Robin’s Red Beans and Rice

Sam Inge, from Mobile, hated two things: Auburn and Pat Dye.  Watching an Iron Bowl with Sam is a trip.  He never shuts up.  Watching the game with Sam when Auburn wins is priceless.  Sam came up with this Red Beans a Rice recipe and over the years Robin has modified it.  What is great about this recipe is it is easy and can be fixed fast.  Most red bean and rice recipes take a long time to cook and the consistency is like mud.  This is a “pretty” recipe with the individual ingredients separate, it is not the classic New Orleans “creamy” red beans and rice recipe.  The secret ingredient is Old Bay Seasoning.  It gives the red beans a Gulf flavor.

2 pounds hickory smoked sausage

1 chopped green bell pepper

1 chopped red bell pepper

2 chopped onions

2 stalks chopped celery hearts (pealed)

1 tablespoon of Old Bay Seasoning

1 stick of butter

3 swooshes Ball’s Cajun Seasoning

6 big dashes Paul Prudohommes Vegetable Seasoning

1 fresh bay leaf (3 dried)

2 cans of light kidney beans (drained)

2 cans of dark kidney beans (drained)

2 cans of low sodium chicken broth

½ jigger of sherry

6 quart cast iron pot

In a cast iron pot brown the 2 pounds of cut up sausage, one pound cut up in quarters and one in rounds.  Remove the sausage from the pot and place aside when brown.  Sauté the green and red bell pepper, onions and celery in a stick of butter.  After the trinity is soft add on can of chicken broth and the Cajun seasoning.  Simmer for 15 minutes. Add Old Bay Seasoning, Paul Prudohommes Vegetable seasoning, bay leave(s), kidney beans, the other can of chicken broth and the sherry to the pot and add back the sausage. Cook for 15 minutes and serve over rice.  This recipe can be thickened with corn starch or flour (mix with water first).

Red Snapper Vera Cruz

I cooked this dish for Earl and Carol McMurphy in June of 2004 at the Ono Island house.  Also at dinner that night was Dr. Donald Kirby and his wife Jean.  I believe, even though Donald humbly denies, that he saved David McMurphy’s life 15 yearsago when David had Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.  Almost impossible to detect and not something that you would think someone would have here in Alabama, Donald gave the necessary antibiotic to treat David.  Only later was it discovered that Donald was correct.  (He claims he had some help from other doctors.  I say let me tell this story the way I want to tell it.)

This dish is for you.

28 ounce can diced tomatoes in juice, well drained, juices reserved

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

¼ cup finely chopped white onion

3 large garlic gloves, chopped

3 small bay leaves

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano

¼ cup chopped pitted green olives

2 tablespoons raisins

2 tablespoon drained capers

6 red snapper fillets

3 pickled jalapeño chilies, halved lengthwise

Place drained tomatoes in medium bowl.  Using a potato masher, crush tomatoes to coarse puree.  Drain again, reserving juices.

Place olive oil in skillet and sauté onions for one minute. Add tomatoes, cook for one minute. Add garlic, bay leaves, parsley, oregano and ¼ cup of reserved tomato juices.  Simmer until sauce thickens, about 3 minutes.  Add olives, raisins, capers and all remaining reserved tomato juices.  Simmer until sauce thickens again, stirring occasionally.  About 8 minutes.  Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper.  (Best if made 1 day ahead.  Cover and refrigerate).

Preheat oven to 425°F. Spread 3 tablespoons sauce in bottom of 15x10x2 inch glass baking dish that has been sprayed with Pam.  Arrange fish atop sauce.  Sprinkle fish lightly with salt and pepper.  Spoon remaining sauce over fish.  Bake uncovered until fish is just opaque in center, about 18 minutes.  Garnish with pickled jalapeño halves.

Martin’s Ribs – AKA Coonass Ribs

The object is not to cook the ribs on the Grill but infuse smoke into the Ribs.  Ribs are notorious for being tough.  Most gook rib cookers will not admit that they pre-boil their ribs before putting them on the grill.  I am one of them.  Craig and Nancy Ferguson said I had the best ribs they ever had.  Not bad for an Alabama country boy feeding Oakies, but I admit I boil them for 20 minutes before I put them on the grill.  My friend Martin  has a twist.  He puts them on the grill away from the heat and smokes them first – then puts them in the oven.

Slabs of pork ribs – not beef

Charcoal

Pieces of pecan – water soaked (preferably from a tree in your yard – minerals and stuff)

Prepare charcoal on grill and wait until they turn white always stack my charcoal on one side of the grill and do not spread the coals out.  The heat stays on one side.  Place the pecan wood on the coals.  They will smoke like mad.  Place the ribs on the cooler side of the grill.  I use a Webber Kettle grill and stack the ribs on top of one another.  Rotate the ribs so all sides receive the smoke treatment.  Do this until the coals go out.  This will be an hour to an hour and one half.  If you wish add pecan to coals periodically to keep smoke going.

