Lima beans, green beans, corn, pork, and sweet potatoes are among the ingredients in a Caldo soup served at Los Isleños Heritage and Cultural Society’s 41st annual Fiesta in St. Bernard, Louisiana. (Photo by Marie de Grado)

When it comes to exotic Louisiana subcultures that have captured the popular imagination, the Cajuns and Creoles have cornered the market. Thanks to larger-than-life culinary ambassadors such as Paul Prudhomme and Justin Wilson; Hollywood depictions such as Swamp People; and music crazes such as Rockin’ Sidney’s zydeco hit “My Toot Toot,” most of America has pegged the whole of Louisiana as happy-go-lucky, alligator-wrestling, French-speaking bon vivants.

But let’s not forget Louisiana’s “Spanish tinge,” to lift a phrase from New Orleans jazz giant Jelly Roll Morton. Past the Lower 9th Ward and down the road through St. Bernard Parish toward Delacroix Island live the Isleños — “masters of the marsh” who are just as culturally intriguing as the Cajuns, except they habla español rather than parle francais.

A Louisiana Isleño checks his muskrat trap in the marshes near Delacroix Island in 1941. (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)

Los Isleños: Canary Islanders Who Settled in Louisiana

Under the radar for centuries, and yet practically in New Orleans’ backyard, are the descendants of Canary Islanders, or “Isleños,” who immigrated from the archipelago off the African coast in the 1770s and ’80s and settled in four Louisiana locations, the most enduring of which is St. Bernard, just east of New Orleans.

Charbroiled oysters are served at Los Isleños Heritage and Cultural Society’s 41st annual Fiesta in St. Bernard on March 9-10. (Photo by Marie de Grado)

Isleño Culture and Food Traditions Survive for Generations

Like the Cajuns, the Isleños became farmers, hunters, trappers, and fishers in the dense, swampy terrain. Generation after generation thrived in the isolated cypress groves along Bayou Terre-aux-Boeufs, living self-sufficiently off the bounty of land and sea and selling their wares in New Orleans markets. Their Hispanic language and customs were preserved through their seclusion, and yet they also adapted their lifestyles to the unique lay of the Louisiana land.

Boat models on display at the Isleño museum complex in St. Bernard depict the fishing and maritime lifestyles of the Canary Island descendants. (Photo by Marie de Grado)

Amazingly, their frozen-in-time 18th-century Spanish dialect survived the centuries, encapsulated in orally transmitted folk songs known as decimas, right up through Hurricane Katrina in 2005. And while their cuisine has much in common with Cajun cooking, drawing its ingredients from the same region, a few distinct dishes with roots in the Canary Islands are still served today.

Bacon-wrapped plantains are served at Los Isleños Heritage and Cultural Society’s 41st annual Fiesta in St. Bernard on March 5-6. (Photo by Marie de Grado)

Isleño Cookbook a Roadmap to Hidden Culinary Treasures

Thanks to the preservation and outreach efforts of groups like Los Isleños Heritage and Cultural Society, which celebrates its annual “Los Isleños Fiesta”, the world is starting to awaken to the legacy of the Isleños.

And food is a large part of the Isleños’ identity. The Isleño society’s cookbook features Canarian-style dishes such as Besugo al Horno (Baked Red Snapper with Potatoes), Chayotes Rellenas (Stuffed Mirliton in Sauce), Gambas al Ajillo (Garlic Shrimp), and Empanadillas de Chorizo (Sausages in Pastry). Also offered are recipes for local specialties like Alligator Stew, Marinated Shrimp, and Duck Sauce Piquante, as well as numerous bean dishes.

Saveur magazine has profiled Isleño food traditions, and Bizarre Foods host Andrew Zimmern even visited “Da Parish” and sat down with some locals for a bowl of Caldo.

Caldo: An Old World Stew Rules This Bayou

Caldo is the most famous Isleño dish, a complex vegetable soup that employs a medley of diverse ingredients, much like a Cajun or Creole gumbo, but without a roux.

Navy beans (or limas) are the Caldo’s centerpiece, supplemented by components such as pickled pork, fresh green beans, corn, red potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, and squash. Of course, like gumbo, each Caldo recipe can vary from cook to cook or family to family, and depends on whatever ingredients are on hand at any given time.

The Caldo recipe presented here is from Isleño elder stateswoman Dorothy L. Benge, whose family donated land that serves as part of the overall Isleño museum complex. According to Benge, this recipe, which uses both salt pork and pickled pork, is “from my grandmother, Camille Silvera Molero, 1891-1976.”

A pot of Caldo simmers at a recent Isleño Fiesta. (Photo from Los Isleños Heritage and Cultural Society’s Facebook page)

Caldo Recipe

Ingredients:

1 pound salt pork*
1 pound pickled pork*
1 cup dried Navy Beans, soaked overnight
3 ears corn, cut into 6 or 9 pieces
2 cups Large Lima Beans (fresh or frozen, optional)
3 small sweet potatoes (whole or halved)
6 to 8 small Irish potatoes (whole or halved)
1 medium head cabbage, sliced
1 pound fresh green beans
1 or 2 Knorr caldo concentrado de jamon (ham bouillon cubes) to taste
3 quarts water
Salt to taste

Directions:
Place salt pork in pot. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Boil 5 to 10 minutes to remove some of the salt from the pork. Drain and rinse, discarding the water. Drain beans from overnight water and rinse. Add beans and salt pork and pickled pork to stockpot with 3 quarts water. Bring to a boil and cook until beans are tender, about 1 hour. Add remaining vegetables and bouillon cubes. Cook until potatoes are done, about 20 to 30 minutes. Add more water if needed. Add salt. Serve over rice. Serves 10 to 12.

An Isleño models a traditional Canary Islands dress at the March Isleño Fiesta in St. Bernard. (Photo by Marie de Grado)

Go Soak Up Some Isleño Celebrations

Every March the museum complex at 1345 Bayou Road in St. Bernard is the site of the annual Isleño heritage fiesta, full of rich history, beautiful scenery and architecture, authentic arts and crafts, live music and dance, and delicious food. Besides Caldo, fest-goers gorge on shrimp, oysters, and fish; Louisiana classics such as jambalaya and gumbo; and Spanish favorites such as paella, flan, and sangria. This year’s fiesta takes place Saturday, March 7th – Sunday, March 8th, 2026.

Also be sure to catch Chalmette’s 2026 St. Bernard Irish Italian Isleños Parade, which will feature 50 floats, 30+ marching groups, and 300,000 pounds of fresh produce (cabbage, potatoes, onions, carrots, etc.) for whipping up your own batch of Caldo at home! The parade rolls Saturday, April 11th, 2026 at 11 am.

*Salt pork usually comes from the fattiest part of the pork belly but is neither smoked nor cured like bacon, just generously salted for preservation. No other seasonings are added.

Pickled pork often is made from meatier cuts and has been rubbed and layered with a mix of salt and pickling spices such as mashed cloves, ground allspice, chopped onions, and bay leaves. The meat is rendered supremely tender and is preseasoned from the brine.

Both salt pork and pickled pork are used to flavor slow-cooked pots of beans and smothered vegetables. The fat from the salt pork melts into the dish, lending flavor, whereas the generous seasonings used in the brining process for pickled pork are rendered into the pot as the meat breaks down and saturates the pot’s other ingredients with its flavors.

Both salt pork and pickled pork are available in some grocery stores. Pickled pork tends to be more available in south Louisiana. Salt pork is not hard to make — it’s just pork fat and salt. For Caldo, one could use salted pork fat or pork belly as a replacement for salt pork.

Caldo recipe from Los Isleños (Canary Islanders) Cookbook by Los Isleños Heritage & Cultural Society, © Los Isleños Heritage & Cultural Society used by permission of the publisher, Pelican Publishing Company, Inc.

From Plate to Parade: The Red Beans and Rice Krewe Turns Beans into Art

What inspires a group of grown adults to glue beans on their clothes and strut down the street? Like everyone else who has visited New Orleans, Devin DeWulf fell under the city’s spell. DeWulf first created a bean-adorned costume for Halloween in 2007. “I was looking for a good Halloween costume idea and I wanted to link it to New Orleans on a cultural level,”  he said. With the city’s devotion to red beans and rice in mind, and inspired by the meticulous detail of the Mardi Gras Indian suits, an idea was born. DeWulf spent over 40 hours completing his first outfit and it was wildly popular with the Halloween crowds he encountered around town.

Devin DeWulf leads the Red Beans Parade on Lundi Gras

They “Know What It Beans”

Thus inspired, DeWulf started the Krewe of Red Beans in 2008. Incorporating some of the elements of a second line and the Mardi Gras Indian tribes, it is a walking parade which takes place – naturally – on a Monday. Monday has traditionally been the day New Orleanians cook red beans and rice, so Lundi Gras was a natural fit. The first parade in 2009 consisted of about 20 members, but today the krewe boasts more than five times as many.

Even the Krewe’s shoes get “beaned.” (Or in this case, also “riced.”) Image Courtesy of the Red Beans Krewe.

We Know Where You Got Those Shoes!

It’s a loose group of natives and recent arrivals, and the krewe’s philosophy is simple. It’s about meeting and socializing with other creative types while celebrating New Orleans’ quirky culture. Members meet on Monday nights to work on their costumes, have a drink, and eat red beans. The elaborate costumes are a point of pride to the group.

The Red Beans Parade makes its way down Esplanade Avenue. Image Courtesy of the Red Beans Krewe.

Each member makes his or her own costume, and although members do work on their costumes individually at home, the communal costume-making sessions are an important part of the group dynamic. This practice resembles that of the Mardi Gras Indians, who also often work in groups, though the Red Beans Krewe favors tongue-in-cheek themes, with a “Beanior Citizen,” “Audrey BeanBurn,” and “Bean-once Knowles” having marched in past parades.

Riding “Red Beans & Ricely”

The “Beanmobile” being decorated by the Krewe of Red Beans at the Southern Food & Beverage Museum

One of the most prized possessions of the krewe is its “Beanmobile,” a vintage Volkswagen Thing that’s covered from roof to rim with bean designs that famously feature, among other things, a likeness of New Orleans’ most celebrated red beans and rice lover, jazz legend Louis Armstrong. It’s a mobile piece of folk art, a labor of love, and a tribute to a city that celebrates its culture through cuisine – and Carnival parades. It’s an icon for everything this krewe’s “bean” about since 2008.

Detail of the “Beanmobile” decorated by the Red Beans Krewe for their Lundi Gras parade.

On February 16th, the 2026 Red Beans Parade Kicks Off at 2 PM sharp outside of Beanlandia, 3300 Royal St.

Got kids? Bring them along! The spectacular homemade costumes might just inspire them to start their own beans-and-rice beading artwork.

But the Krewe of Red Beans doesn’t stop at one Lundi Gras bean Parade. Their partners in all things beans, known as the Krewe of Dead Beans, launches their own parade from Beanlandia simultaneously.

And now a third group has joined the ranks. Debuting in 2020 and inspired by Cajun and Brazilian culture, The Feijão + Green Beans Parade is yet another off-shoot.

The 2026 Red Beans & Dead Beans Parade Route

Sometimes You’ve Got to Get Your Beans on the Go

Flavorful, inexpensive, and filling, the combination of red beans and rice is an iconic part of Mardi Gras celebrations. Everyone makes them little differently, but no one disputes that homemade is the way to go. If that familiar craving hits while you’re out catching beads, and your mom’s kitchen isn’t on a parade route, here are a few suggestions to tide you over.

Mandina’s Restaurant

Located in Mid City, this true-blue New Orleans neighborhood restaurant only serves red beans and rice on Mondays. Long a local’s favorite dish, the beans here are cooked until they’re soft swimming in their own delicious ‘gravy’ – within which floats a large timbale of long grain rice. Enjoy your beans with smoked sausage, a breaded and fried veal cutlet, or with a pork chop. Any way you have ’em, you’ll get a basket of sliced French bread and butter for the table. Mandina’s, 3800 Canal Street., 492-9179,  mandinasrestaurant.com. Mandina’s is on the Endymion parade route.

Joey K’s Restaurant

For decades one of Uptown New Orleans’ most popular casual eateries, Joey K’s gained a national following after Guy Fieri featured the neighborhood joint on the Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-Ins, & Dives.” Large oval platters of red beans and rice served with grilled smoked sausage are available every day, and they’re particularly fine when paired with the restaurant’s exceptional cornbread that comes to the table gratis. Joey K’s, 3100 Magazine St., 891-0997, joeyksrestaurant.com. Joey K’s is just off of the St. Charles Avenue parade route, where you can catch parades like Muses, Iris, Tucks, Thoth, and Bacchus.

Popeye’s Fried Chicken

Warren LeRuth, the late, great restaurateur, chef, and oft-time culinary chemist, was brought in by Popeye’s founder Al Copeland, Sr., in the 1970s to create the chain’s justifiably famous red beans and rice, the recipe for which is top secret. Cooked until they are a creamy mass with very little texture, the thick, vaguely smoky beans are the standard bearers for many. Served in Styrofoam to-go containers, Popeye’s red beans are particularly satisfying when enjoyed curbside on a parade route. The two locations on the St. Charles Ave./Canal St. parade route include 1243 St. Charles Ave. and 621 Canal St.

Mother’s Restaurant

Regulars at Mother’s Restaurant go straight to the always-in-motion serving/deli line to get their favorite dish – which is often the signature red beans and rice, made with a secret ingredient. Since Mother’s cooks its own ham at the restaurant, there’s a lot of leftover ham fat as a result of trimming. Says Chef Roland Swazy, “It’s the fat that makes the red beans taste good.” Of course, Mother’s also uses Camellia Red Kidney Beans. Mother’s Restaurant is located at 401 Poydras Street, (504) 523-9656, mothersrestaurant.net and is just a few blocks off of the St. Charles Avenue parade route.

Blue Oak BBQ

Although primarily a barbecue restaurant, Blue Oak BBQ founder Ronnie Evans claims that red beans and rice is “…probably my favorite dish on the planet!” Blue Oak’s RB&R come with a barbecue flair, served with brisket and ribs instead of the traditional sausage link. Keep them in mind if you’re hunting for some good red beans while out for Lundi Gras; the red beans and rice combo is a special, only available on Mondays. Blue Oak BBQ is located just one block away from the Endymion Parade route, on 900 N. Carrollton Ave., (504) 822-2583, blueoakbbq.com.

Please-U-Restaurant

Open since 1946, it’s safe to say that Please-U-Restaurant located on St. Charles has experience when it comes to cooking red beans. The traditional diner has an intimate, friendly vibe and serves just about every New Orleans staple that you can think of, but of course we recommend that you check out the red beans and rice. Please-U-Restaurant is located on the St. Charles Avenue parade route, at 1751 St. Charles Ave., (504) 525-9131, pleaseunola.com.

Acme’s Oyster House

Want to really get into the New Orleans spirit during your Mardi Gras celebrations? Why not stop into the world-famous Acme’s Oyster House and eat some of their delectable red beans? Try out Acme’s whether you’re celebrating Mardi Gras in the heart of the city or in the ‘burbs; there’s a location in both the French Quarter and in Metairie. Acme’s Oyster House at 724 Iberville St is just off of the St. Charles Avenue parade route and directly on the route for any French Quarter parade, such as the Krewe de Vieux. The one in Metairie at 3000 Veterans Blvd is on the route for the Krewe of Exclaibur, (504) 522-5973, acmeoyster.com.

The ‘tit Rex parade starts on the neutral ground where crowds can get up close to the floats ©Ryan Hodgson-Rigsbee

The 2026 theme of the Krewe of ‘tit Rex parade is “Fun Size.”

The parade rolls Sunday, February 1st, 2026 at 4:30pm, starting at the intersection of St. Roche Ave & Marais St. For the parade route and more, visit the Krewe of ‘tit Rex site.

From Grade School To Gallery

While most New Orleans carnival groups strive to grow from krewes to super-krewes to mega-krewes, one tight knit collective of artists and Mardi Gras enthusiasts aim to preserve carnival heritage on a smaller scale; some might even say miniature. The Krewe of ‘tit Rex, whose name is a combined tongue-in-cheek reference to the granddaddy of all Mardi Gras krewes – Rex – and the Cajun term of endearment reserved for little brothers, produces a completely unique parade comprised of shoebox sized floats.

Tiny handmade throws are handed out by ‘tit Rex members ©Ryan Hodgson-Rigsbee

“Most of our founding members grew up in New Orleans or Louisiana and had the tradition of turning shoeboxes into Mardi Gras floats in school as kids,” co-founder Brett Evans said.  What was once an elementary school craft, would later take on a new artistic turn. Fast forward to 2009, when krewe founders decided to reconnect their childhood creations with an adult interpretation, and ’tit Rex was born. “My friend from high school, Greg, and I started with a gallery show of these little floats, “ Evans said. “We originally just had the parade go for a few blocks to end at the exhibit.  Soon it just grew from there.”

Traffic is stopped as a tiny shoebox float is pulled across St. Claude Avenue ©Tory M. Taylor

Tradition – With A Tiny Twist

After many back porch sessions with friends and krewe members, ‘tit Rex became as anticipated as the big parade guys on St. Charles Avenue just on a much smaller scale, complete with hand-made miniature floats and throws. According to Evans, ‘tit Rex members stick with the traditions learned from their art teachers back in the classroom.  “Many of our floats follow the traditional shoebox set-up, but with an eye to architectural construction that you just can’t always appreciate with the ‘regular krewes’ because you can see the whole piece without a bunch of people in front of it,” he said.

While the mini-krewe seeks to recall the days of childhood artistic carnival creations, it also carries the Mardi Gras tradition of satire, while poking a little fun at the mega-krewes.  “We wanted to get away from the over the top parades of krewes like Bacchus and Endymion,” Evans notes. “While they want to get bigger and bigger each year, we want to keep ours small.”

‘tit Rex parade viewers get in the spirit with miniature Mardi Gras viewing ladders ©Ryan Hodgson-Rigsbee

The wait list for krewe members is long, but the group sticks to a limit of 28 floats per parade.

Limiting both the size of the floats themselves, as well as the number of floats in the parade, ‘tit Rex continues to pack a big punch in a little parade. “We want to glorify the traditions of the shoebox float and Mardi Gras, but with a strange, weird twist,” Evans said.

As to be expected in New Orleans, the Krewe of Red Beans’ Bean Madness Championship in 2019 was fiercely contested,  bringing red beans and rice to the spotlight of culinary competitions. And, as with any challenge, there can only be one winner. 

The Queen of Red Beans is crowned.

Emily Shaya was crowned the Queen of Red Beans — with her recipe now creating new fans at Miss River, where red beans and rice isn’t just a Monday tradition — it’s celebrated daily. The restaurant, located in the Four Seasons New Orleans Hotel, is part of Pomegranate Hospitality, which owns Saba and Safta’s Kitchen in New Orleans, as well as other restaurants in the U.S. and the Bahamas.

The restaurant’s cuisine is guided by Emily’s husband, Chef Alon Shaya, himself a winner of two James Beard Foundation Awards. But when it comes to red beans and rice at Miss River, which is Chef Alon’s culinary homage to Louisiana cuisine, it’s Emily’s red beans and rice recipe that’s the star.

Studying the art and science of perfect red beans.

So how did this native of Georgia embrace one of the city’s most beloved dishes? Emily’s deep dive into New Orleans food began when she attended Tulane University as an undergraduate and its A.B. Freeman School of Business. Afterwards, while living in Atlanta, she got homesick for New Orleans food. “I missed New Orleans so much that I wanted to bring that piece of it there,” says Emily.

