where brass bands from New Orleans have come to perform. Not all the original members of the band is there, but there are other musicians filling in and the band doesn’t miss a beat. I know they are there for a paycheck, but even at the clubs in New Orleans, musicians fill in and sit in for one another just to help out.
I talked to one musician on Facebook and told him my plans to vacation in New Orleans fairly soon. He gave me his number to call him once I get down there. I talked to a chef on Facebook, Tommy Centola, who runs an excellent blog the Creole Cajun Chef. He recently published his book “You can’t keep New Orleans out of the cook” which you can find on his website. Not knowing me other then the fact that I also like to cook Creole and Cajun foods, he told his Twitter followers to check my blog out. I thank you Tommy and I encourge all to check his blog and book out.
What I’m trying to say is, is that New Orleans isn’t just a city, New Orleans is a culture. It’s what I love about it. My two favorite football teams are the Oakland Raiders and New Orleans Saints (I know, no Detroit Lions). I love the Raiders for who they are, always will, and I love the Saints for where they are, always will. When I wear my Raiders hat, no one ever says anything about it. Who talks about Oakland? When I wear my Saints hat, I hear stories about New Orleans. People who love New Orleans, no matter where they are at, or what connection they may have, come together. There’s a lot to share about New Orleans and everyone loves to talk about it – the food or the music or Bourban Street.
I want to share what I’ve learned of the food and what I’ve heard with the music. From the muffuletta to Glen David Andrews. From Tommy Centola’s cookbook to the history of the po’boy. Like Dr. John sang in “Sweet Home New Orleans”, “…this is what it means to love New Orleans.”
TUNA FISH PO’ BOY
Ingredients:
- 2 cans tuna fish
- french bread
- mayonnaise
- swiss cheese
- lettuce
- tomatoes
- pickles
- creole seasoning
- mustard (or Creole Mustard)
Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Mix the tuna with the mayonnaise and creole seasoning. Spread the tuna across the french bread and top with the cheese. Heat in the oven for about 5 minutes.
Once heated, the french bread will have a crisp top, add the lettuce, tomatoes, pickles and mustard. You could make the Creole Mustard to use instead of regular mustard.
Creole Shake and Bake Chicken
A funny thing happened on the way to making dinner…
The morning went by in a rush. I didn’t have time to prepare the crockpot meal we were going to have before I had to leave for work. All day I kept thinking about the chicken that I needed to do something with once I got home. It’s been awhile since we’ve had Shake ‘n’ Bake. It sounded good but I didn’t Shake ‘n’ Bake on hand.
After a little searching around and coming up with what I had in the pantry. I came up with a twist, a creole spin. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s a nice back-up when something doesn’t work out.
The funny part of the idea was, after it was all finished, I started thinking of some of the upcoming meals I wanted to do for this blog. I had been thinking of a chicken to make for a Chicken Po’ boy. Here it is! I’d use chicken strips for that though I think. Also, if you made the Olive Salad and had some leftover, it could be included in this recipe as a topping or side.
That’s the one thing that I’ve learned in all the cooking, is how to adapt and come up with new things. It’s made me a confident cook. Hopefully you are having the same positive outcomes in your cooking adventures. If not, keep trying, it takes time and practice.
CREOLE SHAKE AND BAKE
- 1 lbs boneless chicken breast
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup Italian bread crumbs
- 1 tbsp paprika
- 1 tbsp creole seasoning
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp salt
Preheat oven at 375 degrees.
Break the two eggs in a bowl. Mix the seasonings and bread crumbles together in a large ziplock bag.
Drip a piece of chicken in the egg, then shake in the seasoning bag. Repeat putting the chicken in a 9×13 baking pan. I put a piece of tinfoil in the pan and spray it with non-stick cooking spray like Pam.
Once all the chicken has been coated in seasoning and put in the baking pan, place the pan in the oven at 375 for 40-45 minutes, until fully cooked.
You can have ranch dressing as a dipping sauce or Creole Mustard. Serve over rice. Enjoy!
