Month: February 2022

red beans and rice new orleans style

  • 1 cup long grained rice such as Basmati or Jasmine
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 1 Goan Chorizo sausage crumbled
  • 1 small red onion, finely sliced
  • 1 capsicum or green bell pepper, diced
  • 1 celery rib plus leaves, finely diced
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 1/2-2 teaspoons powdered Cajun spice mix
  • 200 grams red kidney beans- Rajma or Kashmiri Rajma, drained and rinsed
  • 1 teaspoon hot sauce
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 3 black peppercorn
  • 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves crushed or use half the dried quantity
  • 1 teaspoon fresh oregano leaves crushed or use 1/2 the dried quantity
  • 100 grams small to medium prawns full cleaned
  • 250 grams chicken thighs finely sliced
  • Salt and sugar as required

METHOD

Soak the kidney beans overnight. Cook kidney beans until cook tender and almost mushy in excess water. Drain and reserve. Heat the chicken and 6 cups of water with the bay leaf and black peppercorns in a medium saucepan on a low flame until chicken is tender or you have about 4 cups of water left. Drain the liquid from the chicken. Add the rice to the chicken stock and cook on medium heat until rice is fluffy and edible. Add excess liquid with 2 extra cups of water left in the rice to the kidney beans and cook kidney beans till tender and mushy. Sautethe shrimp in a wide skillet in a teaspoon of oil until just tender.

Heat oil in a large skillet and add sausage and onions and sweat 1-2 minutes. Add green red and yellow bell peppers. Saute 1-2 minutes. Add garlic and tomato paste and stir 1-2 minutes. Add the herbs, beans and their water, cajun spice, cooked chicken, hot sauce and cook until sauce thickens. Stir in shrimp and any liquid in the skillet. Season for salt and add sugar if necessary to balance flavours. Serve hot with fluffy long grained rice.

Red beans and rice New Orleans

BLACK LENTIL AND GOAN CHORIZO SOUP WITH WINTER GREENS

SABUT KALA MASUR OR WHOLE BLACK LENTIL WITH CHORIZO AND WINTER GREENS SOUP

This nourishing soup can be made using a variety of winter greens- batwa, sarson, spinach, collard greens, kale or Swiss chard. You can use regular chorizo, kielbasa even a smoked chicken sausage instead of the spicy Goan chorizo. To make it vegetarian replace the sausage links with the bottoms of white mushrooms and add a teaspoon of porcini powder to the lentils. While the feta or parmesan is a nice finishing touch parsley and lemon on its own is perfectly good too incase you want to skip the dairy.

Ingredients for 4

1/2 cup whole black masur or black lentils washed and drained

1 bay leaf dried

2 tbspn extra virgin olive oil

3/4 cup finely sliced leeks or green onions

1 Goa chorizo sausage – about 2.5 tablespoons of crumbled sausage once the casing is discarded or 1/2 tsp porcini mushroom powder

1 tsp minced garlic

1/2 cup chopped tomato

3 tbsp tomato puree

1 cup of winter greens of your choice, washed and chopped

1 cup carrots sliced and halved

1 tsp fresh oregano or 1/2 tsp dried flakes

1 tsp black pepper ground

6 cocktail chicken sausages chopped into 2-3 pieces or use the stalks of white mushrooms (pan fry them lightly)

salt, sugar, hot sauce or paprika or cayenne pepper to taste

1/4 cup chopped parsley, crumbled feta or parmesan and wedges of lemon as desired

METHOD

A HOT AND NOURISHING SOUP PACKED WITH PROTEIN, GREENS AND FLAVOUR.

Heat olive oil in a large deep saucepan and saute onions, bay leaf and chorizo about 1-2 minutes. Add tomato and tomato puree and cook till soft. Add garlic and saute 1 minute. add washed lentils 4 cups of water, black pepper, oregano, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar or honey, 1 tsp hot sauce or cayenne pepper, carrots, and cook till lentils are tender but hold their shape. Add more water and cook again if you do not have the desired consistency.

Add the panfried sausages or mushroom stalks and chopped greens of your choice and cook 1-2 more minutes on medium heat. Spoon into bowls.

Garnish each bowl with chopped parsley and feta or parmesan and a wedge or lemon if desired.