She experimented with cookbook recipes and the instructions on the back of the Camellia Brand Red Kidney Bean bag, brought back ingredients from her trips to New Orleans, and used her creativity to craft her signature dish.

“I decided I really wanted to perfect red beans,” says Emily.

Once she returned to New Orleans for good, her kitchen became a hub for friends and family to gather around simmering pots of beans.

The meat stock is the thing!

The red beans recipe would evolve even more with trips to local grocery stores. “I’d see what kind of interesting meats we could get — sausage or pickled pork … we eventually found pickled turkey necks and experimented with that for a while,” she says. 

A key ingredient became a rich, gelatinous stock made from chicken wings and sometimes pork. “I think the stock is really important,” says Emily. “It makes the beans creamy because the base is not water.” That and simmering the beans all day are “kind of like my secret weapons.”

Another key step for Emily is soaking the beans. “I just think it makes life a little bit easier,” she explains. “You don’t have to watch over the beans as much if you soak them.”

Here’s where to come eat these perfect red beans:

Her red beans recipe was adapted for Miss River, “So it has all the love and care that we do at home. The team here in the kitchen does it every day.” Emily’s red beans and rice are featured in two ways at Miss River: as a side dish, Emily’s Famous Red Beans and Rice, or as an entrée, Emily’s Famous Red Beans and Rice with Buttermilk-fried Chicken.

“We really wanted to pair fried chicken with our red beans and rice,” says Emily. “We’re kind of famous for our fried chicken here. We [also] do a whole chicken that is really a spectacle.”

Why Camellia Brand beans? For Emily, the answer is simple: consistency. “When you are soaking your beans, you can see how clean the water looks. You know you will always get beautiful beans from Camellia.”

Emily, who is a co-founder and director of New Projects at Pomegranate Hospitality, is still making her red beans and rice for family and friends as often as she can.

Whether in her own kitchen or made by the staff at Miss River, each pot carries the same intention: to feed, comfort and create lasting memories.

Emily Shaya’s Famous Red Beans and Rice Recipe

Bring Emily Shaya’s red beans home — a soulful, slow-simmered taste of New Orleans tradition, straight from Miss River’s kitchen.

Courtesy of Emily Shaya | Founder and Director of New Projects, Pomegranate Hospitality (New Orleans: Saba, Saba’s Lounge, Miss River and Chandelier Bar at Four Seasons Hotel New Orleans, Safta’s Table; Denver: Safta, Ceci! Italian Lounge; Bahamas: Silan at Atlantis Paradise Island)

Miss River, Four Seasons Hotel New Orleans, 2 Canal St.; (504) 434-5701, missrivernola.com/; on Instagram. 

Photo: Kat Kimball

Elevating the Meat-and-Three

Like many beloved Southern restaurants, Hot Stuff may look like an unassuming building on the outside with a smoker in the parking lot — but on the inside, a culinary party is waiting to start.

Nathan Barfield, the co-owner of Hot Stuff, wanted to open a “meat-and-three” restaurant – an old school, Southern, cafeteria-style plate lunch spot centered around the tradition of one meat accompanied by three sides and bread.

It’s a style of restaurant found across the South, though mostly outside of New Orleans. But at Hot Stuff, the concept has found a new home.

The menu features meats that include fried chicken, hamburger steak au poivre, Mississippi pot roast, and smoked chicken wings with pineapple habanero white barbecue sauce. Daily specials include New Orleans’ favorite Monday dish, red beans and rice

Photo: Kat Kimball

A Monday Must: Red Beans and Rice

Barfield starts his red beans by soaking the beans overnight. When it’s time to make the beans, he adds the Trinity (bell pepper, onion and celery) to another pot, and sautés it in vegetable oil until soft. Then comes the Creole seasoning, Crystal Hot Sauce, black pepper, salt, red beans and usually a smoked meat.

“It could be a ham hock, or any of the trim when we smoke ribs — in general, some sort of smoked pork,” says Barfield, adding that sometimes it could contain just one type of pork, or a mixture of all three, giving each Monday’s offering a slightly different flavor, but still consistent in taste.

Rather than adding smoked sausage during the cooking process, he instead adds Conecuh sausage on top when serving. Diners can also request the red beans and rice with a piece of chicken or a pork chop.

Barfield, a native of Monroeville, Alabama, learned how to make red beans and rice when he moved to New Orleans. He worked at The High Hat Café, followed by a stint at Turkey and the Wolf. There, he met Hot Stuff’s co-owner Mason Hereford, and the duo came up with the idea for the restaurant.

Barfield only uses Camellia Red Kidney Beans for the dish, as well as the company’s Blackeye Peas for one of the restaurant’s vegan sides.

“It’s the standard. They’re good,” he says, about Camellia Beans. “With other beans, you have to sort through them to see if there are rocks and other things. In the years I have been cooking, I have never had a bad bag of beans. It gives me peace of mind knowing I can just open the bag to use it, and it’s good.”

Photo: Kat Kimball

An Homage to Southern and New Orleans Culture

The attention to detail can also be found in the décor of Barfield’s restaurant with its homage to Southern and New Orleans culture. A Mardi Gras Indian suit from the 9th Ward Seminole tribe, sewn and worn by one of the restaurant’s cooks, Durel Randall, is one of the first things you see upon entering the restaurant.

Photo: Kat Kimball

The back patio — its Southern shack feel adorned with old signs, including one from Bojangle’s — is Barfield’s pièce de résistance. “I like to say it’s like your redneck uncle got hit by a bus, finally got his insurance payout, and he needed to spruce up the area where he drank his beers.”

Hot Stuff, 7507 Maple St.; Mon, Wed, Thurs, 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Fri and Sat. 11 a.m. – Midnight, Sun. 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.; hotstuffneworleans.com; @hotstuffneworleans.

And though — or perhaps, because of — being a time-tested dish, red beans and rice can show up on menus in interesting ways, showcasing new ideas.

A Bean-Based Cocktail That Breaks All Rules

At Muy Pwa in Beanlandia, Chef Maya Mastersson concocts not one, but two new red beans and rice variations, and even a cocktail.

That’s right, a red beans and rice cocktail. Consisting of toasted rice-infused mezcal, “trinity” bitters and a red bean syrup that Mastersson makes, it’s finished with Tony Chachere’s on the rim and a specialty ice cube — another Mastersson creation — that has red beans, rice and a bay leaf in it.

“It’s a savory drink,” says Mastersson, adding, “Every cocktail, every dish has at least one bean type in it,” about the restaurant’s offerings.

When Mastersson opened Muy Pwa in Beanlandia in early October 2024, her goal was a menu focusing on beans, as Beanlandia is a community center and museum founded by the Krewe of Red Beans, renowned for its Lundi Gras march wearing bean-adorned costumes, as well as its philanthropic activities such as Feed the Second Line.

From Sicily to New Orleans: The Art of Bean-Based Innovation

“We were excited to find a creative and unique chef to bring on like Maya. She’s a great fit in our little bean universe,” says Krewe of Red Beans and Beanlandia founder Devin De Wulf.

To create this bean-centric menu, Mastersson did extensive research about New Orleans cuisine, as well as global flavors. “I wanted it to be a cohesive menu with a theme … without it being all over the place,” she says.

Mastersson submerged herself “in the history of beans, the science of beans … how they grow, what cultures use them, how they use them, how they are eating them … things like that.”

Mastersson aimed to source locally or close by, which led her to use Camellia Beans, which in addition to its red kidney beans, she uses the white beans, black beans and black-eyed peas.

Among the menu’s highlights is the red beans and rice arancini, which is a blend of two culinary traditions: New Orleans’ favorite Monday dish and arancini, a rice ball that is stuffed, coated in breadcrumbs, then deep-fried which has its origin in Sicily.

“At its base,” Mastersson says about the dish, “it is literally a fried ball of red beans and rice.”

She starts by making the red beans, then when done, adds rice to that same pot. While the rice cooks, it absorbs most of that liquid, a vegetable stock made with leftover scraps accumulated during prep.

Nutritional yeast is added “to give it that meaty, umami flavor,” she says.

Sweet, Savory, and Everything in Between

The rice ends up very soft, making it easier to make into small balls. She freezes them — to hold the shape — before they are breaded and fried to order. Served with a Crystal remoulade sauce to add a little bit of kick, it is crunchy on the outside, full of red beans and rice flavor on the inside.

It is a vegan dish, says Mastersson, but it still has a smoky flavor due to the liquid smoke she adds, not due to a smoked meat often found in traditional red beans and rice.

The Azuki red beans and rice ice cream is her other culinary spin on this dish. The red beans are cooked in milk, and while doing that, she makes a custard. She adds that to the red beans, then blends it into an ice cream, making it very rich, says Mastersson.

“I wanted the menu to be a multicultural celebration of the legume,” she says. And at Muy Pwa, Mastersson does just that.

*Muy Pwa, at Beanlandia, 3300 Royal St., kreweofredbeans.org; Hours: Wed.-Sun., 5 p.m.-9 p.m.*

White beans come in many shapes and sizes, and when a recipe calls for simply “white beans,” it can be challenging to figure out which kind to use, especially when deciding between Great Northern beans and Cannellini beans. Although these two types of white beans are similar, they have crucial differences regarding flavor and texture. Luckily for you, we’re experts on all things beans. Here’s what you need to know to decide which beans to use and when.

White Bean History

Cannellini beans originated in Argentina but are much better known for their use in Italy. In central and southern Italy, Cannellini beans are a staple in countless traditional dishes. Great Northern beans gained popularity in the Pacific Northwest region of America and took their name from the Great Northern Railway. This now-defunct railroad helped to distribute these beans across the United States.

Great Northern Beans

Great Northern beans are highly versatile with a delicate, nutty flavor and delicate, creamy texture. Camellia Brand CEO Vince Hayward likes Great Northern beans for their creaminess, stating, “One of my most favorite dishes is shrimp and white beans – a creamy, thick, delicious shrimp-flavored dish that brings back memories of my mother’s home cooking and warm bowls of beans on cold winter nights.” Great Northerns work well in American classics like baked beans, chili, and succotash, although they can be used in almost any recipe calling for white beans.

Cafe Reconcile’s White Beans and Shrimp

Cannellini Beans

Cannellini Beans are larger and heartier than Great Northerns and are sometimes referred to as “white kidney beans” because of their traditional kidney shape. You’ll often find them mixed with pinto beans. Cannellini beans are commonly used in Italian dishes like cozy minestrone, and because they hold their shape well when cooked, they’re a favorite in soups and stews. Like Great Northerns, Cannellini beans cook creamy and smooth with a nutty flavor.

Which ones should I use?

Both options are great for almost any white bean recipe, but we like using Cannellinis in a pasta e fagioli, while we prefer Great Northern beans for dishes like shrimp and white bean soup or white beans and ham hock.

Pasta e Fagioli

Shrimp and White Bean Soup

Great Northern Beans and Ham

Camellia CEO Vince Hayward clarifies the difference:

“It rests primarily with the heartiness of the Cannellini over the Great Northern,” he explains. “Because of its thicker skin and slightly bolder bean taste, the Cannellini lends itself better towards soups and stews. The Great Northern is a bit more delicate, and breaks open more easily, lending itself towards bean dishes consumed directly from a bowl, or to using as an ingredient in baking, or just simply when a lighter texture is desired.”

Ultimately, the main differences come down to their origins, subtle differences in appearance, firmness and flavor, and how they are traditionally used in regional cuisines. Both Cannelinis and Great Northerns are tasty, nutritious white bean options!

When an Iconic Restaurant Changes Hands

It isn’t easy to open a restaurant, so imagine what it’s like to buy an established New Orleans neighborhood eatery where the regulars expect their favorite dishes in an atmosphere that is the same as it was when they originally walked through the doors. Which may have been 50 years ago.

“It’s both very exciting and daunting,” said George DeCastro, who bought Liuzza’s on Bienville in fall 2022 with Erin Clark and two partners in Miami.

“I have the opportunity to step into an iconic New Orleans restaurant and serve food to diners who have been coming here for generations,” he said. “To carry that torch and still be a part of the fabric of New Orleans culture carries great responsibilities.” DeCastro is mainly in the kitchen/back of house, while Clark runs the front of house.

They are familiar with the city: Clark and DeCastro were part of the crew that opened Finnegan’s Easy in the French Quarter. Both relocated to New Orleans when they bought Liuzza’s business, building, and recipes.

Liuzza’s Keeps it Old School with its Red Beans and Rice

Among the original recipes was red beans and rice.

“I found out when I came to New Orleans that locals are very particular with the food products they know and love,” said DeCastro. “They are a very knowledgeable group when it comes to traditional cuisine.”

And, of course, there was no changing up the recipe when it came to using Camellia Red Kidney beans.

In keeping with the Liuzza’s red beans tradition, the beans are rinsed, not soaked. They are put in a large kettle to which assorted meats such as homemade tasso and smoked sausage are added, as well as the “trinity” (onion, green peppers and celery), Creole seasoning, garlic and other ingredients.

“We just keep on tasting it to see if it’s the cleanest consistency that we want,” DeCastro said. “It usually comes out the same every time.”

The red beans are made in a large batch, then frozen in portions which are taken out as needed.

“Once it goes into the freezer, all the flavors and everything that goes into it condenses,” DeCastro said.

He emphasized that when they heat up the red beans, they don’t microwave them, but put them in a small double boiler.

What the Future Holds: A Delicate Balance of the Old & the New

Many like to enjoy the red beans and rice alongside the restaurant’s signature 18 oz. goblets of frosty cold beers — or an Abita root beer. Other signature recipes include the Frenchuletta (Muffuletta on French bread) and shrimp and oyster beignets.

While committed to the restaurant’s traditional recipes, DeCastro said that he is also looking to “explore a lot of other Louisiana foods.” Sounds a lot like Vincent Liuzza, who founded the restaurant in 1947, and like his successors, blended Sicilian foods with Creole and Cajun flavors.

“I want to grow as a brand but walk the line that stays true to what Liuzza’s is to the local community,” said DeCastro. “Being a flag-bearer of a 70-year-old [plus] tradition is a great responsibility that so far, our guests have enjoyed.”

Liuzza’s Restaurant and Bar, 3636 Bienville St., New Orleans; liuzzas.com; Hours: Mon. 11 a.m. – 8 p.m., Tues. Closed; Weds. 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Thurs.-Sat.11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sun. 11 a.m.-7 p.m.

When a plate of red beans and rice with French bread comes to the table, a debate can sometimes arise about the correct way to eat it.

Should the French bread be used as a scoop, a way to soak up the last bits, or as a separate accompaniment slathered with butter? Then again, why make a choice?

Just like the debate over who makes the best red beans and rice, the debate over how to eat the French bread is ongoing. But no matter the preferred eating style, all agree that the French bread has to be from Leidenheimer Baking Company.

French Bread in New Orleans

Leidenheimer’s was founded 1896 by George Leidenheimer, when New Orleans was teeming with bakeries. About a decade beforehand, the City Directory listed 150 bakeries.

Leidenheimer immigrated years earlier from Deidesheim, Germany. He opened the bakery on Dryades Street and in 1904, moved it to the corner of Simon Bolivar Avenue in Central City, where it remains today.

At first, Leidenheimer made the heavy, dense breads he was more familiar with from Germany; however, around 1905, the bakery segued to making French bread, in addition to other types of breads popular during that time period.

How much did a loaf of French bread cost? At the turn of the century, it was somewhere in the neighborhood of a nickel per loaf.

The Proof is In the Water

What gives Leidenheimer’s French bread its flaky, thin crust and fluffy interior is a combination of interesting influences, but the Mississippi River’s hard water plays a big role.

Other factors include the fermentation process and the weather.

“We naturally ferment our dough, allowing it to age and develop flavor and its unique crumb characteristics,” says bakery Director of Operations and fifth-generation owner William Whann.

“Our bake time varies based on the ambient temperature. We have to put a considerably harder bake on our products during the hotter months because the New Orleans humidity will soften the bread’s signature crust,” he added.

But even with the introduction of technology, the bakery still harkens to its roots.

“While we have incorporated the use of automation to increase output,” says Whann, “human touch will always play an important role in our products. Every po-boy loaf produced at Leidenheimer is still hand-stretched to its signature 32-inch length.”

Po-boy bread in New Orleans is often referred to as French bread and vice versa, but they started out differently.

While French bread had been available in some variation since the city was founded in 1718, po-boy bread was introduced to New Orleanians in 1929. The first po-boys — sandwiches that can be filled with an infinite amount of combinations — were credited to Martin Brother’s Grocery which made them during a streetcar strike. The brothers, who had been streetcar conductors, decided to help out and created a loaf of bread for the “poor boys” to eat or share with their families.

Originally, a typical French bread was a family loaf roughly 16-inches long. It was fatter in the middle at around 4- to 5-inches wide, with narrow, pointed ends. Notes Whann, po-boy bread was developed as a long loaf uniform in width – because when making sandwiches, restaurants were having to throw away the unusable ends.

In the past, New Orleanians may have used the ends of the French bread as a makeshift bowl for their red beans and rice. According to a Southern Foodways 2006 interview with Joe Darensberg, whose family worked at the bakery for generations, “My dad said, ‘We put red beans in the ends of the French bread …” (Perhaps the ends worked well as a large scoop!)

Leidenheimer Today and Beyond

Today, Leidenheimer customers can order different sizes of its French/po-boy bread depending on their needs. The company is the largest producer of French bread in New Orleans.

The bakery also makes pistolettes with the same formula that range in size from 4 inches to 12 inches and is the largest producer of muffuletta bread in the country.

“We bake and deliver tens of thousands of loaves daily to both local and national customers,” says Whann.

“In addition to supporting the needs of our incredibly loyal, local customers, we have had the unique opportunity in recent years to connect with restaurants and chefs all over the country through social media, which has been an incredible experience to see how people are using the product across the States,” says Whann.

Working with Whann in the bakery business is his father, Sandy Whann, president; aunt Katherine Whann, office manager; and sister Katie Whann, marketing and social. Mitch Abide has been the longtime plant manager.

While some may argue cornbread is a go-to accompaniment to red beans and rice, for many, only a slice of Leidenheimer’s French bread will do.

leidenheimer.com/; on Instagram; 504.525.1575.

When You Really Love Red Beans

How much does Saint John Chef Daren Porretto love red beans?

He has a tattoo of one on his finger.

For this New Orleans-born and-raised chef, the city and its food are his passions, and he shares them at the French Quarter restaurant. Through those passions, Saint John customers get a culinary awakening — a conversion, perhaps — of Southern and Louisiana food that goes beyond tradition.

The proof? The moment a waiter places the pork belly cassoulet down on a table, there is a pause: Take a photo, inhale the heavenly aroma, or just dive into the flavor? Most people do all three, as simultaneously as they can, when it comes to this brunch favorite.

A Cassoulet Made with Camellia Beans

Making the cassoulet is a two-day process that starts by soaking Camellia Great Northerns overnight. Then, it’s time to render the meat (Andouille sausage, tasso and ground pork belly), throw into chicken stock, and add vegetables including the trinity (onion, bell peppers, celery), plus garlic, bay leaves, salt and pepper. 
“All the usual suspects,” Chef Porretto says, cooked to the right balance, so the mixture is buttery and smooth.

Finally, the pork belly is braised in root beer and topped with a cornbread crust.

A combination of flavors, the cassoulet creates a historical connection between its French origins and Louisiana, with beans as the common denominator.

 And Porretto wouldn’t use anything other than Camellia Beans.

“I feel like I don’t have a choice to use anything else,” says Porretto jokingly.