Eric’s Muffuletta with olive salad
It’s December 23 2008. 50 degrees maybe. Sunny for sure. My wife and I step out of our hotel onto Royal Street in the French Quarter. We stroll up and down the old streets shopping and taking in the buildings, the balconies, the history that’s happened there. By 11:00am we were tired and starving since we had a late night but wanted an early start to take in as much as we could. Most restaurants seemed to have been closed at this time of day. We came across a small cafe. I forget the name and exactly where it was. We stepped in, scanned the menu. My wife went for one of her favorite meals, the chicken salad sandwich. I stared at the muffuletta.
What’s a muffuletta? I never heard of it. The woman said its Italian meats with an olive salad. So I got it. It was a half of a muffuletta loaf. Filled with salami, hams, cheeses and the olive salad.
There may be only a few times in your life when you realize something great just happened. Something amazing. Honestly, just being in New Orleans was that for me. I’ve always liked the city and always wanted to go there, but what did I really know about it without ever being there to really experience it? Another thing happened after that first bite of the muffuletta. I was hooked.
Once we got back to the Detroit area, after our vacation, all I could think about was the muffuletta. I knew it was something I wanted to make. It’s the one single dish that got me started on wanting to make New Orleans food. I knew gumbos and jambalayas but it was more Zatarains style straight from a box (and there is nothing wrong with that, I love Zatarains and use it). There was never a list of ingredients though with what we cooked. Finding recipes of the muffulettas olive salad found lists of ingredients. Over the years I’ve tried many different people’s versions and combined some things and tweaked other things coming up with my own version of the olive salad and muffuletta.
If you do go to New Orleans, stop in at The Central Grocery on Decatur Street in the French Quarter, the home of “The Original Muffuletta”. Their muffuletta is the one standard that all others try to reach. The Italian market is given credit for inventing the muffuletta back in 1906. In Marie Lupo Tusa’s cookbook “Marie’s Melting Pot”, she tells the story of the sandwich:
“One of the most interesting aspects of my father’s grocery is his unique creation, the muffuletta sandwich. the mufuletta was created in the early 1900’s when the Farmers’ Market was in the same area as the grocery. Most of the farmers who sold their produce there were Sicilian. Every day they used to come of my father’s grocery for lunch.
They would order some salami, some ham, a piece of cheese, a little olive salad, and either long braided Italian bread or round muffuletta bread. In typical Sicilian fashion they ate everything separately. The farmers used to sit on crates or barrels and try to eat while precariously balancing their small trays covered with food on their knees. My father suggested that it would be easier for the farmers if he cut the bread and put everything on it like a sandwich; even if it was not typical Sicilian fashion. He experimented and found that the ticker, braided Italian bread was too hard to bite but the softer round muffuletta was ideal for his sandwich. In very little time, the farmers came to merely ask for a “muffuletta” for their lunch.
From Chuck Taggart’s website, The Gumbo Pages, he points out:
It’s also a bit of a lesson to those who think the only cultural and culinary heritage of New Orleans is French, Spanish, African and Creole. You ask folks about the quintessential sandwiches of New Orleans, and many people will immediately reply “po-boy”, but the muffuletta is as New Orleans as any po-boy you’ll ever eat, and there’s nothing Creole about it. This is pure Italian, and pure Sicilian if you want to be specific. New Orleans, in its population and its cuisine, owes much to Italy and especially Sicily; Italians have been coming to the Crescent City since the 1880s. It wasn’t always easy for them — one of the worst lynchings in American history was a massacre perpetrated upon a group of Italians in New Orleans in 1891. The Italians soon settled in comfortably into New Orleans culture, and we are the richer for it. Their contribution to local culture and cuisine has been immeasurable; in fact, you frequently see “Creole-Italian” referred to as one of the local sub-cuisines. This kind of cooking is epitomized at places like Mandina’s, Liuzza’s, and the many places in the city that serve muffuletta sandwiches.
It is true, for sandwiches most think of the po’ boy as the New Orleans sandwich. I do love the roast beef po’ boy and make it often but there’s something about the muffuletta. After having it in the French Quarter, not even from the place that invented it, I absolutely loved it. How could a sandwich so good not be known outside of New Orleans? Why isn’t every sandwich shop not making it?
This is my campaign to tell the masses to try the muffuletta! Go to New Orleans and get a real one! Make the muffuletta, love it, pass it on, and tell everyone what they are missing. One of the main reasons I wanted to do this blog was to show off this cuisine. This type of food out of New Orleans. I should have named the blog “Muffuletta Eric” but… I didn’t.
