not your typical white person

ham hock boilin' away in red beans
Originally uploaded by lornababy

quick post. when i was buying the ingredients to make up some red beans and rice for our tailgate party tomorrow (go bruins!), i had to ask the butcher if they had any ham hocks because there weren't any out in the open cases. the other person standing at the counter at the time, a black guy about my age, turned to me and said, "ham hocks? you are NOT a typical white person!" i thanked him for the complement and left the store grinning ear to ear!

update - because joanna asked so nicely and she is such a good friend of the blog, here's the recipe. p.s., sorry, j, this won't ever be entered for consideration on the heart of the matter! anyway, here it is...

auntie lil bird's n'awlins red beans and rice

(adapted from emeril's red beans and rice from his louisiana real and rustic cookbook)

1 lb dried small red beans, rinsed and sorted, soaked overnight and drained
2 tbsp canola oil
1 c chopped onions
1/2 c chopped bell pepper
1/2 c chopped celery
2 tsp salt
1 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp dried thyme
4 bay leaves
1 lb boiled ham, cut into 1/2 in cubes
1 smoked ham hock (skin scored crosswise)
8 oz smoked sausage, cut in half then into 1/4 in slices (half moons, if you will)
3 tbsp chopped garlic
8 - 10 c water
steamed white rice

bust out your large heavy pot (le creuset or similar works best) and saute the trinity (onions, peppers, celery) and spices for about 5 mins over med-high heat. add the bay leaves, ham and ham hock and saute for an additional 5 or so minutes. (note, i did not say to add the sausage yet. simon says, back to the beginning!) add the garlic and saute until you start to smell it but before it burns. add the beans and then enough water to cover all ingredients. bring to a boil, then reduce heat. simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally. add more water, if things start to get too dry and thick. at about the 2 hour mark, take your spoon and start mashing the beans against the side of the pot until you've mashed about 1/2 of the beans. (tip from auntie, do this on the side of the pot that is facing the back of the stove, in case you push the pot, it won't fall off the stove and spill boiling beans all over you!) this is the critical step as this is what gives the dish its creamy texture. now stir in your cut up sausage pieces and continue to stir for another 1 1/2 hours or so until mixture is creamy and beans are soft. feel free to add more water, the texture should be liquid but not watery, ifyaknowwhutimean. before serving, remove the bay leaves and the ham hock, salvage any of the non-fatty meat from the hock and return it to the pot. serve over steamed white rice with plenty of crystal hot sauce and an ice cold abita amber beer.



as a bit of history - red beans and rice is still typically served on mondays in new orleans. the reason: monday was wash day and a pot of red beans was easy to cook as it could be left relatively unattended while the lady of the house was busy all day in the yard with the laundry.

Let's go Dutch

The Dutch I'm speak about is my new found love, Dutch Oven cooking. This is not that chic little Mario Batali number they sell at Crate and Barrel, nope it's the original outdoor cooking pot. They say the West would not have been settled without it. Since we do a lot of camping I decided I'd give it a try.

This will be a method much more than a recipe.

For hardware you need:

• Outdoor Dutch Oven with a flanged lid and bottom legs that allow you to place your coals
• Heavy gloves
• Charcoal and a way to light it, I used the chimney
• Long tongs
• A lid lifter; my darling made mine
• and all the other normal cooking tools

Here's the software:

• three chicken thighs
• three chicken Italian sausages
• fresh thyme
• chopped onion, celery, and garlic
• 1 cup of raw rice
• 2 cups chicken broth

Once I started the coals I put all 21 of them under the pot. This gave me enough heat to brown the mean and saute the vegetables.

I did remove the skin from the chicken thighs as it gets rubbery when cooked. After adding the chicken broth and bringing it to a boil I then redistributed the coals.

When you bake you want more on top than the bottom so 14 on top and 7 on the bottom should keep the pot at about 325/50 degrees.