Camellia Beans is what his grandmother relied on when the two of them cooked together. And when Porretto worked in New York City for a year, she made sure he was well-stocked. Her care packages included at least three different types – usually white beans, red beans, and one other.

“New Orleanians stick to our roots,” he says. “It’s like if you go to the grocery store, and there’s no Camellia Beans, you go to another store to find it. It’s something ingrained in my DNA.”

It’s that DNA — along with a dedication to Southern and Louisiana food — that Porretto and restaurant owner Eric Cook are bringing together in a modern, updated cuisine that never forgets its roots.

Hoppin’ John Oyster Salad

Another example of their culinary philosophy is the Hoppin’ John oyster salad, a fresh take on the New Year’s Day Southern tradition of serving cabbage or greens (symbolizing money, or dollar bills), with blackeye peas (symbolizing prosperity, or coins), and cornbread (symbolizing gold) – all with the goal of starting the new year with good luck.

Instead of cabbage, the salad features Bibb lettuce topped with crispy fried Gulf oysters. It is then ringed by a combination of crumbled bacon, chopped red peppers, and slow-cooked, smoky blackeye peas, “which bring a great flavor and texture to it,” says Porretto. Dressed with a green remoulade — not the traditional pinkish-hued version — it is a light, flavorful combination that melds Louisiana and Low Country traditions.

Red Beans and Rice

And what about the red beans and rice? The classic dish was added back to the menu — Mondays only, as per New Orleans’ custom — with Porretto putting just as much thought into it.

 However, he is keeping that favorite more traditional, as any New Orleans native would.

Saint John, 1117 Decatur St., (504) 581-8120, saintjohnnola.com, on Instagram; 
Hours: Brunch and dinner, Weds.-Mon.

It’s in New Orleans’ neighborhood restaurants where you’ll find the heart and soul of the city’s cuisine.

Since it opened in the 1970s, Joey K’s Restaurant and Bar has been keeping Uptown well-fed, with Southern and New Orleans dishes that have been on the menu since day one.

Always on the Menu
One such traditional New Orleans dish that has always been on the menu is the red beans and rice.

“I’ve never seen an actual recipe written down,” says co-owner Tommy Spain.

The chefs are still using the same recipe, but each has their own flourishes. And while the base is the same, what you get “… really depends on who’s making it, to be honest with you,” Spain adds.

Chef Weston Banks has been here for five years with a short break in between. The other chef is Dexter Johnson, who has been cooking at Joey K’s for 17 years.

“It’s a mixture of both of them,” says Banks, referring to the restaurant recipe and his own. Banks learned his craft at home and while working at other restaurants around town.

How Joey K’s Cooks Red Beans

There are a few constants; among them, using Camellia Beans and not soaking.

“We just put them in the pot, add water, our spices, let them cook,” says Banks. “Once we let them cook, we add smoked sausage and seasoning, onion, bell pepper, and a ham base.”

The dish is available every day as a main or side dish, and while it doesn’t always sell out, it is a best seller.
Why do customers like their red beans and rice? “They are the right amount of firmness, which I think comes from not pre-soaking the beans,” says Spain. “The other thing people have a tendency to do is to over-salt them, and they get too soft. And, we don’t season so much that it hides the taste.”

The restaurant is a regular stop for the New Orleans Secrets Tours’ Magazine Street Foodie Tour. Tour co-owner Mark Aspiazu likes Magazine Street because it is walkable and has good restaurants for stopping and sampling the food.

“It’s one of my favorite places to eat,” says Aspiazu about Joey K’s.

The red beans are “cooked perfectly, scream authenticity, and are creamy and delicious,” he says. “I can get red beans and rice anywhere, but not these, which are the best in town.”

“How could I not bring guests here?”

In fact, the popularity of Joey K’s red beans was celebrated when the restaurant was one of the final four competitors in the inaugural Bean Madness tournament (created and organized by the Red Beans Parade). 64 New Orleans restaurants and chefs were pitted against one another to see who makes the city’s best red beans.

From the Beginning to Present Day
While Joey K’s was founded in the 1970s, it was originally one block away and called Tony’s. It was owned by Joey K’s mother, and passed on to him when she passed away in the late ‘70s. He then moved the restaurant to its current location and named it after his daughter Joey Kay, later shortening it to Joey K’s. In the late 1980s, Cindy and Sam Farnet bought the business, and more recently, Spain and his wife purchased a portion of it.

Spain pulls out an original menu from the late 1980s to compare it to one from 2022. There are menu items that are now long gone, but the classic Joey K’s offerings remain, including red beans and rice, white beans and pork chop, beef brisket, chicken cordon bleu, and the “All You Can Eat Catfish” Friday special. Prices, alas, have changed: red beans and rice was once $4.25, and today it is $11.95.

What hasn’t changed is what brought people here in the first place – the food.

In fact, Spain admits he eats the red beans and rice every day, maybe even twice a day!

Joey K’s Restaurant and Bar, 3001 Magazine St., (504) 891-0997; joeyksrestaurant.com; on Instagram; Mon.-Sat. 11 a.m.-9 p.m

Call it a habit, a hobby, maybe even a sport; many of us are on a mission to sample as many king cakes as possible during Mardi Gras. And whether we’re interested in the inventive newcomers to be discovered at bakeries and pop-ups across New Orleans, or the traditional childhood favorites we love returning to again and again, there’s no shortage of sugar and carbs out there for anyone who can’t seem to get enough.

Back in the day, if we wanted a king cake in New Orleans during Carnival season, we had only a few choices – namely Gambino’s, Haydel’s and McKenzie’s – and they were basic rounds of brioche dough topped with sugar crystals and the occasional maraschino cherry. But over the years, the variety of dough, flavors, fillings, stuffings, and toppings has reached a fevered pitch, and the creativity and imagination involved never cease to surprise and delight. Can you tell we’re giddy from a sugar high?

Any way you slice it, ask a dozen New Orleanians which king cake they like best, and you’ll get a dozen different answers. We all have our favorites, of course, (and some of us keep lists of the ones we want to try before the season ends).  So in the name of pure fun, let’s take a look at an unscientific sampling of king cakes around town — and what makes them special.

Wishing Town

Wishing Town is a bakery and a café in Metairie — with an Uptown location opening soon — offering everything from noodle soups and dim sum to beautiful whole cakes and tarts. And now, their own Instagram-worthy king cake, too. (I don’t know how they create the nearly fluorescent glaze colors, but wow, what a swipe-stopper.) Made with Asian milk bread style dough and your choice of coconut, pumpkin, or sweet red bean paste fillings, it’s decorated with a house made cream cheese glaze. With a super light and fluffy texture, Wishing Town’s king cake is not nearly as sugary as you might expect. So, if you don’t have a huge sweet tooth and want to try something totally unconventional, this could be for you.

Brennan’s 

Like other restaurants, Brennan’s jumped on the king cake bandwagon in 2021 — when we were all attempting to make up for a lack of Mardi Gras parades with an abundance of king cake. This year, the legendary Bananas Foster dessert that was created at the restaurant in the 1950’s has been re-invented in king cake form. Featuring a creamy, banana liquor-flavored filling inside a cinnamon and brown sugar dough, the outside is decorated with a boozy icing made with butter rum, drizzled chocolate, and a sprinkle of crunchy golden spheres. It’s worth noting that the banana flavor is mild — and my krewe actually tasted more of the vanilla extract, cinnamon, and rum. Beautiful to look at and an interesting riff on their famous dish!

Celtica

Celtica French Bakery is an exciting Parisian-inspired café and bakery in Lakeview, the latest venture from the former chef of La Boulangerie on Magazine Street. And on the average day, Celtica’s croissants steal the show. (It’s truly difficult to drive by the airy, modern spot without stopping in for a quick Pain au Chocolat.) But its traditional French king cakes, or galette des rois, are a beautiful sight to behold and a wonderful way to celebrate the season. With delicate flaky layers and a frangipane filling (also known as almond cream), this is one of the prettiest French king cakes I’ve ever seen, and a delicious alternative to the sugar-laden brioche styles around town. Pro tip: get a whole cake, or buy it by the slice.

Gambino’s & King Cake Hub

The King Cake Hub, a one stop shop that sells roughly 60 varieties of king cake from 15 different bakery partners, is a godsend for king cake lovers. And the Epiphany King Cake, a special collaboration with Gambino’s, offers up a little bit of the old and the new. Only available at the Hub, the Nutella Epiphany is a traditional brioche style king cake filled with the ever-popular hazelnut cocoa spread, iced with a generous schmear of white frosting, and dusted with purple, green and gold sprinkles. Chocolate lovers will unite on this one, for sure!

McKenzie’s

This king cake has a storied history, a cult following, and hails from a beloved bakery chain that’s no longer in business. Supposedly the original Mckenzie’s king cake recipe was sold to Tastee Donuts, whose area stores trot it out only during carnival season. The aroma brought back childhood memories as soon the bag was opened, but the texture was not exactly as we remembered it. It seemed more doughy, less brioche-like. With no cinnamon or fillings running through the cake and no icing on top, this cake goes the minimalist route with simple coverings of tri-colored sugars. For those who revere history and tradition, this one’s for you.

Manny Randazzo’s

While I was hoping to buy Manny Randazzo’s Pecan Praline version of its king cake, which won the 2012 Times-Picayune/NOLA.com King Cake Crown, the only flavor left in the bakery was the traditional Cinnamon version. (This place really churns ‘em out. Every time I’ve been there, there’s a line out the door.) Thankfully, the Cinnamon king cake did not disappoint. It runs through a very moist braided cake, which is topped by colored sugar, lots of gooey icing and purple, green and yellow sprinkles. Their philosophy seems to be ‘more is more’, so if you live by that credo as well, treat yourself to this one. And if you’re willing to pay the price, you’re in luck, because you can order online and get the traditional Cinnamon version or their Cream Cheese version shipped anywhere in the US.

Dong Phuong

A French Vietnamese bakery at the eastern edge of the city, in the New Orleans East neighborhood, Dong Phuong is a hike for those who live closer into town. But now you can get a Dong Phuong King Cake without making the trip, as they’ve partnered with local retailers across town (details are here). Featuring a horseshoe shape and a delicious brioche dough that’s rolled in shortening to create layers, the Dong Phuong king cake tastes like a flaky croissant with cinnamon threaded through it. Slathered with cream cheese icing and a sprinkling of house-colored sugars, its beautiful golden brown edges will make you want to dig in. Don’t miss this one.

Hi-Do

Another Vietnamese bakery called Hi-Do, located in Gretna on the West Bank of New Orleans, makes a traditional brioche king cake with a sugar glaze (no icing) and house-colored sugars. It’s available plain or with your choice of a long list of fillings. But because the woman at the register told me that the half cream cheese/half Bavarian cream combo is their best seller, that’s what I chose. Developed by the bakery’s owner in order to emulate McKenzie’s original recipe, their recipe has McKenzie’s beat with a richer, more tender crumb. So yes, it’s worth the trip across the Mississippi River bridge. And if you order ahead, you can choose from an array of cake shapes like a crawfish, crab, or fleur de lis. Be forewarned – they take cash or checks only.

Gracious Bakery

An artisanal bakery making a national name for itself in magazines like Travel and Leisure and Food and Wine, Gracious offers a chocolate-filled king cake made with a sweet dough that’s glazed and sprinkled with purple, green and gold decorative sugar. And you can tell from the taste that the chocolate is the high quality stuff. This one is deliciously light and flaky, through and through – and quite pretty, too. It’s pricier than the average king cake, but considering the flavor and texture, many will believe it’s worth it. The conclusion? It’s a real winner. It’s worth noting that in addition to the chocolate-filled king cake, Gracious now offers a daintier “queen” cake flavored with almond paste, plus occasional one-off flavors for limited time periods. Order online, and get the chocolate-filled version shipped anywhere in the US.

Do you have a favorite king cake? Tell us – we want to know!

Written by Julie K. – food lover, proud New Orleanian and creator of the donut day blog

It’s a bustling scene inside Mother’s Restaurant. Visitors simultaneously look around, taking in this old school New Orleans eatery, while perusing the menu and trying to make a decision about what to order. Should they get the restaurant’s Famous Ferdi Special, a combination of ham and roast beef “debris” with its juices unabashedly soaking into the po-boy bread and down the sides? Perhaps Jerry’s Jambalaya, named after the late owner Jerry Amato, or the signature red beans and rice. Regulars go straight to the always-in-motion serving/deli line to get their favorite dish. Tables are overflowing with Mother’s food and those who enjoy it, a testament to the enduring popularity of this restaurant.

Much of that has to do with brothers Jerry and John Amato, who bought the restaurant in 1986. And much has to do with the staff — such as Miss Pat, who has been there for more than 30 years and has done a little bit of everything.

It’s family. It’s New Orleans. It’s about the relationships between people, as well as with food.

A Recipe is Born
It was Jerry – with culinary training from previous hospitality jobs, studies at Delgado Community College and The Culinary Institute of America – who had an innate sense of what tasted good and which flavors worked together. He was always able to take traditional New Orleans dishes and elevate them.

“Jerry really brought a culinary take on it,” says Charles Pizzo, who does public relations and social media marketing for the restaurant, about the food at Mother’s.

An example is the red beans and rice.

The origin of the red beans and rice recipe at Mother’s starts with the founders, Simon and Mary “Mother” Landry, who opened the business in 1938 on Poydras Street. It was there where they fed the neighborhood’s longshoremen, warehouse workers, and others looking for po-boys and hearty New Orleans dishes.

Years later, Chef Odie Mae Peters refined the red beans and rice recipe.

“She tweaked the recipe a little bit,” says Pizzo. “She added more ham because Mother’s cooks its own ham.”

When Jerry arrived on the scene, he saw all the leftover ham fat as the result of trimming, and realized it could be used in the red beans, among other dishes.

“It is a secret ingredient to a lot of Mother’s old-time dishes,” shares Pizzo.

Chef Roland Swazy agrees: “Though it’s no longer fashionable, it’s fat that makes the red beans taste good. And Mother’s happens to have a lot of ham trimmings available.”

After the ham fat is rendered, then the vegetables — onions, green onions, bell peppers and garlic — for the red beans are cooked in it.

Mother’s ham is cooked at the restaurant. “We only use Chisesi Brothers ham,” says Alex Salas, daytime manager, who has been at the restaurant for 16 years.

In addition to cooking the vegetables in the rendered ham fat, the ham bones, which are cut in half, are boiled with the red beans.

Pizzo notes that the ham is not salted. The flavor is enhanced by Mother’s secret sauce, a glaze that covers the ham when it is cooked. Ham chunks are also used in the red beans recipe, as is smoked sausage from Creole Country that is made to Mother’s specifications.

Mother’s uses Camellia Red Kidney Beans. The beans are not soaked, but instead, they’re put through a few rinses to help release the starches. (The restaurant also has specialized equipment so it can cook the beans low and slow at a controlled rate.)

The beans are then boiled in half chicken stock and half beef stock, a.k.a. “debris gravy.” The stocks are made in-house.

The Legacy Continues
Chef Swazy has been put in charge of carrying on the restaurant’s culinary traditions. Swazy started as a dishwasher in 1987 and worked his way up to become head chef, learning what made Mother’s so special along the way.

“Chef Jerry Amato, who mentored me, was big on the need for consistency. Regulars come to Mother’s Restaurant year after year, and they want and expect everything to taste the same,” says Swazy. “While some restaurants try to be cutting edge, Mother’s aims to be traditional. We’ve seen adult children bring their elderly parents in to eat,” he added. “These are folks who worked in what were once office buildings along Poydras Street, such as the Lykes Building or One Shell Square. They tear up and get emotional, telling us ‘Your food tastes exactly like I remembered it.’”

And that’s why Mother’s Restaurant remains beloved.

Mother’s Restaurant, 401 Poydras Street, mothersrestaurant.net, (504) 523-9656. Hours: 7 days 7 a.m.-10 p.m.

Arkesha Baquet is a busy woman. It’s just a half-hour before opening at Li’l Dizzy’s in Tremé, and menus must be reviewed, supply deliveries confirmed, and she needs to peek in the kitchen to check on the Creole-Soul food favorites this beloved eatery is famous for.

If a restaurant can embody a city’s culinary history, traditions, and heart — as well as its past, present and future — then Li’l Dizzy’s is it.

Arkesha, and her husband Wayne Baquet Jr., are second-generation owners of the restaurant founded by Wayne’s father, Wayne Baquet Sr., in 2004.

The Baquets and Their Long-Standing Culinary Legacy
The family has a long, rich culinary legacy in New Orleans. Before Li’l Dizzy’s, there was Zachary’s on Oak Street, and before that, Eddie’s in the Seventh Ward, run by Wayne Sr.’s father, Eddie Baquet Sr. Eddie learned the business working for his aunt and uncle, Ada Baquet Gross and Paul Gross, at their restaurant, Paul Gross Chicken Coop. The Chicken Coop opened in the mid-1940s and was among the first Black-owned restaurants in the city.

Li’l Dizzy’s is the last of the Baquet family restaurants that’s still in operation today, and Arkesha and Wayne Jr. took it over in February 2021, after Wayne Sr. retired during the pandemic. (Those who are curious will appreciate this tidbit: the café was named after Wayne Sr.’s grandson Zachary, who played the trumpet at St. Augustine High School and was nicknamed Li’l Dizzy after famous trumpeter, Dizzy Gillespie.) Says Arkesha, “It’s a family business where a lot of people like to come with their families.”

Some Things Have Changed, While Others Have Stayed the Same
With Arkesha and Wayne Jr. at the helm, only a few things have changed: the restaurant just serves lunch, the buffet has been removed, and service is now tableside and take-out. Food is served in take-out containers for the ease of both customers and staff.

What hasn’t changed are the recipes. Those have been part of the Baquet family lore for generations. Wayne Sr.’s wife, Janet Jourdain Baquet, created the recipes. A few are by his mother, Myrtle Romano Baquet.

The red and white bean dishes, credited to Janet, are legendary, and the recipes can be found in “The Baquet Family Cookbook”.

The two recipes are the same, except for the beans used, but as Arkesha learned early on, the white beans better be Camellia’s Great Northern beans – and not lima beans.

“People will have a fit,” says Arkesha. “Because, I’m telling you, when we first opened up (post-pandemic), and we started selling white beans, the question almost every customer asked was, ‘What kind of white beans are these?’ They did not want those lima beans.”

Arkesha was asked this question so many times, that she even called Wayne Sr. about it.

“He said, ‘If you give them something else, they’re not going to be happy,’” says Arkesha.

Soaking the Beans and Secret Ingredients
Some additional things that haven’t changed are the way the red and white bean dishes are made — using Camellia Beans — and soaking the beans overnight.

“My mother said that it’s sacrilegious not to soak your beans,” Arkesha says. “I don’t know how you would get away with them being good. That’s what would scare me; are they going to be hard?”

One ingredient that gives the bean dishes a special kick is the notable hot sausage the Baquets make in-house. The hot sausage can also be served alongside the beans, or customers can choose options like smoked sausage or fried chicken.

The red beans are served only on Mondays and usually sell out, while the white beans are served only on Tuesdays, and are just as popular.

Customers can thank head chef John Cannon (who some may know for playing the tuba in the Stooges Brass Band) and lead cook Lawrence Miller: Cannon makes the red beans, and Miller makes the white beans.

Li’l Dizzy’s Third Generation
Li’l Dizzy’s third generation includes Arkesha and Wayne Jr.’s children, Jene and Jace, who can be found helping out on Saturdays. Wayne Jr., who is the president of a wholesale company, is there, as well.