The sandwich has been around for over a hundred years. There are many variations to try. So many versions in and around New Orleans. If your lucky you may get one outside of Louisiana. It may be good or not. But try it.
In New Orleans it’ll be on the muffuletta loaf. It’s impossible to get it outside of New Orleans unless you have an Italian bakery that does it but an Italian loaf works just as fine. There are recipes for the bread but I don’t bake so I don’t have a recipe for that to share. Here’s my version of the sandwich I love:
MUFFULETTA
Ingredients:
- 1 Italian loaf bread (unless you can get a muffuletta loaf)
- 1 recipe of olive salad
- genoa salami
- hot capicola
- mortadella or ham
- sliced mozzarella
- provolone
The airy Italian bread makes the muffuletta seem huge!
Cut the loaf in half. Brush both sides with the olive oil from the salad on both sides of the bread.
From the bottom up, layer genoa salami, mortadell/ham, mozzarella cheese, hot capicola, provolone cheese, then more genoa salami.
Top with the olive salad. Cover with the top of bread. You may need to cut the sandwich in half.
Eric’s Olive Salad
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups crushed green olives, crushed
- 1/2 cup crushed black calamatta olives, pitted, crushed
- 1 cup gardiniera (picked cauliflower, carrots, celery), chopped
- 1 tbsp capers, chopped
- 1/4 cup roasted red peppers, chopped
- 1/8 cup celery, chopped fine
- 1 tbsp green onion, chopped fine
- 3 1/4 tsp garlic
- 1 tbsp parsley
- 1 tbsp oregano
- 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
- 3 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1 1/2 cups olive oil
Once you start eating the muffuletta, the bread presses down making the sandwich look a little regular.
Crush both green olives and black olives. I smash them on the cutting board I use to dice everything up with. Chop all the ingredients that need to be chopped. Then mix everything together in a bowl. Pour the olive oil over top. Cover the bowl and shake to mix.
Once everything is combined and mixed. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours. I usually wait 24 hours.
Leftovers can be stored in jars in the refrigerator for months. They can be used in plenty other recipes. I’ll pass those on soon. With all the jar ingredients I buy (olives, gardiniera, caper, roasted red peppers etc), there is usually enough to make two batches. I keep a lot of it and pass out a lot.
Spoon the olive salad over the meats and you have one of the greatest sandwiches, the Muffuletta. Enjoy and pass it on!
Blackened Blue Burger
A group of onlookers watch a brass band play on as a fog rolls in across Jackson Square in the French Quarter. The fog lifts off the Mississippi River as the cold water of the north runs down and out to the Gulf of Mexico.
Almost a 1000 miles north, the Hot 8 Brass Band pumps out a speaker as a fog of a different kind starts to roll across the kitchen. The smoke fills the room and seeps out throughout the rest of the house. Obviously the smoke detector batteries need to be changed since they can make it through this.
I almost think I may need to crawl to get around the house. I put the ceiling fan on high. Open the nearby windows as the stove fan blasts on high drowning out the Hot 8’s cover of “Sexual Healing”. Surely the cold brisk January air with a cold breeze should help clear out the house. Yes, the smoke cloud has invaded the house.
As my wife fans her way to the kitchen I quickly start flipping the hamburgers… another poof of smoke hurls out into the air. She doesn’t need to remind me that I should have bought a grill, an out-door grill!
The joys of cooking blackened burgers… indoors!
I use my Zatarain’s brand Blackening Season every so often. The main reason I don’t use it more is that I don’t have an outdoor grill and the smoke damage that it can cause cooking indoors, is well, disrupting to my wife.
I love a blackened hamburger or steak. The trick is a cast iron pot. Heat the pot on medium-high with nothing in it. Get a little oil on the steak or chicken then cover it in the blackening seasoning. Set the meat in the pan. Smoke will lift! It should take no more than 5 minutes, then flip until done. You shouldn’t have to flip the meat any more times. Be careful of the smoke if you do, do it indoors – make sure it’s well ventilated.