This technique allows you to cook ribs without worrying about burning them.  I don’t even watch the grill.  I only move the ribs up and down on the stack. After they have been on the grill for 1 ½ hours or so take them off, put them in and aluminum pan or roaster cover with foil and put in the oven at 275 – 300 for 2 hours.

moxiemeals.com

Ok, I am going to shamelessly plug my sister, Alison’s, blog, moxiemeals.com.  Her site is designed for meals that are 30 minutes from start to cleanup.  The recipes are simple and need no fancy ingredients.  They live in a small 7500 person southern town, with the grocery stores consisting of Piggly Wiggly and Winn Dixie (no offense to the Pig or Winn Dixie).  Just very hard to get, say, smoked hot paprika there.  Salt, pepper and generic cajun seasoning is about all you can find.  She also has a different philosophy than me on food.  Although we both like good food; she likes to get it done and go on with life.  I like to have fun cooking, with a drink in my hand.  She likes to eat at 6:00, I eat most often at 10:00.  Follow her site.  The site is good and she is better. Sam

Bread Pudding With Whiskey Sauce

 There are about 1 million ways to make the greatest of all the simple deserts.  I can remember going to New Orleans restaurants and having a great meals but I think the best part of the meal was the bread pudding.  It is the only desert I ever order.  Most of the time the sauce poured over the bread pudding is rum sauce. It is made in the same way as the following whiskey sauce but with rum, not bourbon.  I think the bourbon is much better, more American.

Large loaf of French bread

1 – 12 ounce can of evaporated milk

1 quart of whole milk

2 cups of sugar

3 eggs

¼ cup of raisins

1 pealed diced Red Delicious apple

2 tablespoons of vanilla

1 tablespoon of powered cinnamon

Purchase a large loaf of French bread.  If it is a day or two old all the better.  Bread pudding is better with old hard bread.  Don’t ask me why, it just is.  I have known people to place the bread in the back window of their car for a few days just to get the bread hard.  Cut the bread into small pieces and place in a large bowl.  Pour the milk and evaporated milk over the bread.  Stir well.  Add the sugar, eggs, raisins (they can be omitted), diced apples, cinnamon and vanilla.  Stir well with large wooden spoon.  Here is the trick to the whole process.  Refrigerate overnight.  This refrigeration allows the bread to emulsify and become smooth.  I use two 8-inch square glass baking pans.  The amount of the bread pudding will make two batches.  Place in baking pans (sprayed with Pam) oven at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

Whiskey Sauce

1 sick of unsalted butter

¾ cup of sugar

1 jigger of bourbon

4 tablespoons of milk

In a saucepan melt the butter and add the sugar, milk and bourbon.  This mixture will be thin.  I do not use a thickener although I have had sauces for bread pudding that is thick.

Serve the bread pudding and the sauce hot.

Introduction from Gulf Shores, AL

This is a shrimp boat fleet in Bayou LeBatre, AL.  Most people do not even know Alabama has a Gulf Coast.  We have 32 miles of coast consisting of south Mobile County, Dauphin Island, Fort Morgan, Gulf Shores and Orange Beach.  I live in Gulf Shores, approximately 30 miles from downtown Pensacola, FL.  The beaches here are beautiful, sand as white as snow, with the consistency of sugar.  Here we fish for shrimp, oysters, flounder, speckled trout, grouper, red snapper and redfish in inshore waters.  Tuna, dauphin (the fish, not Flipper) wahoo, and swordfish are offshore food fish.  Marlin, both Blue and White, are caught here also.  In some parts of the world they eat marlin, I have had it, I do not recommend it.  I have also had mackerel sushi,  that is highly un-recommended unless you are an old Japanese man.  We also have deer and wild turkey.  These dishes are an acquired taste.  I am lucky enough to have acquired it, but most people do not like them the first time they eat it.  Grass fed beef comes to mind.

This is not just a food blog, but a blog about the people that love to cook.  I believe that the meals I have eaten are about the friends that I cooked with even more than the food we cooked.  I was born in Alabama, raised in South Carolina, spent 11 years in Southwest Louisiana and now I am back on the Gulf Coast.  I have fond memories of being in the kitchens of Lake Charles friends and eating dinner at 10:00 (or later) at night.  This blog is about the food and more importantly, to me, the stories behind the food. Thank you for following my stories.

Sam