“We’re all here on Saturdays,” says Arkesha.

And they’re dedicated to keeping the Baquet culinary legacy alive.

Li’l Dizzy’s, 1500 Esplanade Ave., lildizzyscafe.net; on Instagram; (504) 766-8687; Mon-Sat. 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.

Opening During the Pandemic

Opening a restaurant is always a risk, and Allison and Glenn Charles took on an even greater one when opening Nice Guys in June 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the duo – natives of New Orleans – had a dream, a plan, and were determined to move forward.

They haven’t looked back.

The restaurant took off, so much so that the Charleses are in the process of expanding Nice Guys into a former Japanese restaurant that was next door and renovating a Canal Street space as a second location.

The Secrets to Their Success

What could be the restaurant’s secrets to success? The Charleses’ savvy business sense: they took a long-empty building on Earhart Boulevard and renovated it into a place that is welcoming and casually chic.

The not-so-secret-secrets are Chef Fred Andrews and the menu, featuring classic yet innovative dishes that New Orleanians know and love. The restaurant’s tagline is “New Orleans food with a twist!”

A great example would be the red beans and rice.

Andrews boils smoked turkey legs in a seafood boil, such as crab, before adding them to Camellia Red Kidney Beans — which he doesn’t soak — during the cooking process.

He then adds the “trinity” — onion, celery, bell pepper — plus garlic, red pepper, salt, pepper, and pickled ham, and a “whole list of secret ingredients,” he says.

Andrews cooks the red beans and rice the day before serving, so the flavors are enhanced overnight.

The restaurant serves red beans and rice on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, and “we always sell out each day,” says Glenn Charles. “People love it, and I think it’s because of the smoked turkey meat that we use.” (And whatever the secret ingredients are!)

An Original Take on Traditional Dishes

What else do the restaurant’s customers love? The menu’s original takes on traditional dishes. Shrimp and grits is now SLG (shrimp, lobster, and grits) and French fries are Earhart Attack Fries – a combination of marinated chicken, hot sausage, smoked sausage, bacon, jalapeños, and seasoned fries topped with crawfish cheese sauce and a fried egg. And then there are chargrilled oyster options, including the Oysters Rockefeller version.

Even snowballs get a special twist with little bottles of alcohol flipped into the icy mixture, while daiquiris get their own enhancements of fruit and more.

Allison Charles points out that the Wednesday special of the seafood hot box features a combination of seafood rice with potatoes, sausage, and corn boiled in crab boil, and is finished with Nice Guys’ garlic butter and the seafood of your choice (though some people like to add turkey legs).

Nice Guys Finish First

It’s no wonder that online reviews for the restaurant are raves and often include kudos to the wait staff.

About their success, Allison Charles says, “We were blessed, really blessed.”

It’s no longer a secret that Nice Guys do finish first.

Nice Guys Nola, 7910 Earhart Blvd. NOLA 70125, (504) 302-2404, https://www.niceguysnola.com/

Keeping New Orleanians Well Fed Since WW II
Leni’s Cafe is like going home, a place where you will find comfort food just like what your mom or grandmother — and let’s not forget dad and grandfather — made.

From a grilled cheese to a cheeseburger, omelet to egg sandwich, and red beans to white beans, this Baronne Street diner’s plate breakfasts and lunches have been keeping New Orleanians well fed since at least World War II.

Since 1978, the Warehouse District restaurant has been owned by Pete Patselikos.

He is, however, not Leni. That would be a previous owner (circa early 1960s), Leni Kampitsis; Leni is short for Eleni, a Greek name, and Greece is the country from which Patselikos hails.

“After the purchase, I continued what she had created,” says Patselikos, talking about the menu, which at its heart is American Greek diner food with New Orleans dishes.

That includes red and white beans.

The Secrets to Leni’s Red Beans
Patselikos claims there is no real secret to his red beans — “cook the red beans, put in the right seasoning” — but as you talk to him more, a few key elements pop out.

“We don’t soak the red beans,” he says, adding that people often soak them because of the quality. That’s not an issue at Leni’s because the restaurant uses Camellia Beans.

“Start by putting the beans in cold water, let them boil,” says Patselikos, “then put in the seasonings including pepper and celery, as well as sausage and ham.”

And don’t forget to add tomato paste to give it some color, Patselikos advises, sharing that butter is also added.

Only on Mondays
This process starts sometime between 5:30 – 6 am, and the red beans are done by 9:30 am, when they are creamy.

“We make them only on Mondays,” says Patselikos.

“Very traditional,” Patselikos’ wife Despina Patselikos says, referring to the New Orleans’ custom of making red beans and rice on Mondays. The origins of the Monday tradition can be traced back about 100 years to when women would simmer the beans on a stove during the day while they did the wash.

Customers can get the red beans and rice as is or with “Whatever you want that’s on the menu … it’s usually with smoked sausage. Some order a pork chop. A lot of people like to have it with fried shrimp,” says Patselikos.

#WhiteBeanWednesday
Then there is Leni’s white beans and rice, only served on Wednesdays. Instead of using Great Northern Beans, the restaurant uses Camellia’s Large Limas.

Why?

“That’s what they were making 45 years ago,” says Patselikos, who says he is continuing the legacy of the previous owners, such as Leni.

Classic & Time-Tested
And for a long time, Greeks have owned the restaurant. Before the current owners, there were Pete G. Michailakis and Gus Michailakis during the late 1960s and 1970s (they were either the same person or related to each other), and prior to that, Leni Kampitsis. A newspaper article from 1941 shows Margaret Wellbat — who may or may not have been Greek — owned the restaurant and that she was fleeced out of $15 by a Robert E. Byrd pretending to be in the army.

During the 1920s, the space was home to Monarch Sheet Metal Works and around World War I, it housed Murray Welding and Metal Works.

Now in 2022, there is no denying that when a customer walks into Leni’s Cafe, they will be served time-tested classic New Orleans dishes — such as red beans or white beans and rice — Leni’s style.

Leni’s Café, 741 Baronne St., 504.523.0069; Hours, Mon.-Fri. 6 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.

1905 Alabama diner ad featuring camp stew

Across the Yellowhammer State, cooks of every description have been lighting fires under old kettles and cooking camp stew for well over a hundred years. From the Tennessee Valley in the northern part of the state to the Mobile-Tensaw Delta on the Gulf Coast, camp stew is available nightly in hundreds of households, barbecue shacks, meat and three joints, and of course, hunting camps. The fortunate among us may find the dish in the backwood taverns that dot the rural countryscape across the region. Camp stew is so ingrained in the psychology of Alabama eaters that it made the 100 Dishes To Eat In Alabama Before You Die list published by the Birmingham News, a journal with roots that stretch back to the 19th century.

1912 barbecue stand as for camp stew

What It Is & Where to Find It
Snack bars at fiddler conventions, pro-wrestling matches, National Guard Armories, high school football games, beauty pageants, and Baptist homecomings held across the entirety of the state reliably have big pots of camp stew burbling on the range. If you’re not from Alabama you may ask yourself, what is this dish? It’s the stuff of fever dreams: a potent witch’s brew of all manners of meats, vegetables, and starches including but not limited to common ingredients such as pork, beef, and chicken serving as proteins with tomatoes, onion, and corn filling the role of vegetables. Worcestershire sauce is a crucial component. Wild game like alligator, squirrel, quail, and feral hog may also be found in an adventurous cook’s stew.

A 1913 Alabama newspaper article mentions that Democrats and suffragettes alike enjoy camp stew

Beans: A Must-Have Ingredient
Butter beans, Limas, or Baby Limas are often included, and you may even find Great Northern beans or Pintos depending on what part of the state you’re exploring. “If it ain’t got beans in it, it ain’t camp stew,” is a common refrain heard when discussing the dish. Piscine versions of camp stew may be found as you explore diners and cafés alongside rivers like the Choctawhatchee, Black Warrior, and Escatawpa.

A 1908 recounting of a camp stew feast served to Alabama prisoners

Feeding the Masses in Good Times and Bad
In the early 20th century the penal colonies of the day were not immune to the charms of camp stew. The Montgomery city jail cooked a few large vats of the stuff to feed their prisoners at Thanksgiving time. Montgomery would prove itself to be a critical nexus in the furtherance of the popularity of camp stew as the 20th century gathered steam. Saloon keepers in the heart of the city began using the dish as a powerful magnet to get the drinking men to frequent their establishments. With purchase of a cocktail or cold draft beer, these enterprising business owners would set out a bowl of the stuff with nary a charge. When the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 struck, the good citizens of Alabama swung into motion and launched a camp stew-based charitable festival and sold a thousand tickets to a massive stew party held at the legendary Pickett Springs Resort near Montgomery. All the moneys were remitted to the citizens of San Francisco to assuage their suffering.

A 1931 advertisement seeking the services of a camp stew and barbecue man

A Badge of Honor
No less a luminary than legendary woodsman, author and naturalist Horace Kephart would soon integrate the cooking of camp stew into the regimen of becoming an official Boy Scout. In that halcyon era, a young scout had to demonstrate proficiency in the preparation of camp stew to earn his cooking merit badge. Want to become an Eagle Scout? Fire up that pot of camp stew, and it better taste good. By the time the 1930s came along, a regional derivation of camp stew called Lumberjack-style was being practiced in Jefferson County in the central portion of the state, but the details of what was surely pure deliciousness have been lost to the sands of time.

In 1949 the first canned camp stew made its way to market

A Canned Version, Extra Heavy on the Meat
At mid-century, a canned version of camp stew was being offered in Birmingham grocery stores but the enterprise was not fully formed enough to attach a name brand to the product. That would change as the Reynolds-Holston Canning Company of Troy, Alabama, soon waded into the fray with their own canned version of the food stuff. No strangers to marketing, the ads of the day trumpeted their product as being “extra heavy on meat”, and “100-year-old formula” was often prominently mentioned as well.

1960 ad for an Alabama barbecue stand featuring camp stew

Fundraising for Civil Rights & Putting Restaurants on the Map
As the Civil Rights-era dawned, camp stew played a prominent role in fundraising activities. Black women fanned out across Montgomery County, Alabama, selling fried catfish sandwiches, chicken and dumpling plates, and yes, camp stew. The money was plowed straight back into the movement, and these humble foods helped foment real change across the region. One now-successful restaurateur threw what she called “Heaven and Hell suppers” as she was trying to raise money to get her business going. A fiery camp stew would be served followed by ice cream and pound cake. Martha’s Place is now in its fourth decade and feeds upwards of 500 people daily. Camp Stew helped Martha Hawkins make her dream a reality. Camp stew is writ into the genetic code of Alabamians. The elixir has a thousand mothers and a thousand fathers, each claiming primacy. Truth be told, there is no “one true camp stew”. It’s the one that is currently in front of you that will most likely serve as the best one you ever ate. That is until you visit Aunt Hazel and Uncle Ralph’s cabin near Wetumpka this weekend, when a new ranking will be loudly and enthusiastically affirmed.

A young camp stew cook tending to his kettle in the early 1980s

This post hails from R.L. Reeves, Jr., a Texas photographer and writer who is living and documenting life in the 9th Ward of New Orleans. His recipes and cooking notes can be found on his food and culture blog, scrumptiouschef.com

NOTE: As of 10/2024, Mahoney’s is under new ownership and doesn’t serve red or white bean dishes and the French Quarter location ​is now closed​.

Mahony’s Po-Boys & Seafood’s Casey Levy had just received an urgent text from his staff at the French Quarter location. It wasn’t about the air-conditioning acting up or a delivery that hadn’t shown up yet. Nope – his staff wanted to know how soon he was going to bring the white beans over. White beans and rice — they are periodically on the menu as a special — are a favorite for staff and customers at Mahony’s.

Quality and consistency on the menu
For both the red bean and white bean dishes at Mahony’s, that meant using Camellia Beans.
“The quality and consistency achieved from about a century of maintaining those standards – how could we not want to use a local brand that lives that?” said Levy.

For every white bean there is a season
The white bean specials — Mahony’s uses Camellia Bean’s Great Northern variety — only happen about six months a year, divided somewhat by seasons. During the fall and winter months, that version is “looser, more old school style,” and is served with griddled shrimp with house seasoning that adds sweetness to it. The creamier version usually comes out during Hogs for the Cause, a culinary benefit in late March, and like the festival, is pork-centric.

Red beans: always on the menu
The red beans, which are always on the menu, are also made creamy. For that dish Levy “went to the drawing board … back to basics of what I learned early on in my family’s restaurants …. red beans old school, let the ingredients talk to themselves and figure out how they will handshake together.”

But instead of soaking the beans overnight using cold water, Levy said “we use hot water and add the smoked ham hock right away, with soaking only needed for five hours.”

After that, the smoked ham hock is removed, the beans are rinsed off quickly, then put back into the pot. “The absorbing of the smoky water into the beans gives them a different ‘bite’ when eating the beans. Lets you have that porky goodness without all the heavy oils needed,” said Levy.

Always cook the garlic in bacon fat
“Add your normal trinity, then garlic rendered in bacon fat,” said Levy, “a bay leaf and a little salt and pepper. We don’t add much seasoning at all.” They let the mixture simmer for a bit with the bay leaves and spices, then add in thin-sliced andouille sausage. “This will cook into the beans and give them that ‘lil extra flex,” says Levy.

Near the end of the cooking, when the red beans are creamy, a dab of Tabasco sauce is mixed in, before it is served with popcorn rice, smoked sausage and jalapeno butter cornbread. Some customers opt to have fried chicken with it.

Keeping it old school
“Like with many restaurants in Louisiana, the varying ways that they cook their beans lends to a great sampling of old school and newer flavors that can exist in the ‘kitchen sink’ cooking of the red and white beans world,” says Levy. “I like to think that ours has a taste and ‘feel’ that lets people remember a simpler way of cooking them and create that simmering of memory that made them fall in love with red beans in the first place.”

Mahony’s Po-Boys & Seafood, 3454 Magazine St., (504) 899-3374; 901 Iberville St., (504) 717-2422, mahonyspoboys.com

Where everyone knows your name
Café 615, Home of the Da Wabbit restaurant, with its iconic, vintage Bugs Bunny themed neon sign, began as a drive-in restaurant in 1948. Today it continues to be the place Westbankers (and others in the know) go for great New Orleans food. On a typical Monday, which is red beans and rice day, of course, it’s packed with diners. The waitresses are in nonstop motion and seem to know everyone by their first name. This familial feeling – not to mention the restaurant’s famed red beans – brings the neighborhood here, and that’s how owners Donna and Eric Savoie like it.

A restaurant history in neon
The Savoies bought this Gretna landmark in 2004 and renamed it Café 615, Home of Da Wabbit, keeping a link to its previous owner, “Da Wabbit” Licciardi, who won the building in a card game in 1946. Before Licciardi owned it, the business was a drive-up diner and bar called Kerner’s, which was also known as a place to gamble. Today, this old-school New Orleans tradition and the food keep bringing people back. “That’s how our business has grown – by just word of mouth or just locals,” says Dawn.

A red beans recipe for 300…and counting
When Eric recounts their red beans and rice recipe, he thinks in bulk – he says they serve about 300 portions on Mondays for lunch and dinner. He constructs his dish in steps: “We start with 50 pounds of dry beans. Add around 10 to 12 large bay leaves, then add two cups of liquid smoke and eight large smoked ham hocks. We boil it until the beans are soft, then add four cups of chopped garlic and 35 pounds of smoked sausage cut in quarters. We cook that until the garlic is soft, then add two pounds of non-salted butter. Then let it cook for two to three hours.”

Two pounds of butter – yes indeed!
The butter, he says, makes the mixture creamy. Eric then adds three or four stalks of celery chopped, 15 bell peppers, and 25 large onions, all chopped, which are all cooked down. “You don’t cook it until you can’t see the seasoning, because you still want to see the seasoning. We just cook it until it’s translucent, so it’s soft, but visible, and then we add salt.” The dish is completed with a side of a pork chop or smoked sausage.

Red beans, white beans… but always Camellia Beans
The only beans Eric will use, which also include the Thursday special of white beans and rice, are Camellia Beans. “It’s a family tradition,” said Eric, to use the beans. And it’s one that can’t be messed with. It’s staple and most people that come in are getting the red beans,” Dawn notes. “It’s a New Orleans thing.”

Pork chop or smothered rabbit on the side
For the white beans and rice – which can be ordered with pork chop or smothered rabbit (not the “wascally” kind) – Eric uses a different cooking technique: “We boil navy beans in plain water until they are soft, then we add regular onions, green onions, pickled meat, salt and pepper to taste. We check it until the pickled meat is tender and the beans are soft and creamy. Way easier than the red beans!”

Café 615, Home of Da Wabbit, 615 Kepler St., Gretna, 504-365-1225, cafe615.com

Every holiday gathering is a chance to celebrate family, traditions, and the love that brings us together. This collection of flavorful, homemade sides is sure to bring back memories, offer up something new, and please all who are seated ’round the table. Whether you’re serving up requested favorites, or preparing classic recipes with a modern twist, planning and cooking for the holidays is a gift to treasure.

Bourbon-Bacon Field Peas with Collards

Featuring the combo of a favorite spirit and a beloved salt-cured meat, this decadent, downhome side will complement any main dish — from turkey to roast to ham.

Simple Southern Lima Beans

Buttery goodness at its best, Simple Southern Lima Beans bring comfort food to the holidays.

Cranberry Barbecue Beans

Sweet, savory, and bursting with cranberries, these barbecue beans are begging to be served alongside your holiday ham.

Creamy Green Baby Lima Bean and Shrimp Casserole

Right out of the oven, this browned, bubbly casserole makes a delicious addition to any holiday table.

Warm Wild Green Salad with Pecan Dressing

Made with your choice of turnip greens, mustard greens, collards or kale, this salad features a crunchy, sweet, and tangy dressing.

Southern Blackeye Peas

Add a Southern accent to your holiday menu with these savory blackeye peas.

Red Beans and Rice Boudin Balls with Dipping Sauce

With lots of Cajun and Creole flavor wrapped up in one amazing appetizer, boudin balls are a great starter for any festive holiday meal.

While many swear by Andouille sausage, and others opt for ham hocks or tasso, there are many overlooked smoky, meaty ingredients that impart deep flavor to a pot of beans. From pig tails, rib tips, and pork necks, to smoked turkey necks and turkey legs, these under-used seasoning meats — with their skin, tendons, ligaments, collagen, and fat — infuse flavor, body, and incredible richness into a pot of beans.

Eating “nose-to-tail” is a philosophy that encourages using all parts of an animal, so as not to waste anything. And since Cajuns in particular and Southerners, in general, are known for being resourceful, thrifty, and not letting anything go to waste – delicious pieces and parts that might otherwise be ignored or thrown out are often used to perfectly season red beans and increase nutrition.

Red Beans with Smoked Turkey Legs

Game Meats

With a similar spirit of thrift and resourcefulness, hunters use game meats in as many different homemade dishes as possible – including when seasoning big pots of beans. From venison and rabbit to duck and more, there are many game meats that offer wonderful complexity to beans. Recipes like Rabbit and Cannellini Stew and K-Paul’s Famous Butter Beans ‘That Make You Crazy’ feature the best of game meat flavor.

So why not get creative with your next batch of beans? Try lesser-known pig tails or turkey necks for seasoning meat, or turn to a game meat favorite like venison. Your taste buds (and your wallet) with thank you.

Edgar Chase IV has fond memories of red beans and rice, starting from when he was a small child. “In New Orleans, it is your Monday night meal. It’s also Carnival — going out to enjoy the parades and have some red beans and rice,” explains Chase.