I’ve read that the process of blackening meats has only been around for about thirty years or so. I thought it was a long time Cajun style technique. There have been stories that have come out of people using a method of “blackening” meats throughout Louisiana further back then thirty years. A process that’s been passed down from generations and never really documented other than it just being a family recipe maybe told only in the oral tradition. But others say that that’s not the case, it was Chef Paul Prudhomme of K-Paul’s in New Orleans who “invented” the process. As he made the Cajun/Creole cooking popular in the 80’s, he came up with a process to sear the meats causing it to “blacken” which gave the meats a peppery black crust. This blackening technique quickly caught on. Soon after everyone was blackening meats. Anything from fish to steaks to hamburgers can be blackened. The Creole/Cajun New Orleans style store-bought mixes got popular and all had a blackening season mix.
The ingredients are usually paprika, cayenne pepper, white pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, oregano along with salt and pepper. But the main ingredient, besides the meat of course, is a HOT skillet. Again, the best is a cast iron skillet.
But as is the case with most of Creole/Cajun cooking, it’s a fuzzy history. Chef Paul Prudhomme is credited for developing the process, perfecting the technique, and possibly inventing the concept of blackening a piece of meat. Even if Chef Paul did not “invent” the process, he made it “known” to everyone else. He had the means to share this information to the masses back in a time when there was no internet and mass media. Whatever the case, it’s good. And as my wife would tell you – it’s good… but better outdoors!
BLACKENED BLUE BURGER
Ingredients:
- 1 lbs ground beef
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp salt
- blackened seasoning
- crumbled blue cheese
- buns
Mix the ground beef with the Worcestershire sauce, garlic, pepper and salt. Mold the mixed beef into hamburger patties. This should make 4 burgers. For more hamburgers, just double the recipe.
Cover both sides of the burgers with the blackened seasoning. I use Zatarains brand seasoning.
Grill the burgers until cooked. You should only need to turn the burgers one time.
Once finished, I preheat the oven at 350 degrees, sprinkle the blue cheese onto the burgers, and with the bun I pop them in the oven for maybe a minute or two to toast the bread.
You can add sliced tomatoes, pickles and lettuce after the oven step.
If you are in Michigan on Friday January 13th, the Hot 8 Brass Band will be playing in Clinton Township at the Macomb Community College Center of Performing Arts. I’ll be there.
From their Facebook page:
Chicken with Green Olives and Cranberries
There is one dish that I absolutely love and crave. It’s the meal that I had in New Orleans that made me, once I got home, research and figure out how to make it. I have my version that I make a few times a year once the craving comes on. It’s coming soon! It’s the muffuletta. I believe it is one of the greatest sandwiches anywhere. I’ll get more into it at a different time though.
You have to love green olives to love the muffuletta. One of the main ingredients is the green olive salad. I start to get that taste for green olives. I’ll have them with crackers or just on the side of a different meal. So when I come across a recipe that has green olives in it, well I want to try it. I usually buy a huge jar of green olives for the muffuletta so I have plenty leftovers to find something to do with.
I found this recipe on Yahoo! somewhere on the main page. I can’t remember exactly where or what it was for but it looked great so I wrote the recipe down, filed it away, and now that I have green olives it’s the perfect time to make this. I’m sorry to who ever out there made this and I can’t reference.
On their recipe, with the green olives, they use prunes and suggested you could also use dried plums instead. I couldn’t find either at the grocery store so I resorted to dried cranberries. It still tasted good but I’d make it again with the prunes. Here it is:
CHICKEN WITH GREEN OLIVES AND CRANBERRIES
Ingredients:
- 1 lbs boneless chicken breasts
- 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 1/4 cup chopped pitted green olives
- 1/4 cup dried cranberries (or dried plums or prunes)
- salt and pepper to taste
Heat the olive oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook until it browns. It should take about 2 minutes for each side.
Add the chicken broth and red wine vinegar. Stir in to make sure the chicken is not stuck to the bottom of the pan. Lower heat to a simmer (low) and add in the green olives, cranberries and salt and pepper.
Cover and cook until the chicken is cooked through. It should be about 15 minutes.
Once finished, place the chicken on a plate and spoon the sauce over it. Add sides and serve. Enjoy!
If you have a suggestion or an idea for a meal with green olives, I’d love to hear it and possibly try it. Send me an email at redbeansanderic@gmail.com.
Roast Beef Po’ boy
In 1922, Bennie and Clovis Martin quit their jobs as streetcar operators in New Orleans. Jobs they had since the mid-1910’s. They left their jobs to open Martin Brothers’ Coffee Stand and Restaurant in the French Market.
