A plate of red beans and rice with sausage from The Chimes restaurant in Baton Rouge, Louisiana |
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| Origin | |
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| Place of origin | United States |
| Region or state | Louisiana |
| Dish details | |
| Main ingredient(s) | Red beans, Rice, Onion, Celery, Bell Pepper, Pork bones & spices |
Red beans and rice is an emblematic dish of Louisiana Creole cuisine (not originally of Cajun cuisine) traditionally made on Mondays with red beans,[1] vegetables (bell pepper, onion and celery), spices (thyme, cayenne pepper, and bay leaf) and pork bones as left over from Sunday dinner, cooked together slowly in a pot and served over rice. Meats such as ham, sausage (most commonly Andouille), and Tasso ham are also frequently used in the dish. It is an old custom from the time when ham was a Sunday meal and Monday was washday. A pot of beans could sit on the stove and simmer while the women were busy scrubbing clothes. Similar dishes are common in Latin American cuisine, including moros y cristianos and gallo pinto.
Red beans and rice is one of the few New Orleans style dishes to be commonly cooked both in people's homes and in restaurants. Many neighborhood restaurants continue to offer it as a Monday lunch special, usually with a side order of either smoked sausage or a pork chop. While Monday washdays are largely a thing of the past, red beans remain a staple for large gatherings such as Super Bowl and Mardi Gras parties. Indeed, red beans and rice is very much part of the New Orleanian identity. Celebrated jazz trumpeter and New Orleanian Louis Armstrong's favorite food was red beans and rice. The musician famously signed his name "Red Beans and Ricely Yours, Louis Armstrong”.[2]
This dish is very similar to the vegetarian dish Rajma chawal,[3] which also literally means Red beans and rice, popular in North India. Red beans and rice is also an important staple in Central America, where it is known as "arroz con habichuelas". They are important in Cuban, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Haitian and Jamaican cuisine.
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When the slave rebellion in Haiti (or Saint Domingue as it was called before) began, many of the rich white sugar planters fled to Louisiana, the other main possession of France in the New World at the time. They brought with them red beans from the Caribbean. Red beans and rice was created in the kitchens of New Orleans' French Quarter. The dish quickly gained in popularity and became a fixture of the cuisine of New Orleans.
Red kidney beans or small red beans are used and they are usually (but not always) soaked beforehand. Onion, celery, and usually a bit of garlic are sautéed briefly. Some people choose to include bell pepper, thus completing the trinity. The vegetables should be diced finely so that they will melt away once the dish is done. The beans and water are added as is a ham bone. Diced ham may also be included. Seasoning includes salt, thyme, bay leaf and cayenne pepper. While Cajun (and to a lesser extent Creole) cooking is often thought of as being very spicy, red beans are prepared on the mild side and are usually served with a bottle of hot sauce nearby.
The beans take about two hours to cook. The best versions of the dish offer an interesting contrast in texture. The overall effect should be creamy, but the beans themselves should be firm (not mushy and certainly not crunchy). To increase the creaminess of the beans, some cooks choose to mash up to a quarter of the beans in the last half hour or so of cooking (smash the beans against the side of the pot using the back of a large spoon). To get an even creamier texture, some chefs will gradually incorporate butter into the beans during the last ten minutes.
Some people will cook smoked sausage with the beans, but traditionally, the sausage or pork chops were cooked on the side.
White rice is cooked separately. Sausage may be cooked and served separately or may be sliced and incorporated into the beans during cooking. When being served buffet style for a party, the rice and beans should be kept apart and assembled as needed by the guests. When served on a plate, the rice is usually mounded in the center, perhaps with a bit of parsley. The beans are spooned all around the rice, and if sausage has been prepared separately a piece is placed on one side. Chopped green onion is an optional garnish, and a bottle of hot sauce should always be available.
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