He learned how to make the dish from his grandmother, Leah Chase, also known as the Queen of Creole Cuisine, whose culinary skills brought people from across the globe to Dooky Chase’s Restaurant in New Orleans – and made them fans for life. Leah Chase started in the family business after she married Dooky Chase, Jr. in 1946, and her culinary prowess was never short on admirers. The list includes Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush and musicians Duke Ellington, Ray Charles, Jay-Z and Beyoncé, to name just a few. In fact, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History in Washington, DC celebrates her life and legacy with an exhibit featuring artifacts like her cooking pot, restaurant menu, and one of her iconic bright pink chef’s jackets. And there was even a Disney movie that drew inspiration from her true story: The Princess and the Frog.

Let that bean work!

Edgar Chase IV took over when Chef Leah passed away in 2019, and he’s honored to carry on her legacy. “Growing up, everyone [in the family] worked in the restaurant,” said Chase, who started out washing dishes and busing tables at around 14 years old. Chase added, “I always wanted to hang in the back of the kitchen.” He’d watch his grandmother, then go home and re-create a dish from the restaurant, then bring it in for her to taste. “Her palate was so amazing, she picked up any misstep,” Chase said. “She would say ‘You need more of this … cook longer…’ and whatever she said, it came out better.” Among those dishes was red beans and rice. “We start with the smoked ham shank and smoked sausage, add salt, pepper and thyme and really just cook slowly to let that bean work,” he said, “then we finish with black pepper and vegetable oil to cream them up.”

The beans are going to speak for themselves.

“When you are cooking with Camellia Red Beans,” said Chase, “you are starting with quality. And you don’t have to do too much to red beans and rice to make it shine.” Chase is among those in the kitchen making the dish, including his cousin Cleo Robinson and Mister Bynah — better known as “Mister B” — who are making sure the red beans and rice are ready when the restaurant opens. Robinson is also the cook for the restaurant’s famed fried chicken, which is served with red beans and rice. Other dishes that lure in diners are the shrimp Clemenceau, stewed chicken, crawfish étouffée, Creole gumbo and Leah Chase’s famous gumbo z’herbes, a dish traditionally served for the Catholic observance of Holy Thursday. 

More than the sum of its food.

Leah and Dooky made sure that the restaurant was always more than just a place to eat; it was also a safe community gathering spot during segregation, and as such it played an integral role in the Civil Rights movement. In honor of this history, it was recently placed on the state’s Civil Rights Trail. Dooky Chase’s Restaurant continues to stay its course in the community as a culinary icon, a gathering place,  a way of life – and a celebration of New Orleans.

Written by Sue Strachan

To understand how important the Fiorella family has been to the food culture of New Orleans, just ask the folks who line up early at Fiorella’s Cafe in Gentilly, waiting for the doors to open. They wait for that hot and crunchy, award-winning fried chicken that is perfectly seasoned down to the bone. Some are there for the wide variety of po-boys on the menu. And many are there early on Mondays for first dibs on the hearty, smoky Monday red beans and rice before they sell out.

Family Recipes from a French Quarter Restaurant

Owners Kelly and Calcie Fiorella are carrying on a family tradition, with family recipes, based on the original Fiorella’s Restaurant on Decatur Street in the New Orleans French Quarter, which was operated by their dad, CJ Fiorella, until he closed it 1999. As that restaurant’s origin story goes, CJ was a New Orleans grocer of Sicilian descent who just wanted a good cup of coffee. Every day CJ would make his way to the French Market to buy fresh produce. After taking care of business, he would stop in the Market Place Restaurant and purchase a coffee. One day in 1984, the restaurant’s owner, Anthony Bianca, who knew CJ and his family and their love of cooking, approached him and offered to sell him the restaurant. It took a bit of pushing from a friend, but CJ finally accepted, and Fiorella’s was born.
CJ renamed it Fiorella’s Cafe and brought a large amount of the family’s own recipes to the restaurant. Not completely satisfied with the menu, he began to walk around the French Quarter and look at the different menus to see what others were doing. Since this was a family style neighborhood spot, he wanted to make sure he offered red beans and rice on Mondays, served butter beans another day, and stayed true to a typical New Orleans menu – but with a Fiorella spin.
“When my brother and I decided to reopen the family restaurant here in Gentilly, I said to him, I’m the one doing all of the cooking,” said Kelly Fiorella. He was not only excited to be back in the kitchen but also to bring back the original family recipes, including the famous fried chicken (they go through about 80 to 100 pounds of it per day).

How do you red bean, Fiorella’s?

Fiorellas Cafe in Gentilly on June 14, 2021.

One plate you will only find on Monday is red beans and rice – a recipe that was handed down from Kelly’s grandmother. “It was a tradition, and it was always with Camellia beans,” he said. “There were always little bags of Camellia beans in the pantry,” he said. “She also had stacks of Camellia white beans, red beans, navy and black-eyed peas. I can remember always seeing that little Camellia logo.”
On a typical Monday, Fiorella’s goes through about 10 to 12 pounds of Camellia red beans, according to Kelly. It’s all made fresh Monday morning and usually sells out by mid-afternoon. And when it’s gone for the day, it’s gone. Fiorella’s red beans recipe is a hearty one. You will find the hint of bacon with the onions, bell peppers, and garlic. They add ham, pork shoulder, and andouille sausage. The key to a good pot of beans, Kelly says, is to cook them low and slow.

Fiorella’s Weekday Specials – A Schedule to Live By

Kelly also uses Camellia’s large lima beans for the Thursday special of butter beans and rice. “I love the butter beans,” he said. “They’ve got so much flavor to them.” Other weekday specials include meatloaf on Tuesdays, Italian sausage and shells on Wednesday, and shrimp Creole on Fridays. The menu also includes favorite family classics like meatballs and spaghetti, veal parmesan, hamburger steak, fried seafood, a variety of po-boys, and of course, the fried chicken. In both 2016 and 2017, Kelly and Calcie earned the “best fried chicken” award at the National Fried Chicken Festival.

“It’s all family recipes,” said Kelly. “The red beans is a family recipe handed down.”

Fiorellas Cafe in Gentilly on June 14, 2021.

Kelly’s love of cooking was sparked early on, when visiting his grandmother. “Every time you walked into that woman’s house, it smelled like she was cooking a pot of red gravy or something,” he said. “That’s my grandmother’s meatballs that we use with the spaghetti. She taught us her recipes.”
The history of those who came before him is important to Kelly. Black and white photographs of relatives decorate the walls and serve as reminders of the legacy he wants to continue and build upon. The building itself has historical importance, too. The Fiorellas have had a longtime friendship with the Bologna family that formerly operated Teddy’s Grill at this location. To pay homage to that friendship and what the restaurant meant to the Gentilly neighborhood, two black plastic bull heads from Teddy’s Grill watch over the dining room. “We always just wanted to stay true to what is tradition in New Orleans,” Kelly added.

Written by Eric Olsson

Unfortunately, due to losses from Hurricane Ida in 2021, Dunbar’s Creole Cuisine is now officially closed after serving soul food to generations of New Orleanians.

Since Celestine Dunbar was a child, Camellia beans have been a part of her life in one way or another. “I can see my mother right now using one of those little packs of Camellia beans,” said Dunbar. “I can’t remember her ever not using them. They were just a part of our family.”

Cooking for her family is how Dunbar gained the confidence to open Dunbar’s Creole Cooking on Freret Street in 1986. “There were seven children, and it was their job to get up in the morning and make breakfast for the family. Then, they would turn around and start making lunch. I helped out and cooked a lot.” 

In the beginning, Dunbar’s offered deli sandwiches in keeping with the deli business she’d taken over at that location, but eventually she began to cook hot meals at her house and bring them in to sell. Many of the recipes were ones that her parents and grandmother taught her to make. Each day she would bring in a different special. Monday was red beans and rice. Tuesday was cabbage and barbecue chicken. Wednesday was meatballs and spaghetti. Many of these specials are still served to this day, and all of them are the same family recipes.

Celestine Dunbar never stopped cooking

For almost 20 years, Dunbar’s Creole Cooking was a fixture on Freret Street, but that all ended in 2005 after she lost the restaurant to the floodwaters from Hurricane Katrina and the fight with insurance companies that followed. To keep the Dunbar’s name out there, she went back to her roots of cooking in her own home kitchen and selling the food elsewhere. Her first stop was the food court at the Loyola University College of Law in New Orleans. After five years of serving students Uptown, she went on to deliver hot pre-plated meals to the workers on lunch at the Chalmette refinery.

This allowed Dunbar time to save up and purchase a new location, and she found that location in 2017 at 7834 Earhart Boulevard in New Orleans. Though the name of the restaurant changed to Dunbar’s Creole Cuisine, everything else stayed the same when they moved into the bigger location. Longtime friend and chef, Frank Jones, rejoined her as head of the kitchen. “He knows all of the recipes,” Dunbar said about Jones, who has been with her for over 30 years. “Frank does it all.”

“All they want is Camellia beans” 

As lunchtime hits, locals come out for the red beans and rice. “We sell them every day,” Dunbar said. “They’ll buy the red beans and rice before they’ll buy anything else.” She admits that over 60% of sales are for the red beans with fried chicken. On most days they go through about 12 pounds of Camellia red beans and up to 25 pounds a day during Carnival season leading up to Mardi Gras.

The recipe for the beans has been the same since the beginning. “We start with the trinity (white onions, green bell pepper, and celery) along with a lot of water,” Dunbar stated. “Then, you boil the trinity with garlic, green onions, granulated garlic, and a little parsley until the vegetables have become soft. You add your meat and seasoning (a special blend of black pepper and cayenne pepper) when the beans are about 90% done. This gives it it’s flavor.”

There are two tricks she offers for making the beans nice and creamy. The first trick is to add vegetable oil in the beginning. Dunbar says that by doing this, it will not only prevent the beans from boiling over and ruining the seasonings but will also help make the beans creamy. The other trick, or secret she learned from her mother all those years before, is to use Camellia brand red beans. “Camellia brand beans are just the best red beans there is. They are pink, fresh, and you just always get a beautiful red bean.”

Giving back to the community

Like many restaurants throughout New Orleans, Dunbar’s Creole Cuisine worked with the Chef’s Brigade NOLA, a united coalition of restaurants and chefs working together to offer food to those in need during the COVID pandemic, including front line responders, and healthcare workers. Dunbar said that they use Camellia brand lima beans and serve them with baked chicken seasoned with the “Louisiana Trinity” over a bed of white rice. The Chef’s Brigade produced up to 60,000 meals a day, utilizing independent restaurants throughout Orleans Parish to feed at-risk residents and neighbors throughout New Orleans.

Dunbar is happy that the restaurant can do its part in giving back to the community. She understands that the people of New Orleans have been an integral part in the continued success of her restaurant and rallied behind her to keep Dunbar’s Creole Cuisine going. Though there have been many ups and downs and stressful days, she always looks forward to what is to come – and there are exciting new plans. And through it all, she says that one thing will be certain, “people will come from all over the world and ask for those Camellia red beans and rice with fried chicken.”

Unfortunately, due to losses from Hurricane Ida in 2021, Dunbar’s Creole Cuisine is now officially closed after serving soul food to generations of New Orleanians.

Written by Eric Olsson

If the walls could talk.

Pimm’s Cups, intrigue, first dates, proposals of varying sorts, assignations, Creole flavors and a place to rest after a long day in the French Quarter — Napoleon House hasn’t changed much since 1914 when this famed bar and restaurant was opened by the Impastato family.

But if the walls could talk, Napoleon House would start telling tales from an earlier time when the building was owned by Nicolas Girod. Nicolas was a businessman, mayor of New Orleans from 1812 to 1815, and a dreamer and schemer. Soon after inheriting the building in 1814, he began to alter it, creating the three-story building that we see today. Legend says the work was done in preparation for the arrival of Napoleon Bonaparte, whose supporters — rumored to include local pirates Jean Lafitte and Dominique You — were planning to help him escape from exile in Saint Helena and come to New Orleans.

Napoleon died before this alleged escape plan came to fruition, but his portraits still preside over the Napoleon House on the faded plaster walls, and the stern bust of his countenance surveys the dreamily illuminated bar and restaurant where cocktails and classic New Orleans cuisine rule the day and night.

Red Beans on Monday

In 2015, executive Chef Chris Montero of the Ralph Brennan restaurant group took the helm at Napoleon House, where he is also the general manager. Montero, who’s from an 8th-generation New Orleans family and well-versed in classic Creole cuisine, kept many of the original Impastato family recipes, merely tweaking them with artisan-made ingredients. At the top of that list of was Monday red beans and rice.

Montero grew up sampling different red beans and rice styles: his grandmother preferred ham hock, pickled pork, and a spicy smoked sausage; his mother rendered pork and sausage. For his own version of red beans, Montero harkens back to his grandmother’s classic Creole cooking. “I make it with chicken stock,“ he said.

Sausage that tastes good and does good.

One of the two sausages Montero uses in Napoleon House red beans is a Creole smoked sausage that has a local — and philanthropic — origin. As part of “Silence of da Hams,” a team that competes in Hogs for the Cause (a barbecue competition held in New Orleans that’s an annual benefit for pediatric brain cancer), Montero helped develop the sausage. It’s also available in grocery stores, and a portion of its sales goes to Hogs.

Camellia in the (Napoleon) House

Montero also uses Camellia Brand beans. As he put it, “To me this is the only brand people buy.” Montero leaves the important job of preparing the dish at Napoleon House to Josh Bierria, the restaurant’s production chef. A “behind-the-scenes” person, Bierria is an essential part of the team, said Montero. “Josh’s Camellia red beans and rice have become a big item on Goldbelly.com” said Montero, adding, “Two weeks ago we shipped 200 cases of red beans and rice in a day, all over the U.S.” Would Napoleon have liked red beans and rice? Montero contemplates for a moment and answers, “Why, not?!”

Written by Sue Strachan

Forty-five years ago, Leo Christakis decided to purchase Mena’s Palace in the French Quarter as a way to move back to Greece. When he learned that the restaurant was for sale, he told his brother, Leo, “Let’s buy it, make some money to save up, and move back to Greece.” His brother agreed. But as the years went on and the business continued to thrive, Christakis and his family began to build relationships and friendships with those who lived around the restaurant. “In my culture,” he said, “you go to a friend’s house, and they ask you what do you want to eat? What do you want to drink? Then, we sit around and talk, and drink, and eat. That is how we do it here, that is how we take care of our customers.”

“He refuses to buy any other brand than Camellia.”

“It’s all he’s ever cooked with,” said Leo’s daughter and restaurant co-owner Ellie Christakis, referring to her dad. “One time, an order came in for lima beans. Our supplier had sent a different brand and we had used them because we had to make some lima beans. He tasted it. ‘No. These aren’t Camellia,’ he said. ‘Don’t order anything but Camellia.’ And we definitely learned our lesson. The color was different. The taste was different. It’s amazing what a difference Camellia makes.”

Start with the trinity.

At Mena’s they start their red beans with the trinity (onions, bell peppers and celery). They sauté it down and add smoked sausage as the seasoning meat. Once the red beans are added, they cook them for a long time to get to that creamy texture and serve them with fried chicken or smoked sausage on the side. Ellie Christakis explained that the family uses Camellia products at home, too. She makes the Greek soup ‘Fakes’ with Camellia lentils. The soup (pronounced ‘Fah-kehs’) is traditionally made with lentils, water, red onions, garlic, bay leaves and a tomato puree (if you want it reddened) and served with an added drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and lots of vinegar. “There’s another one called a ‘Fasolada’ and it uses a Great Northern Bean. And we only use Camellia,” Ellie Christakis said of the soup that many consider to be one of the national dishes of Greece.

Here for the community.

One thing that has been certain about Mena’s Palace and the Christakis family is that they have always put the needs of the neighborhood first. Whether it was coming back from Hurricane Katrina or riding out the pandemic, their top priorities have always been to treat everyone like family, keep prices low, serve big portions of high-quality food, and remain consistent. “We appreciate our customers and the relationships and friendships we have with them,” Ellie Christakis said. “New Orleans is such a nice city, especially in the French Quarter. There are so many good people. A lot of warmth and love.”

New Orleans is home.

“I wanted to move back to Greece, but never did,” said Leo Christakis reflecting on his decision to stay in New Orleans and continue operating Mena’s Palace with his family. “You get to understand the people, and I loved that. I wanted to see the customers happy and the rest took care of itself. I am 77. I’m still working, and I still like it.”

Written by Eric Olsson

As you walk up to, the aroma of fried chicken fills the air. People from all over the world line up and wait, sometimes hours, to enter Willie Mae’s Scotch House, a small two-room restaurant in the historic Treme neighborhood of New Orleans. They’re attracted by not only the aroma of perfectly fried chicken, but also by the accolades from the Food Network, the Travel Channel and the James Beard Foundation, which declared it an “American Classic Restaurant” for carrying on the traditions of great regional cuisine.

At one time, Willie Mae’s was just a corner spot that was only known within the neighborhood. It started out as a bar in 1957, then after moving to its current location, a beauty salon was added in the front because Willie Mae Seaton always wanted to be a beautician. She began to cook in the small kitchen behind the bar to feed the customers and soon after, they were telling her that she needed to open her own restaurant. In the early 1970s, the beauty shop was closed to make room for those who were coming in to eat the smothered veal, pork chops and that crispy, spicy fried chicken.

As word got around, the dining room, which seems more someone’s house than an actual restaurant, began to fill up. In May of 2005, the award from the James Beard Foundation put the old scotch house on the radar of every food critic, journalist, and tourist from around the country, and the lines stretched longer. But just months later, the restaurant was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina and the flooding that followed it.

After almost three years of rebuilding, with the help of countless volunteers and family members, Willie Mae’s Scotch House reopened to great acclaim. Willie Mae stepped aside and her great-granddaughter, Kerry Seaton-Stewart, carries on the tradition of the famed family-owned restaurant. The national praise of their fried chicken took off.

“Then of course there’s the trinity – celery, bell peppers and onions.”

Kerry Seaton-Stewart grew up in the kitchen with her great-grandmother and grandmother. “She had me in the kitchen with her my whole life,” Seaton-Stewart said, who began working at Willie Mae’s as a teenager. “She would require that I cooked all of these cultural meals. All the traditional meals. At school, they would fix red beans for lunches and I would just play with it because they were not my grandmother’s beans. I was always comparing and measuring the standard of red beans.”

But Seaton-Stewart knew that adapting to changing times was important to keep the restaurant moving forward. She noticed that those who lived outside of the southern region were not accustomed to eating lots of pork and fatty meats like they used in the pot of red beans or butter beans. “I felt the vegan wave coming on and I just wanted to be ahead of it and be inclusive,” she said. “That way, if people came in and they weren’t all pork eaters they can still eat it. I’ve been making them vegan for 14 years now.”

By switching the red beans and butter beans, which are large lima beans, to vegan, she felt that the actual flavor of the two dishes were lifted. One of the enhancements she found while doing taste tests with family and friends, was to include extra bay leaves. “Bay leaves are a must,” she said. “Then of course the trinity – celery, bell peppers and onions – and then some garlic.”  But the not-so-secret ingredient is in the red beans themselves.

“We use Camellia because it’s just a better grade of beans.”

Seaton-Stewart said that you can tell that the quality of Camellia beans is better than any other brands simply by the way they are farmed and cultivated.” You don’t have all the rocks in there and broken beans,” she said. “Camellia is high quality and they just cream better so you know when you cook them it’s going to make a good bean sauce. No other beans are going to be creamy like that.”