The former streetcar operators and street railway employees’ union members watched as in 1929, the streetcar motormen and conductors strike carried on across the country in what was one of the nations most violent strikes.
In New Orleans, during the heated negotiations, a riot broke out. Two strikers were killed, five trolleys were burned, and tracks were damaged. The company attempted to run the cars using “striker breakers”, career criminals brought in from New York. Since the strikers had the public support the crowds stopped them. More the 10,000 New Orleanians gathered downtown and watched the strike supporters disable and burn the streetcar operated by a strike breaker.
Bennie and Clovis took pity on the strikers. The strike had been going on for months. The workers were low on money. So, to show their support, they offered those “poor boys” sandwiches made from leftovers to any workers who came to the restaurant at the end of the day. A striker could get a sandwich filled with gravy with roast beef trimmings or gravy and sliced potatoes.
Bennie Martin said, “We fed those men free of charge until the strike ended. Whenever we saw one of the striking men coming, one of us would say, ‘Here comes another poor boy.'”
By the start of the Great Depression, the carmen had lost the strike and their jobs. The continuing generosity of the Martins as well as the size of the sandwiches proved to be a wise business decision that earned them renown and hundreds of new customers.
There began the start of New Orleans most famous sandwich… the Roast Beef Po’ boy.
You can search and find many varieties besides the roast beef. You can now get hot sausage, shrimp, oyster, catfish, soft-shell crabs as well as French fries and ham and cheese po’ boys throughout New Orleans. There is the Po’ Boy Festival in New Orleans every November. Some of the history above is from their website.
But what makes a po’ boy?
A po’ boy is served on a french bread. Not a hoagie or sub bun, but just french bread. You can buy the french bread at any bakery or WalMart. In New Orleans, they have french bread made just for the po’ boys – it’s narrower. If you can’t get it at your local bakery, just buy the french bread and cut it down the center making two narrow loaf.
With whatever meat style you decide, using the roast beef since this is what’s being made, you can either get it dressed or undressed. Undressed is plain obviously. Dressed is with shredded lettuce, tomato slices, pickles, mayo and creole mustard. You could even add provolone cheese if you wanted.
Roast Beef Po’ boy
Ingredients:
- 2-3 pounds Chuck Roast Beef (cut into a few chunks)
- 1/2 cup Flour
- 1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1/2 tsp Onion Salt
- 1/2 tsp Creole Seasoning
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Black Pepper
- 1 cup Vegetable Oil
- 1 tsp Kitchen Bouquet
- Drops of Worcestershire Sauce
- 4 cups Stock Water (reserved from beef)
For the dressed Po’ boy:
- Shredded Lettuce
- Tomato, sliced
- mayonnaise
- Creole Mustard
- Pickles
- French Bread (cut lengthwise, then halved)
Place the beef in a large pot. Fill with water until the beef is covered by about 2 inches. Remove the beef from the water, then bring the water to a rolling boil. Carefully place the beef back in the pot. Let the water come back to a rolling boil then reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer on low for 1 1/2 hours. Don’t let the water boil.
Once the beef has finished, transfer to a plate and place it in the refrigerator. Let it cool.
Take 4 cups of the water and place in a different pan. Heat… whisk in the flour, seasonings, kitchen bouquet, and oil. Once it comes to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
Preheat oven at 350 degrees… remove beef from refrigerator and slice. Make sure the slices are cut thin. Once cut, place the beef in a cassarol dish. Save 1 cup of the gravy and set aside. Pour the rest of the gravy over the beef. Cover pan with foil and bake for 30-45 minutes.
To dress the po’ boy:
Cut the french bread lengthwise, then cut it in half. Open the bread. Spread mayonnaise on both sides. Spread Creole Mustard on top half along with the lettuce, tomato and pickles. Place a nice amount of roast beef and gravy on the bottom bread. Fold together.
Remember, “if it ain’t messy, it ain’t a po’ boy!” So plenty of napkins is a must.
Preheat oven at 350 degrees… place the Po’ boy’s on a baking sheet and place in the oven for only a couple of minutes. Just enough to heat and crisp the top, 3-4 minutes.
Serve with fries. If you want, save some of the gravy to cover the fries and top with cheese!
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