Now to keep everything from burning I gave the lid a quarter turn each fifteen minutes and the pot every 30 minutes. After 30 minutes I lifted the lid and gave everything a stir. It was boiling, not simmer so I removed the lid to vent a bit of the heat. After it stopped boiling I replaced the lid for another 15 minutes. After 45 minutes I removed all the coals and let it set while I finished the rest of my dinner. Cast iron retains heat quite well so it stayed nice and warm.

Because I cooked the rice too hot it blew apart and was a bit mushy. I might cut back on the broth, too. Less coals is what was needed and more checking. There is a fine line with the checking; too much and you lose heat.

Chicken, rice and sausage, what was I thinking. It did need a little color and next time I'd add some red pepper or mushrooms and definitely some chopped parsley for a better presentation.

There is a lot of ash from the coals and I should have had a little whisk brush to get rid of them. I'll add that to my list. Also, lifting the lid must be done with care as not to add the ash to dinner. I never tasted any in this go around.

All in all, it was fun and I plan to take it with us next time we go out in the tear drop. I think I'll need more practice before I try making biscuits or rolls or maybe cornbread, though. When camping there were many who tried cakes and desserts. Some were good and other, well I'll have to try before I criticize.

here comes the sun

so, because i am becoming such a little greenie (not the dog treat, mind you), i recently decided that i wanted a solar oven. what's that, you ask? well, basically, it's a dark plastic box with a clear plastic lid that collects heat inside and gets hot enough to cook food. i found out about this earth saving cooking device from the path to freedom urban homestead folks. a popular brand of oven, called a solar sport, is made by the solar oven society. this great company is not only helping to save the environment, they're helping women and families in third world countries that are sun rich, but fuel poor. some women in africa have to spend a full day searching for wood just to have enough fuel to cook their food. the solar oven allows them to use the sun's energy as a free and endlessly renewable resource to cook their food while simultaneously freeing up their time for jobs, for other chores and to spend with their families. another problem with using wood as cooking fuel is that the wood not only adds excessive amounts of carbon to the atmosphere, it is usually burned in closed areas risking injuries from fires and increasing health problems from the families that constantly have to breathe in all that smoke. another great use for the solar oven is to make it simple to use the sun to make safe drinking water by pasteurization. every purchase of a solar oven from the solar oven society helps to fund the organization's efforts to distribute solar ovens in developing countries.

my loving family bought me one for my birthday (thanks, family!) and, i'm embarrassed to say, it promptly sat on the inside of my house for almost two months. work's been a little crazy recently and that, coupled with june gloom, has made it difficult for me to find a day that i'm not at the office and is also sunny enough to use the oven. well, today was the day and i decided to test out my solar oven! i haven't been to the market in a while and i didn't have much on hand, so i decided to keep it simple for my first test and just make a pot of basmati rice. at about 11 am, i put the rice and water in the pot (two black camping-style cooking pots come with the oven), arranged the oven facing south in direct sun on a table on my rooftop patio and put the pot in the oven...



then i clipped the clear plastic top on the oven and let it be (now that's the real meaning of "set it and forget it," mr. popeil)...



the oven also comes with an oven thermometer, which i put in so i could see how hot my oven would get. after setting everything up, i set about pottering around in my garden for a while. after about 15 minutes, the temperature inside the oven was almost 150 degrees. by about 45 minutes to an hour, it was up over 200. the manual said it takes about two hours to cook rice, so i left it to cook and went about my day. about two hours later, i went back upstairs to my patio and checked out the oven. the temperature inside was about 225. i opened up the oven and lifted the lid off the pot to find this...



...a perfectly cooked, steaming pot of basmati rice - i kid you not!



i was so excited! i cooked food with the sun! it was so simple and didn't heat up my kitchen and didn't add to my carbon footprint and all the energy was free! i can't wait to try out some other foods. i'm thinking during the weekdays, i could use it as an electricity-free crock pot and make stuff like red beans for red beans and rice, indian-style dal and stews and such. i'm really looking forward to doing some low and slow braising, like alton brown's baby back ribs. i also got the reflectors for the oven, which direct more sunlight into the inside so you can boost the temperature up to 300 to do baking. can't wait to try that either. yay!