Expanding the tradition

Willie Mae’s Scotch House has been as popular as ever. After 60 years at the corners of St. Ann and Tonti in the Treme neighborhood, Seaton-Stewart expanded into the Central Business District food hall, Pythian Market, in 2019, with a condensed version of the restaurant. The new location still features the same iconic fried chicken and red beans and rice and will help meet the supply and demand to the loyal longtime following of locals and tourists to keep the legacy going.

“Red Beans tells the story of the culture of New Orleans,” Seaton-Stewart said. “It means home to me. It makes me think of my family because we have so many good times and great memories eating a pot of red beans.”

Written by Eric Olsson

In the middle of the ever-changing Bywater neighborhood in New Orleans, there is an unassuming yellow store front at the corners of Dauphine and Piety streets. Take one step inside the small grocery store and it’s like you are stepping back in time to the early 1970s.

The building that houses Frady’s One Stop has been around for more than a hundred years. Before Joseph Frady bought the going-out-of-business Flick’s Meat Market in 1972, it was an open-air fruit stand. Frady bought the meat market with two goals in mind: to turn it into a corner grocery store and to serve the best cold drinks and sandwiches. 

After Frady’s One Stop opened and word spread around the neighborhood about the food, locals began to ask for more than just sandwiches. To accommodate the customers, Frady had a small kitchen installed behind the counter with deep fryers and a stove and began to serve hot lunches and daily specials. Year after year, the list of po-boy sandwiches and daily specials could be found scrawled across the black chalkboards that decorate the interior.

A red beans tradition.

“Right away my father started to serve red beans and rice on Mondays because they were coming in and asking for it,” said Kirk Frady, who now runs the food store. “My dad was born and raised in New Orleans and grew up like that with my grandmother. Monday was wash day, and red beans and rice. People came into Frady’s and expected that.”

You’ll not only find packages of Camellia Beans being offered for sale on the grocery store shelf, but it’s also a Monday ‘lunch special’ that is served to-go with either smoked sausage or chicken, a vegetable (such as mustard or collard greens) and a dessert (bread pudding or a cobbler) for a price that has had loyal locals and in-the-know tourists coming back for decades.

“I don’t know where the recipe came from.”

“We usually cook four to five pounds of Camellia Red Beans every Monday,” Kirk Frady said. “I don’t know where the recipe came from. My dad hired a cook, an older lady, and she lived next door. She would soak the beans overnight, then she would come in and cook them. And it’s still the recipe we’re using today.”

To make the beans extra creamy, Kirk Frady says to use lots of butter along with mashing the beans in the end. To get that extra depth of flavor, besides onions, bell pepper, and garlic, he recommends using lots of celery. “We’re big on celery,” he said.

“We’ve always used Camellia. They have always been here and are established in New Orleans.”

Frady’s One Stop has established itself as a mainstay in an old neighborhood that is rapidly evolving around it. Away from the colorful residential streets that are lined with rows and rows of double shotgun houses and Creole cottages, the industrial spaces are being reclaimed and transformed as artists and musicians move in. Bed and breakfasts are sprouting up to meet the demand of tourists visiting this quirky, laid-back part of New Orleans.

“It’s a working-class neighborhood. We get a lot of carpenters and electricians, who are working on these old houses, come in to eat with us because it is an easy meal,” Kirk Frady said, “but with the Bywater being such a destination now, we’re selling a lot more groceries, like beans and hot sauces in little gift baskets because they want to take them back to where they are staying or send them back home. Even though they did not grow up with wash day and soaking beans, they know the drill and they want to take Camellia red beans and a Barq’s with them.”

“No Wifi at Frady’s. Sit and talk.”

At its core, Frady’s One Stop is still an old-world type of neighborhood grocery store, but deep down it’s one of the best spots to grab a bite to eat in New Orleans. While a small portion of the menu changes daily, the list of the sixteen po-boys offered along with the selection of breakfast that is served all day remains a fixture, just like the sign that reads “No Wifi at Frady’s. Sit and Talk.” So take your red beans and rice to go, sit outside on one of the colorfully painted benches, enjoy the charming neighborhood and know that no matter how much the area changes around you, the folks at Frady’s know what it means to be New Orleanians.

Written by Eric Olsson

Another Southern Tradition

When it comes enjoying a big steaming bowl of creamy red beans and rice, there are those who subscribe to the “more is more” philosophy. For example, in addition to the smoked sausage or ham hock or pickled pork that adds meaty flavor to red beans, many enjoy the additional meaty southern tradition of fried chicken alongside their beans. There’s just something about the creaminess of the beans combined with the crunchiness of the fried chicken that makes it a winning taste sensation.

A Favorite Combination at Restaurants and More

In fact, fried chicken is probably the most common treat paired with red beans and rice at favorite eateries, with the ubiquitous combo found at chains like Popeyes, as well as at mom and pop restaurants in New Orleans like Café Reconcile, Dunbar’s, and Willie Mae’s Scotch House. Interestingly, though it’s not on the public-facing menu, fried chicken and red beans & rice is one of the most popular secret suppers served to staff at upscale Galatoire’s. And according to Chef Anthony Scanio of Delmonico, “Of course, red beans and rice are a staple at New Orleans get-togethers; surely, fried chicken…is more than likely to be part of the pot luck.” Even Lolis Eric Elie, a New Orleans master storyteller, journalist, documentary filmmaker, and cookbook author, declares, “I love red beans and fried chicken as a combination.”

Finally, when asked “What’s the secret to your red beans?”, one loyal fan put it this way:

“Pickled meat, garlic, bay leaf, onions, and let them simmer on top of the stove! Serve over rice with a little hot sauce, fried chicken, and fresh French bread!”
Daphine J.

Red bean lovers are nothing if not opinionated about the ingredients they must have on hand to make their beloved red beans. But what about the mandatory accompaniments to a bowl of red beans and rice – such as the bread used to sop up all that goodness? Some insist on squares of homemade cornbread with their red beans and rice, while others prefer a light, airy, and crusty French bread made by local New Orleans’ purveyors such as Leidenheimer’s or Reising’s. And still others are happy with either or both on their plate.

When it comes to New Orleans restaurants, Joey K’s serves their red beans and rice with a basket of sliced French bread and butter, while Willie Mae’s serves their red beans with cornbread muffins. No matter your personal preference, all we know is that the tradition of breaking bread with family and friends is one that we can all get behind.

Try our favorite Buttermilk Cornbread recipe:

And read what red bean fans have to say about the issue:

“Lots of love, and killer cornbread on the side!!!”
– Bobby S.

“Serve over rice with a little hot sauce, fried Chicken, and fresh French bread!”
– Daphine J.

Never mind moonshine – it’s potlikker that traditionally fueled the South, from the mountains of Appalachia to the tumbleweeds of Texas. Potlikker is the rich liquid left over in the pot after a long, slow simmering of greens (like collards, turnips or mustards) when seasoned with a bit of salty meat (like ham hock, smoked turkey wings or slab bacon). This leftover cooking liquid might seem like something to discard for those not in-the-know, but as it turns out, potlikker is divine, providing such a transcendent experience when soaked up by cornbread (or even sipped on its own) that you’ll quickly learn to savor it down to the last drop.

The original nutritious green drink?

Potlikker originated as a staple in the African American cuisine of the American South – a culinary tradition known worldwide as Soul Food. This nutrient-dense liquid was – and still is – used as a base for soups and other dishes. Simmering greens such as in this Potlikker and Blackeye Pea recipe for such a long time causes nutritive goodies like vitamin K, vitamin C, vitamin A, iron and a host of minerals to leach out into the cooking water, creating the kind of nurturing drink that should probably be bottled and marketed as a wellness elixir! And when the greens are simmered down with a few beans or field peas, it only adds to the flavor and the nutritive value.

The Great Potlikker and Cornpone Debate

But potlikker’s influence doesn’t just stop at the dinner table—oh, no. It’s played an outsized role in provoking strong feelings in Southern art, literature and politics over the years, creating plenty of interstate rivalries and public outcry over how best to eat the dish. Perhaps most notable is a 1931 squaring off between Atlanta Constitution editor Julian Harris and Louisiana Governor Huey Long. Harris crumbled his cornbread into the potlikker to eat with a spoon, while Long did the far less “fashionable” thing by dunking his handheld cornbread hunk into the juices. The entire South was thrown into a tizzy, but Long eventually got the last word on potlikker: In 1935, he included an explanation of all its merits as part of a long-winded filibuster on the U.S. Senate floor.

Bean Liquor vs. Potlikker

Similar to the debate over whether “real chili” contains beans or not, Southerners differ in their ideas of how to spell the word “potlikker” and what goes in it. While it’s well established that the broth from cooking beans is called “bean liquor” or “liquor” and that the word “potlikker” refers to the liquid from cooking greens, there are plenty of folks who throw field peas or beans in with their greens and still call the leftover liquid potlikker. Either way, home cooks and chefs alike are finding delicious new uses for potlikker these days, from cocktails (potlikker martini, anyone?), to potlikker vinaigrette for salads, to outside-the-box potlikker breakfast stews. And when beans and greens get together with plenty of potlikker? That’s the kind of second-and-third helping dish that’s warming down to the bones. In any case, don’t forget the cornbread!

Written by Sarah Baird, a writer and editor based in New Orleans. An award-winning former restaurant critic for the city’s alt-weekly and seasoned tippling enthusiast, her work appears regularly in print and online for Lucky Peach, Food52, AFAR, Pacific Standard, Saveur, The Atlantic, Eater, The Village Voice, PUNCH, The Guardian, GOOD, Liquor.com and beyond. 

Smoked sausage is a bedrock red beans essential, and many folks wouldn’t make a pot of red beans without it. But while there’s always the popular Andouille, another local favorite is green onion smoked sausage. Flecked with bits of freshly chopped green onions, this variety of sausage offers a little bit of color and a whole lot of flavor to a pot of red beans. And it’s available from Louisiana brands like Manda and Richard’s.

Just as with other varieties of smoked sausage, most fans slice and brown green onion smoked sausage in a few glugs of oil, leaving the perfect amount of fat in the pot for cooking the trinity and infusing those aromatic vegetables with smoky green onion flavor. The texture, aroma and taste of green onion smoked sausage is a natural addition to a pot of creamy red beans, and a personal preference for many.

Check out quotes from fans who love making their red beans with green onion smoked sausage:

“Camellias..lots of onions..bay leaf..fry ground green onion sausage Patton’s Sausage and Smoked Cajun Sausage drain S&P cook slowly mash 2 cups creamy.”
Bonnie M.

“Some good smoked green onion sausages, smoked Tasso, smoked ham hocks, onion, Bell pepper, Tony’s seasoning. Slow cook for hours!!!!! I forgot.. GARLIC!!!”
Tonya M.

“Tasso, smoked green onion sausage, onions, little bell pepper, garlic. Chicken broth. Cook on high then turn down. I cook all day. Thick and creamy.”
Janet B.

Red Bean Essentials: Pickled Pork

Southerners love the richness that seasoning meats like pickled pork add to pot of red beans. Before refrigeration, preserving foods was a challenge, and every culture developed some version of pickling or preserving in a salty brine or vinegar. Herbs and spices, such as mustard seed, garlic, cinnamon or cloves, were often added. Pickled pork, a.k.a. pickle meat, was born of this process, providing seasoning while also preserving shelf life. And because it adds such unique flavor, the practice of including pickled pork is still beloved today – whether you’re cooking red beans or other iconic Southern dishes like butter beans or stewed vegetables.

Pickled pork is rendered supremely tender from its brine and can be relied upon to break down and saturate the other ingredients in the pot with its delicious flavors. So when you cook with it, you’ll want to hold off on adding salt before tasting the cooked beans — because the salt released from the pickle meat should be plenty to season the pot. It also adds a tang or vinegary taste that many fans love.

At most Louisiana grocery stores, pickled pork is readily available in hunks, smaller chunks, or slices from brands such as Richard’s and Savoie’s — both of which call themselves “Cajun” — and Vaucresson’s, which claims Creole as its heritage. No matter the brand, the aromatics and spices used in the brining process are all about the same. If pickle meat is unavailable where you are, you can buy it online, or easily make it yourself with a pork shoulder roast and seasonings.

Check out our recipe for Pickled Pork.

Try a few Red Beans & Rice recipes that feature pickled pork:

New Orleans-Style Red Beans & Rice

Barry Begault’s Slow Cooker Family Red Beans

See how some cooks use it alongside other ingredients to get the best-tasting red beans around:

“Andouille, diced pickled pork, garlic, Tony’s, and a really good blend of other seasonings.”
Liz X.

“Bacon grease-sauté onions-pickled pork, Tasso, little roux, ham base, low and slow till they cream, green onion tops at the end!”
Jimmy Y.

“Pickled meat, garlic, bay leaf, onions and let them simmer on top of the stove! Serve over rice with a little hot sauce, fried chicken, and fresh French bread!”
Daphine J.

“Soak and rinse them. Put them in the crockpot with some onions, garlic, celery, boiled pickled meat, kitchen bouquet, and brown gravy powder.”
Adia H.

“I use hickory smoked bacon! The grease from the bacon will make the beans creamy and flavorful!! But I can’t forget the smoke sausage, pickled meat, and ham hocks!!!”
David H.

An Old Tradition

Like so many delicious Southern culinary traditions, the use of ham hocks came about as a result of hard times. While the wealthy viewed knobby, gelatinous ham hocks as undesirable, laborers in the fields and cities gladly used the marrow-rich bones to flavor and enhance beans, greens and broths. Hocks were, and still are, cured with salt and smoked — serving to enhance flavor while preserving shelf life. And the beloved practice of including a ham hock in a pot of simmering red beans is a must for many today.

Inexpensive, Collagen-Rich, Meaty Flavor

Over the years, Southerners have come to a universal appreciation for the rich, porky flavor that ham hocks impart at a thrifty cost. In fact, cooking red beans with a ham hock truly offers multiple advantages. First off, ham hocks are collagen-rich, so when slow cooked with beans and liquid, the collagen and fat slowly dissolve, adding a silky texture along with rich, smoky flavor. Ham hocks also add a wonderful saltiness, so be sure to wait till your beans have finished cooking before adjusting salt to taste. Usually sold in pairs that are pre-weighed and wrapped near your grocery’s butcher case, ham hocks are inexpensive, allowing you to add meaty flavor to your beans for less. And finally, at the end of cooking, you’ll want to remove the ham hock, pull it apart, chop up the tasty little pockets of meat by the bone, and add that meat back to your red beans – because those wonderfully tasty bits will make your red beans even more delicious.

Here are some of our favorite red bean recipes that feature ham hocks:

Emily’s Red Beans and Rice

New Orleans-Style Red Beans & Rice

And check out quotes from those who wouldn’t think of cooking red beans without them:

“Smoked ham hocks and sausage, bell peppers, onions and garlic! Oh yeah!”
Aimee M.

“Boil the smoked ham hocks first to make a smoky broth, and use that broth for the beans.”
Southern L.

“A Chisesi ham hock and a healthy dose of Tabasco.”
Randy S.

“Soak overnight. Salt, garlic and a great big smoked ham hock. Bring to good boil, reduce heat to medium low, cover and simmer for 2 hours or until beans are soft texture.”
Kathy F.

At the base of many Cajun and Creole favorites is a simple foundation of gently sautéed vegetables. In fact, it’s step one in rustic, family-style recipes for gumbo, étouffée, jambalaya, and of course, red beans and rice.

The three essential vegetables in this foundation are onions, celery and green bell pepper, and because Louisiana is predominantly Catholic, the Holy Trinity, or the Trinity for short, took hold as its moniker. In fact, Chef Paul Prudhomme was the celebrity chef who popularized not only Cajun cuisine, but the use of the Trinity as well. Now, from home cooks to chefs, everyone agrees that deliciousness flows from this universal starter, providing a savory base for other ingredients to build upon.

The ratio is traditionally three parts onions to two parts celery to one part bell pepper, but some prefer equal amounts of each, and others take a shortcut by using a container of pre-chopped Trinity readily available in grocery stores. For those who cook red beans religiously every week, chopping the Trinity and sautéing it in butter, oil, or fat leftover from browning sausage or seasoning meat, creates an aroma and basis that practically ensures red bean success.

The heat from sautéing breaks down the flavorful vegetables, releasing their trapped liquids onto the hot surface of the skillet or dutch oven. An intense flavor develops as the water evaporates, leaving behind residual sugars that caramelize the vegetables until a desirable richness is achieved. Similar to the idea behind French mirepoix and Spanish & Latin American sofrito, the Holy Trinity supports and improves the dishes it’s used in, and red beans and rice is no exception.

Photo courtesy of Philip M. Denman

Clarence “Buster” Holmes: “I’m Not a Chef. I’m a Cook.”

If you are a New Orleanian of a certain age, you might have heard of Buster Holmes’ restaurant and bar, which opened at its Burgundy Street location in the French Quarter in 1960, during the Civil Rights era. It was a unique and important communal dining spot for people of all races, classes, and origins – a place where wealthy businessmen and lawyers, university professors and jazz musicians sat cheek to jowl with college kids, dock workers, cabbies and hotel chambermaids, all united in hunger for Holmes’ renowned home cooking. (In 1960, you could get a big plate of red beans at Buster’s for 16 cents!) Modest to a fault and friendly to everyone, Buster refused to call himself a chef, priding himself on serving everyday home-cooking that happened to be about the best there was anywhere.

King of Red Beans

Hailed as the undisputed “King of Red Beans,” the Plaquemines Parish native downplayed the unique nature of his signature dish. “My red beans are really nothing different,” he said in 1981. “But they are cooked right. I put in all the seasonings – onions, garlic, bell pepper – at once and let the whole thing cook down. In terms of spice, Buster wielded a light touch, preferring to let his diners season their beans to their own tastes.

Jazz Was Always on the Menu

Holmes’ restaurant was an informal clubhouse for musicians and served as a magnet for second-line parades and jam sessions and as a place to hustle gigs and relax after performances. Regulars included jazz legends such as Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong, George “Kid Sheik” Cola, Alcide “Slow Drag” Pavageau, Matthew “Fats” Houston and Harold Dejan, to mention just a few. In 1970, Buster sold his red beans from a truck at the very first New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, prompting a New York Times review of his restaurant that set mouths watering worldwide for a taste of Holmes’ soulful cooking. After that, you were likely to run into tourists and celebrities at Buster’s place, too, including Woody Allen, Vincent Price and too many rock ‘n rollers to count. 

Returning the Favor

Holmes also made room for the poor and homeless of all ages, often giving away food or selling it at cut-rate prices. “ ’Course I feed ’em when they come in here and tell me they’re hungry,” Holmes told The Times-Picayune in 1979. “God’s been good to me, and I’m just returnin’ the favor.” As musician, author and journalist Tom Sancton, author of the memoir Song for My Fathers, recalled, “Buster was someone that welcomed everyone. He brought together people of all walks of life … through music and food.”

See Buster’s Famous Red Beans and Rice Recipe

Keeping it Old School

Red beans weren’t the only home-cooking on Buster’s menu. He served garlic chicken, pork backbone with turnips, shrimp creole, trout amandine, crab soup, oyster stew, shrimp & okra gumbo and many more classic New Orleans dishes – most of which can be found in the iconic Buster Holmes Restaurant Cookbook, first published in 1980 and featuring a forward by New Orleans food writer and historian Poppy Tooker.

Holmes’ family was from the country, and he grew up hunting and cooking wild game (they’d been driven from their home in the swampy town of Ironton to New Orleans, displaced by the infamous 1927 Mississippi River flood), and his country roots are well represented in his cookbook, which features recipes for possum, dove, raccoon baked with sweet potatoes, broiled squirrel, nutria sauce piquante and garfish balls. Buster Holmes passed away in 1994 – on a Monday, the traditional day to serve red beans and rice – but he lives on in the red beans lore of New Orleans.

The King of Red Beans in the Red Bean Hall of Fame

Buster Holmes also has a place of honor in the Camellia Red Bean Hall of Fame exhibit at New Orleans’ own Southern Food & Beverage Museum.

Red Beans Roadshow Atlanta Popup Supper

Gather ’round! Food writer and natural-born cook Pableaux Johnson’s Red Beans Road Show is now heading to the Garden & Gun Club at The Battery Atlanta, for a one-night-only Pop-up Supper on October 20, 2019. Host chef Ann Kim, the executive chef of the Garden & Gun Club, will be collaborating with Pableaux to create this family-style feast. Tickets are going fast! Order them online and come to break cornbread and make memories with friends and strangers alike.

Plus, it’s for a good cause! Following the event, Camellia Brand will be donating Camellia Red Kidney Beans and a portion of event proceeds to Georgia Organics, an organization championing organic agriculture and helping schools engage children in delicious and educational farm-to-table experiences.

“When you sit around Johnson’s table… you’re not supposed to fiddle with your phone. You talk. You meet people. You drink. You eat. You remember what it’s like to connect with strangers over a meal.” –  The Washington Post

Oct. 20  – Garden & Gun Club in The Battery, Atlanta, GA     

On October 20, 2019, Pableaux will prepare Louisiana’s traditional Monday-night meal of Red Beans and Rice using Camellia Brand Red Kidney Beans…but on a Sunday. Host chef Ann Kim of the Garden & Gun Club will be collaborating with Pablo to create this one-night-only, New Orleans-style gastronomic gathering. The family-style feast begins at 6:30 p.m., with a sit-down, three-course supper beginning at 7:00 p.m.

Tickets for the Red Beans Roadshow at the Garden & Gun Club are available for $55+ per person, and include a home-style, three-course meal, featuring Chef Kim’s choice of appetizer, Red Beans and Rice, Cornbread, a dessert created by Chef Kim, and maybe a surprise or two. Wine and beer options are available at an additional cost. Vegan and vegetarian options are also available, upon request. Seating is limited. Purchase tickets in advance online.

Hungry for more details? Here’s everything else you need to know about the Red Beans Road Show:

Good, Simple Food & New Friends

Louisiana food writer, photographer and “general n’er-do-well” Pableaux Johnson meets up with local restaurant chefs in each town or city he visits, to host an informal, family-style feast featuring “good, simple food, camaraderie and appropriate misbehavior.” 

Pableaux Is a Hoot!

Buy your tickets and show up to eat, drink and shoot the breeze with culinary and culture enthusiasts. As ringleader and organizer of the shenanigans, Pableaux gives a short presentation on Louisiana foodways that will leave you hankering for all things Louisiana, and then it’s a fun night of breaking bread (Pableaux’s grandpa’s skillet cornbread, that is), eating down-home, delicious food and drinking a cold beer with a roomful of friendly strangers. 

Local Chefs Are in on It

Pableaux cooks his signature Red Beans & Rice made with Camellia Brand Red Kidney Beans, and his local chef partners serve up a simple starter (like deviled eggs or hand pies) and a dessert (like bread pudding or homemade pie). 

Take the Tradition Home with You

Everyone who attends gets a bag of Camellia Red Kidney Beans and a recipe card to make Red Beans & Rice, so you can start your own tradition at home!

Everyone who attends gets a bag of Camellia Red Kidney Beans and a recipe card for Red Beans & Rice, so they can start their own tradition at home!

Zingerman’s Brings the Fun and Flavor of Camellia Beans to Ann Arbor

Camellia Beans are in the house! Zingerman’s Roadhouse, that is – and this is great news for mid-western foodies and anyone else who loves a delicious bowl of beans. The Roadhouse is known for seeking out great American food traditions and serving them up the old-fashioned way with authentic, carefully sourced ingredients and strong ties to their local community. It’s part of a friendly, loosely connected empire of businesses in the Ann Arbor, Michigan, area that is presided over by co-founders Paul Saginaw and Ari Weinzweig, who started their first business (a delicatessen) in 1982 with just two goals: to make a great corned beef sandwich and to have a business with soul. Since then, they’ve been recognized for excellence by the likes of Bon Appetit magazine and the James Beard Foundation and have become internationally known for their business model. However, they still find time to serve up extra helpings of fun – and yes, plenty of soul – with every item on their menus.

Traditional Food With Soul

Walk into Zingerman’s Roadhouse (or any Zingerman’s business) and you get the feeling that the making-money part is just a means to the true goal: to gather people together in celebration of American culture and delicious, heart-warming food traditions. You’ll meet people who know everything about the foods they make and serve, who’ll want to explain it all to you, and who genuinely seem to enjoy their jobs. There’s the original deli and mail order business, the Roadhouse restaurant, a full-service bakery, a creamery producing fine cheeses and gelato, a coffee company, a wedding cake company, a candy manufacturer, a farm, event venues, a cooking school, a worldwide food tour company, and even a business training program.  And with all of this focus on quality and authenticity, the South’s beloved Camellia brand Beans are a perfect fit. They’ll be found in a few dishes (using Camellia red kidney, pinto and black beans), including New Orleans–style red beans & rice, ancho beef chile and refried beans. Says Ari: “Those world-class Camellia red beans, simmered with a mess of smoked pork and spices, are super terrific! In a bit of a take-off on the British baked beans on toast, we’ve also been serving the red beans on toast too. Tremendously good!” 

“No joke – you really can taste the difference”

Ari was introduced to to the superior flavor of Camellia Brand Beans by Chef Alon Shaya (of restaurants Saba in New Orleans and Safta in Denver). Says Ari, “I’m not sure what took us so long… Of course, all that’s happened is that we’ve finally figured out what nearly everyone in New Orleans has known for ages. Camellia beans bring killer quality to the kitchen! No joke – you really can taste the difference. Camellia beans clearly taste better and have a creamier texture.” 

About That Side of “Anarchy”…

Ari studied Russian history in college, focusing on the anarchists, and while he’s a self-proclaimed “lapsed anarchist,” he does like to shake up traditional business structures in order to promote entrepreneurial vigor, creativity and job satisfaction. His idea of anarchy is to run a business as a healthy, egalitarian community with plenty of room for critical thinking and questioning of rules and systems. And, it seems he’s on to something: the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses is now famous for its loose, “organic ecosystem” business structure, and Ari regularly coaches eager students of the system (which has been featured in Forbes and Fortune magazines) as yet another component of the many Zingerman’s offerings. Inc.com recently named Ari among the Top 10 CEOs In The World (Ari is #2), citing Zingerman’s unusual corporate structure and featuring Ari’s favorite quote: “Beliefs underlie every single thing we do, both individually and organizationally. Beliefs are like the root system of our lives. In my metaphor, I started to look at organizational culture as the soil. Clearly the quality of the soil will have a huge impact on what’s planted – new ideas or new people – in the organization.” As it is for business, so it is for beans…

CEO Ari Weinzweig chats with his customers.

Coming Around to the Hayward Standard

When he’s not encouraging “foodpreneurship” at home, Ari is traveling America and the world in search of traditional, high-quality foods to bring back to food-loving Zingerman’s customers. He leaves no stone – and no bean – unturned in his search for the best. Upon discovering and tasting Camellia Brand Beans, he shared an epiphany of sorts on the subject of bean quality: “Can there be that much difference in a bean? The simple answer is ‘absolutely.’ And why not? Beans are just as much an agricultural product as any other produce that comes out of the ground. And you wouldn’t even flinch if I told you that one variety of tomato was more flavorful than another… the same is true for beans.” American bean farmers, of course, have known this for generations: the Hayward family, owners of Camellia Beans since 1923, demanded such high quality beans that their suppliers added a grade above the highest grade on the USDA’s bean quality scale to use as a standard for setting aside their best beans for Camellia. To this day it’s still called the Hayward Standard.  

Get a Taste of Food with Soul

So stop by Zingerman’s Roadhouse if you are in the Ann Arbor area to get a taste of some really good American food with soul – with an extra helping of red beans and rice.

Festive Mardi Gras Party Foods: Red Beans, Jambalaya, Fried Chicken, Po-Boys and King Cake

Mardi Gras parties in and around New Orleans range from the truly basic (i.e., a box of fried chicken and a six-pack) to the very elaborate (catered affairs with hot cocktail buffets, open bars, and customized go-cups), with no one way to do it up right. But those who live on or near a parade route — as well as those who love to celebrate Carnival wherever they are — tend to have their preferred party hosting plan down to a science, since they usually make an annual event out of it.

Whether you’re in New Orleans or just wish you were, throwing a Mardi Gras party is all about fun food that’s simple to make and easy to serve. It takes a little planning, but the key is to create a help-yourself spread that doesn’t require much fuss and lets guests come and go, grazing as they like and coming back for seconds and thirds. With the menu below, you’ve got all your bases covered. In fact, the only things you have to cook are the red beans and the jambalaya – and even those pretty much cook themselves in the slow cooker.

Red Beans and Rice Is Nice – Especially When Made in Your Slow Cooker

A staple of any Mardi Gras menu is Red Beans and Rice. Whether you prefer to use our signature Camellia Red Kidney Beans, or our foolproof, flavorful Creole Red Bean Seasoning and its accompanying Slow Cooker Creole Red Beans recipe – the key is to keep things effortless. And since you don’t have to watch the stove, you can enjoy the festivities just like your guests. After your red beans have cooked, simply turn the slow cooker setting down to warm, and the beans can stay right where they are for another couple of hours – getting thicker and creamier all the while. You can also cook your rice ahead of time and place it in a large serving bowl. Guests can add a little rice to a bowl, ladle the warm red beans on top, and enjoy.

Fried Chicken Is a Perfect Choice

An essential for any Mardi Gras party spread is fried chicken. Because it can be served hot, cold, or at room temperature, it’s a great dish for a casual party buffet – and it’s finger food at its finest. Simply pick up a box or two of your favorite fried chicken, serve on a platter, and make sure there are plenty of napkins at the ready.

Petite Po-boys Round Out the Buffet

Mini po-boys made with tender roast beef, turkey, and ham, dressed with mayo, lettuce, and cheese on French bread are another must-have for your party spread. A Mardi Gras favorite, they’re easy to order and to pick up from any New Orleans grocery store, and they’re just the kind of thing that appeals to kids and adults alike. Can’t find ‘em where you are? As long as you can get your hands on some good French bread, they’re easy to make yourself. Just as popular and sure to get eaten quickly are an assortment of finger sandwiches or mini muffalettas made with olive salad, mozzarella, ham, and provolone.

Crown Your Party Table With a King Cake

Add to your table a large and generously sliced king cake, and you’ve got all the party foods covered. (Good thing you can order king cakes online, if you’re not in NOLA.) Be sure to add finger foods along with your favorite chips and salsas, and stock a self-serve bar with soft drinks, Bloody Marys, plenty of cold beer, go-cups, and napkins. And with that, the party can get started.

Mardi Gras Party Checklist

• Slow Cooker Red Beans and Rice

• Slow Cooker Jambalaya

• Fried Chicken
• Mini Po-boy Sandwiches
• King Cake
• Chips, Salsas and Finger Foods
• Soft Drinks
• Beer and Bloody Marys
• Go-Cups
• Napkins

The Secret History of Beans in King Cakes

Though a favorite part of current Mardi Gras celebrations, the custom of the “lucky” recipient of the hidden baby being responsible for providing the next king cake is a modern one. In pagan times, the return of the sun during the winter solstice was celebrated with festivities during which any man could become the “sacred king” of a tribe for the year if he found the bean in his slice of cake during the celebration. The bean was representative of new beginnings because the bean plant is usually the first to emerge from the earth after winter. After a year of the good life, the “king” would be sacrificed, and his blood returned to the soil to ensure that the harvest would be successful.

As was often the case following the Crusades, old pagan rituals were imprinted with new Christian meanings, and the celebration of the soon-to-arrive spring morphed into a celebration of the feast of Epiphany on January 6, when the three kings (la fete des rois) visited the Christ child. Though the meaning had changed the tradition remained: Flaky cake layered with almond paste was imbedded with a bean and topped with a gold paper crown. The recipient of the bean within his slice of cake became king -though now just for the day, and he wore the crown. He also got to live.

A New Orleans Twist on Tradition.

One of New Orleans’ oldest Carnival organizations, the Twelfth Night Revelers further evolved the tradition in 1870 when, instead of a simple red bean, they began inserting a gold painted bean into the cake they served to the young women of their “court” on the Feast of the Epiphany. The girl who got the gold bean reigned a queen for the season. This tradition continues today, though a wooden replica of a large cake is now employed. The maidens pull open little drawers in the cake’s lower layer which contain a number of sterling silver charms shaped like beans, and a single made of real gold. Choosing a silver bean makes you a member of the court; the maiden who finds the gold bean becomes the queen.

When the king cake ritual became fashionable in society circles, others adopted the tradition with their own king cake parties, often revolving around school and neighborhood groups. Many native New Orleanians grew up on king cake from McKenzie’s, the large local bakery chain that dominated all others until it closed in 2000. And though there are many stories about how the practice of using the familiar plastic babies came to be, Donald Entringer Sr. – the owner of McKenzie’s Pastry Shoppes – explains it thusly “We were the first to use the babies,” he said. “A salesman came in one day and said, ‘Look at this cute little thing. It won’t get lost like a bean.’ I’ve heard people say it’s supposed to represent the Christ Child, but that’s not true. It was cute. It was just a trinket that happened to be a baby.” Though ever evolving, the trinket in the king cake tradition is a beloved part of Carnival season and promises to be for many generations to come.

A new exhibit about the history of Red Beans in New Orleans debuts at the SoFAB Museum

Have you “bean” to the Southern Food & Beverage Museum lately? It’s the new home of “Red Bean City,” an exciting exhibit on red beans created by Camellia Brand® and Bent Media. The Grand Opening is on August 3, and the Camellia Family and friends will be there to celebrate! We’ll also raise a birthday toast to New Orleans’ most famous red bean lover, jazz hero Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong, who was born on August 4, 1901.

Red Bean City, an exhibit by Camellia Brand

The ongoing romance of New Orleans and red beans is a story that is about to be told! The Red Bean City exhibit at the Southern Food & Beverage Museum, explores how and why this beloved dish is an unstoppable weekly ritual and a symbol of local culture and way of life in New Orleans. The Hayward family of Camellia Beans tells their story going all the way back to 1836, and you’ll get a look at how a New Orleans trumpet player, a small army of creole cooks, a chicken king’s secret chef, and the people of New Orleans helped propel the red kidney bean to worldwide acclaim.  

Red Bean Kitchen

In the exhibit, take a seat in the “kitchen” and soak in the feeling of warm, happy family gatherings then and now. Can’t you just smell the red beans simmering on the stove? Post your family’s red bean recipe secrets (Mawmaw won’t mind, right?) on the Red Bean Secrets wall – you’ll be in good company there among Red Bean Hall of Famers like New Orleans jazz hero Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong (who signed his letters “red beans and ricely yours”) and red bean restaurateurs Willie Mae Sutton, Buster Holmes and Warren Leruth.

Bean Culture Worldwide

Beans and Rice are celebrated dishes all over the Americas and the Caribbean and are closely related to the cultural identity of each region. The exhibit takes a tour through some of the most beloved beans and rice traditions around the world and traces the migration of this food pairing from Africa and Europe.

Join the Red Bean Parade  

Ever heard of the Krewe of Red Beans? Their famous red bean parade marches the streets of New Orleans every year at Mardi Gras, but year-round at the Red Bean City exhibit you can put on one of the Krewe’s spectacular handmade bean costumes and snap a “parade” selfie.

National Culinary Register

The Hayward family of Camellia Brand Beans is also celebrating another great honor: Camellia Brand is now on the National Culinary Register! The Register is an expansive list of culinary products, processes, inventions, traditions, and establishments that are at least fifty years old and have contributed significantly to the development of American foodways. The first and only register of its kind, the Culinary Heritage Register is an initiative designed to explore and preserve the complex history of food and beverage in America.

Detail of the “Beanmobile” being decorated by the Red Beans Krewe for their Lundi Gras parade.

Raised On Red Beans.

Louis Armstrong loved to eat almost as much as he loved to play. Born in New Orleans, it’s no surprise that his favorite dish was red beans and rice. So important was the iconic meal that he asked his future wife Lucille to prepare it for him before he would propose. Later in life, he would sign his letters “Red Beans and Ricely Yours”.

Image Courtesy of Louis Armstrong House Museum

Louis Armstrong’s Recipe for Creole Red Beans And Rice

POPS FAVORITE DISH

By – Louis and Lucille Armstrong

• (Use 2 qt. pot with cover)
• 1 lb. Kidney Beans
• 1/2 lb. Salt Pork (Strip of lean, strip of fat)
• (Slab Bacon may be used if preferred)
• 1 small can of tomato sauce (if desired)
• 6 small Ham Hocks or one smoked Pork Butt
• 2 onions diced
• 1/4 green (bell) pepper
• 5 tiny or 2 medium dried peppers
• 1 clove garlic – chopped
• Salt to taste

Preparation

Wash beans thoroughly, then soak overnight in cold water. Be sure to cover beans. To cook, pour water off beans, add fresh water to cover. Add salt pork or bacon, let come to a boil over full flame in covered pot. Turn flame down to slightly higher than low and let cook one and one-half hours. Add diced onions, bell pepper, garlic, dried peppers and salt. Cook three hours. Add tomato sauce, cook one and one-half hours more, adding water whenever necessary. Beans and meat should always be just covered with water (juice), never dry. This serves 6 or more persons…

To prepare with Ham Hocks or Pork Butts….. Wash meat, add water to cover and let come to a boil in covered pot over medium flame. Cook one and one-half hours. Then add beans (pour water off), add rest of ingredients to meat. Cook four and one-half hours. Add water when necessary.

Suggestions

For non pork eaters, chicken fat may be used instead of salt pork. Corned beef or beef tongue may be used instead of ham hocks or butts.

Rice

• 2 cups white rice
• 2 cups water
• One teaspoon of salt
• One pot with cover

Wash rice thoroughly, have water and salt come to a boil. Add rice to boiling water. Cook until rice swells and water is almost evaporated. Cover and turn flame down low. Cook until rice is grainy. To insure grainy rice, always use one and one-half cups water to one cup of rice…

New Orleans is a Red Bean City

When a young Paul Prudhomme moved to New Orleans to take a sous chef position at the Le Pavillon Hotel in 1970, the city’s obsession with red kidney beans came as a shock. Though a native Louisianian, he grew up thinking red kidneys were, in his words, “just another dried bean, like pinto beans and lima beans.” But according to Susan Tucker’s New Orleans Cuisine, he soon discovered that red beans were “a cultural phenomenon, a tradition dating back for hundreds of years.”

Red kidney beans are as ubiquitous a symbol of New Orleans as the fleur-de-lis, a rite as common as Carnival. The city’s culinary connection to the lowly red bean is mighty, stretching over centuries, across distant cultures and peoples around the globe. The bean is so symbolic of the city that a newcomer, or culinary dilettante, could be fooled into thinking that the red kidney bean was native to Louisiana, which it is of course not. But, still, “this is a red bean city here”, the famed fried chicken and bean cook Willie Mae Seaton of her eponymous Scotch House was quoted as saying. In Sara Roahen’s Gumbo Tales, she said, “That’s it. If you don’t have no red beans you just out.”

“A Favorite Dish Among Creole Families”

No one knows for sure why and how New Orleanians began to eat red beans and rice. “Red beans are to New Orleans what the white bean is to Boston and the cowpea is to South Carolina,” reporters for the Federal Writers Project wrote in 1938. No definite answers exist in the historical record, though it probably travelled over with early nineteenth-century exiles from the French Caribbean.

The dish appears in cookbooks around the turn of the century, with The Picayune’s Creole Cook Book, one of the first locally published recipe books, being one of the first to include instructions on how to cook a pot of kidney beans.

“Red Beans are a favorite dish among Creole families,” the book discloses in a chapter heading containing seven different red bean recipes (including one for red or white bean polenta!). “The great amount of sustenance to be found in this and the White Bean commending it especially as a food for growing children and adults who labor hard. The beautiful color and excellent flavor of the Red Bean has won for it a place among the most highly esteemed legumes.” A recipe for Red Beans, Plain Boiled suggests that “this is an excellent way of preparing red beans for Fridays and fast days.” The recipe for Purée of Red Beans ends with a mention that “thus prepared, red beans may be eaten by the most delicate invalid with excellent results as to recuperation.” Bacon and Beans à la Créole reveals that “this is a favorite dish with the little Creole children, and is most wholesome and palatable.”

Mondays Were Red Bean Days

Monday is the day most often associated with the dish because, as the well-trod story goes, the first day of the week was washing day, and the woman responsible for providing a household with a clean set of clothes was also obligated to feed the household that evening. Cleaning and cooking left little time and attention for both, so a pot of red beans was left on the stove, simmering long and gentle throughout the day.

It’s a good tale, with perhaps some truth and historical value to it. But we can also look to other cultures, other histories, for similar tales linking a specific day with a long-simmered pot of beans.

Sabbath and Sundays Were Bean Days, Too

Hamin, sometimes called cholent or, in Spain, adafina, is a food of the Jewish diaspora. Traditionally this fava bean stew is prepared on the Sabbath, simmering for hours because no work could be done and no fires lit on this day of rest. Heinrich Heine, a intellectual heavyweight of 19th century Germany, described cholent as “the very Food of heaven, which on Sinai, God Himself instructed Moses In the secret of preparing.”

Similarly, as one theory goes, the origin of Boston Baked Beans can be traced back to the pilgrims, who adopted the practice of simmering beans in salt pork and some sort of sugar for hours from the local First Peoples. The preparation of this one-pot dish appealed to the Pilgrims because it allowed them to start the cooking on Saturday night, so as to have food to feed the family, while not having to work to do so, on the Sabbath.

Sunday’s Hambone Made Monday’s Red Beans

The other theory is that we eat red beans on Monday to reuse, or perhaps upcycle, the hambone left over from Sunday’ s dinner. Little to no historical evidence proves this theory, though Peter Feibleman, a New York-born writer raised in New Orleans, gives it a good try in American Cooking: Creole and Acadian: “a ham bone is considered the whole point of the ham. Without it, you could hardly live through Monday, for on that day, as everyone knows, you need it to get a lyrical taste into what sounds at first like the drabbest of local recipes — the classic Monday dish of red beans and rice. The secret is known to you though if you’ve sat as a child in a New Orleans kitchen on a Monday and seen the cook either crack the ham bone or make sure that one end of it is open. . . . If it is, the thick marrow from the bone leaks into the simmering beans, coats them, cooks slowly with them, seems to drain them of starch and produces a silky food that is more like incredibly tender meat that like a vegetable.”

New Orleanians like Feibleman, both born and adopted, have tried their best to put into words exactly why they cherish a bowlful of Monday red beans and rice. John Churchill Chase, the beloved New Orleans cartoonist and reporter, recorded a song local children used to sing while jumping rope: Red Beans and Rice, quartée red beans, quartée rice, little piece of salt meat to make it taste nice, lend me the paper and tell me the time, when papa passes by he’ll pay you the dime.

Louis Armstrong’s Favorite Dish

Image Courtesy of Louis Armstrong House Museum

New Orleans’ s favorite son, Louis Armstrong, would often famously sign letters and autographs with, “Am red beans and ricely yours, Louis.” In his memoir Satchmo, Armstrong writes of learning to cook red beans and rice at a young age. His sister, whom he called Mama Lucy, cooked courtbouillon, creole gumbo, cabbage and rice, jambalaya, but his favorite dish of hers was red beans and rice. While courting his fourth wife, the Bronx-born Lucille Wilson, the then immensely famous, and wealthy, trumpeter asked, “ Can you cook red beans and rice?” She learned, and they were remained married until his passing. “As for red beans and rice, well, I don’t have to say anything about that,” Armstrong wrote. “It is my birth mark.”

The Bean Ratings

Gene Bourg, former restaurant critic for the Times-Picayune, of course wrote about red beans, but it was a simple act that symbolized his, and his city’s, love for the bean. In 1985 he chose red beans over stars, the New York Times oft-repeated symbol, to rate, one through five, the city’ s burgeoning restaurant scene. The bean rating is still used today.

Buster Holmes, The King of Red Beans and Rice

Buster Holmes, the dearly departed chef and proprietor of a restaurant of the same name, was perhaps the greatest red beans cook that ever stirred a pot. According to writer Jeff Hannusch’s article titled “Red Beans and Rice” in New Orleans Magazine (March 1984), Holmes said of the dish: “I can see it only getting more and more popular. I cooked beans and rice for chefs and people all over Europe, and they couldn’t get enough of them. . . . New Orleans has always been a red bean town, and as far as I can see it always will be.”

The last word will go to someone not associated with New Orleans, Michael Franti, a California-born musician and poet who with his band Spearhead wrote the most loving ode to New Orleans’ s unofficial official dish. From a verse and chorus of their song “Red Beans and Rice”: Most people on the planet eat beans and rice. Some can’t afford beef or they think cows are nice. Red beans and rice, red beans and rice, red beans and rice, Make everything nice Red beans and rice, red beans and rice, red beans and rice I could eat a plate twice. So nice. So nice. So nice.

Rien Fertel is a Louisiana-born and based food writer, historian, and teacher. He grew up in his family’s chain of restaurants across the country. His work has appeared in Oxford American, Garden & Gun, Southern Living, Spirit, Saveur, The Local Palate, and many other publications. He holds a PhD in History and teaches in New Orleans.

Red Beans & Rice is an iconic New Orleans dish that’s talked about, debated, cooked, and beloved across the southern United States. And just like other traditional rice and bean dishes that prevail throughout North and South America, it inspires tremendous local pride and is a key component of our cultural identity.

Red Kidneys: From Ancient Mexico to the Caribbean and Beyond

In ancient Mexico, the Olmec, Maya, Toltec, and Teotihuacan peoples, and eventually the Aztecs, grew kidney beans. The beans were originally grown alongside corn and squash; beans were trained to climb the stalks of corn. The agricultural trifecta provided much-needed nitrogen to replenish the soil and a well-rounded diet to its eaters. The three moved together upward into the Caribbean and throughout the North American mainland.

On November 4, 1492 Christopher Columbus “discovered” the kidney bean on the island of Cuba, writing in his diary, “The country is very fertile . . . They have beans of kinds very different from ours.” He called these American beans fabas, because they reminded him of favas of Western Europe, and the Latin name stuck: phaseolus. The American beans were taken back to Europe and adopted into local foodways centuries before tomatoes, peppers, corn, and potatoes. According to Beans: A History, kidneys were largely deemed peasant food for centuries, a history revealed by its eventual Latin designation, Phaseolus vulgaris, aka the vulgar, or ‘common’ bean.

French Glandoulat

Kidneys buttressed and amplified stewy dishes throughout early modern Europe. Like in Glandoulat, a southwestern French dish in which red kidney beans join pork, carrots, spices, Armagnac, and goose fat.

Rice and Beans – A Classic Combination

The classic combination of rice and beans, or some starchy substitute, has long been equated with sustaining life. “Rice is god,” a Hindu proverb says, “but lentils are my life.” In many corners of the world, rice and beans, peas, or lentils are often paired — the Japanese celebrate certain holidays with a bowl of white glutinous rice and red adzuki beans. But nowhere are beans and rice more prominent than in the Americas, both North and South, where the pairing of grain and legume is often the unofficial national dish.

Brazilian Feijoada

In Brazil, the unofficial national dish is Feijoada, a stew of black beans and salted pork commonly served alongside a heaping of rice.

Cuban Frijoles Negros

In Cuba, they eat Moros y Cristianos, ‘Moors and Christians,’ a name given for the combination of black beans (Moros/dark) and rice (Christians/white), as well as Frijoles Negros, where the black beans are served on top of, or alongside rice.

Nicaraguan & Costa Rican Gallo Pinto

According to Rice and Beans, A Unique Dish in a Hundred Places, Nicaraguans and Costa Ricans fight over who invented Gallo Pinto, or ‘spotted rooster,’ another melange of black or red beans and rice.

Caribbean Rice & Beans

Caribbean Rice & Beans (often called Caribbean Rice & Peas) is a popular Sunday lunch dish made with red kidney beans, rice, scotch bonnet peppers, and coconut milk.

Hoppin’ John

The red beans and rice equivalent in other parts of the South, especially in South Carolina, is Hoppin’ John, a mix of salt pork, rice, and blackeye peas or cowpeas (some French-speaking Louisianians might call this dish jambalaya au congri). Cowpeas are the preferred legume in the Carolinas. George Washington Carver, the African-American scientist, said of the lowly cowpea: “As a food for man, the cowpea should be to the South, what the White, Soup, Navy, or Boston bean is to the North, East, and West: and it may be prepared in a sufficient number of ways to suit the most fastidious palate.”

African Red-Red

Hailing from Ghana, African Red-Red is a red stew made with blackeye peas and served with rice and plantains. Blackeye peas were brought by or with enslaved West Africans to the Americas, first to the mid-Atlantic seaboard, likely alongside rice.

Rice: Red Beans’ Most Popular Partner

Some rice was grown in Louisiana as early as the 1840s, with some imported from the rice capital of South Carolina. Rice cultivation in the state finally took off in the 1870s, with a massive expansion occurring around 1900. Today, Louisiana is ranked third in the production of rice in the United States, after Arkansas and California.

No one knows for sure why and how New Orleanians began to eat red beans and rice. “Red beans are to New Orleans what the white bean is to Boston and the cowpea is to South Carolina,” reporters for the Federal Writers Project wrote in 1938. No definite answers exist in the historical record, though it probably travelled over with early nineteenth-century exiles from the French Caribbean.

Rien Fertel is a Louisiana-born and based food writer, historian, and teacher. He grew up in his family’s chain of restaurants across the country. His work has appeared in Oxford American, Garden & Gun, Southern Living, Spirit, Saveur, The Local Palate, and many other publications. He holds a PhD in History and teaches in New Orleans.

Ah, King Cakes – the sweet treat that announces the start of Carnival season on January 6th — known as “Epiphany,” “Twelfth Night,” or “Kings Day.” Originating centuries ago, the tradition has evolved over time, but modern-day King Cakes still feature the purple, green, and gold colors that symbolize justice, faith, and power, and a plastic baby, in place of the original bean. Today there are dozens of variations on that theme, with choices of pastry, filling, and toppings to please every taste.

Who makes the best King Cakes? It depends!  Some swear by beloved traditional options that bring back childhood memories at the first taste – McKenzies, Haydels, Gambino’s, and Randazzo’s, to name just a few, while others opt for a more creative take on the confection. Places like Sucre, Gracious Bakery, Croissant D’or, Dong Phuong Bakery, and The Cake Cafe offer more specialized versions, and have legions of loyal fans as well. Whatever the style, King Cakes unite us — in offices and homes across the region — as a tasty token of a season of celebration – Mardi Gras!

Tell us – when the baby turns up in your slice, where are you going to get that next King Cake?

The south Louisiana specialty meat tasso resembles ham or pancetta and is a lean cut of pork that’s cured, spiced and smoked for hours to create the finished product. Although tasso can be eaten by itself, its ultimate purpose is to help season a wide variety of Cajun and Creole dishes, including red beans and rice.

Tasso (pronounced “TAH-so”) is a perfect seasoning for slow-cooked beans of all kinds, including red, black, blackeyes, butter, cannellini, navy, and Great Northerns. A little tasso goes a long way, but liberal amounts can’t hurt a dish, either.

Add Tasso to Your Trinity

When making traditional Louisiana-style red beans, start by combining tasso with the “holy trinity” of onion, celery, and bell pepper. Tasso takes the place of — or can be used in conjunction with — other seasoned meats used to sauté the trinity, such as ham hocks or bacon, infusing the base with a smoky, spicy flavor.

Tasso also complements gumbo, étouffées, soups, jambalaya, shrimp and grits, vegetables such as collard greens and Brussels Sprouts, casseroles, and pastas, especially for carbonara and cream sauces. Some food lovers like tasso as a pizza topping, while others eat it plain or on sandwiches.

Make Your Own Tasso (Or Buy It)

Home cooks can find lots recipes for making their own tasso. The preferred cut of meat is from the pig’s shoulder. Although sometimes described as “pork butt,” it’s actually not from the swine’s nether regions. The meat is cut into long strips, almost like a hearty beef jerky, before it’s seasoned and smoked.

Spices used to season the pork vary according to individual recipes but can include salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, garlic, sugar, hot sauce, mustard, paprika, cinnamon, vinegar, and/or Worcestershire sauce. Fire up your home smoker with pecan, hickory, or oak wood, and smoke the meat for at least a couple of hours.

If you’re not up to the task of making your own tasso, commercial versions from companies like Poche’s, Richard’s, and Savoie’s are available in grocery stores, not to mention the mom-and-pop meat markets and butcher shops that dot much of Louisiana.

Rooted in the Rich Cajun Boucherie Tradition

Tasso came about during Louisiana’s pre-refrigeration age, when every bit of a slaughtered pig was turned into something edible, whether andouille, boudin, cracklings (aka gratons), patés, sausages, pork rib stews, or other delicacies. Even organ meat was used to make the local terrine known as hogshead cheese.

Cajuns perfected their charcuterie skills thanks in part to the presence of early German settlers who lived alongside them in Louisiana’s swamps, prairies, and riverside settlements. The all-day Cajun hog-butchering party known as the boucherie is fondly recalled as a fun-filled but labor-intensive community affair by many older Cajuns — a tradition that is rapidly disappearing because of the preponderance of refrigeration and the industrialization of food production.

Popularized by Trailblazing Chef Paul Prudhomme

Although Germans influenced Acadiana’s sausage-making traditions, so too did other cultures. The word “tasso” itself is derived from the Spanish word “tasajo,” for dried, smoked beef. Scholars point out that Spanish colonists lived near New Iberia, La., in the 18th century, and there were meat-smoking practices among Native Americans in the area.

Curiously, tasso was largely unknown in New Orleans until famed Cajun chef Paul Prudhomme introduced it there as a key component in his recipes. Despite its resurgence, tasso is one of America’s “delicious and distinctive foods facing extinction,” Slow Food USA has written in including it in its Ark of Taste. “By identifying and championing these foods, we keep them in production and on our plate.”

Tasso is a win-win ingredient for your New Orleans-Style Red Beans & Rice and other dishes. You can’t beat the flavor, and you’re tapping into one of America’s unique culinary traditions, rooted in the rich culture of Cajun Louisiana.

Chickpeas, the Ancient Beans Used ‘Round the World

Chickpeas, also known as garbanzos, are ancient beans. Remains have been found in the Middle East that date back more than seven millennia. The ancient world associated them with Venus, the Roman goddess of love, and they were thought to help with reproductive difficulties. More recently, in the 18th century, they were roasted as a coffee substitute. Most people today know them as the main ingredient in hummus, the Middle Eastern bean paste that takes its name from the Arabic word for chickpea.

Chickpeas are known as channa in Trinidad and are a constant in Trinidadian food. Fried and seasoned with a variety of spices, channa is a street snack that’s perfect for munching any time but seems to go particularly well with cocktails. Chickpeas appear in many types of soups and stews, but are at their best when served in a dish like Caribbean-style chickpea and potato curry that’s also known as channa aloo.

The History of Curries

In the Caribbean region, curries have their origin in the waves of immigrants from the Indian subcontinent who arrived in the 19th century. In New Orleans and the United States, they are traditional as well, dating back to the days of the clipper ships when captains brought exotic spices back from their journeys that transformed traditional dishes into savory delights.  This curry displays the thriftiness of many housewives in both areas, uses potatoes to complete the dish and places the history of three continents squarely on the plate.

Caribbean-Style Chickpea Curry

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons butter

1 large onion, minced

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper, or to taste

3 tablespoons Madras-style curry powder

1/2 cup Steen’s cane vinegar (or distilled white vinegar)

1 1/2 cups Camellia Brand Garbanzo Beans, soaked overnight (3 cups, plumped)

3 cups coarsely chopped potatoes

Directions:

1. In a large frying pan, heat the butter and sauté the onion, garlic, and ginger until the onion is soft but not brown. Add the curry powder and the crushed red pepper, stirring so that they do not stick or burn. Gradually add the vinegar and stir until you have a smooth paste. (You may have to add more.)

2. Add the soaked chickpeas and the potatoes; stir well to cover them with the paste. Remove from heat and allow to marinate for at least 2 hours.

3. When ready to cook, place the chickpea and potato mixture into a large frying pan or in the bottom of a Dutch oven, and add enough water to reconstitute the paste and prevent scorching. Cover and simmer over low heat for about 2 hours or until the chickpeas and potatoes are fork tender. Check occasionally and add more water if necessary to prevent scorching.

4. Serve hot with mango chutney, raisins, freshly grated coconut or with the Indian bread known as roti.

Written by Jessica B. Harris, a culinary historian, journalist and acclaimed cookbook author who has been honored for spreading the word of African and Caribbean cuisines around the world.

Cajun Country Is Rice Country

This Louisiana Grown Staple Is a Bean’s Best Friend

Louisiana’s early French explorers first introduced rice cultivation into Louisiana in 1718. The great development of the state’s rice industry came as the result of the opening up of the broad, flat prairie region in the southwestern (Cajun) part of the state where rice thrives in the water-logged, silt-rich soil, and the development of a system of irrigation that made the use of harvesting machinery similar to that used in the wheat fields of the Northwest possible.

Since that time rice production has expanded to other areas of Louisiana, especially the northeastern portion (Monroe area), and 29 Louisiana parishes now claim rice as a top crop. One third of it comes from Jefferson Davis and Acadia parishes with the latter’s city of Crowley claiming to be the capital and, hence, is the home of the International Rice Festival, held every year on the third weekend in October. It is Louisiana’s largest and oldest agricultural festival.

The Long, Medium, and Short of It

Rice varietals are classified as being of the long, medium, or short grain type. Long grain rice, most commonly grown type in Louisiana, is slender and long, medium grain is plump but not round, and short grain is round. Within these varietals, rice is sold in brown, parboiled, and regular-milled white forms.

Plain White Rice? Not

When rice is harvested from the field, machinery is employed to remove stalks and detritus. It is then subjected to milling to remove the husk, which encloses the kernel. In the case of parboiled rice, a steam pressure process is used for milling. After drying, the parboiled rice is subjected to further processing to remove the hull and it is then polished. Brown rice is processed through a shelling device, which removes the hull. The resulting brown rice retains the brown layer around the kernel. In the case of white rice, the hull and the brown layers are removed and the kernels are polished.

Exotic Varieties Get Louisiana Jazzed

To keep up with consumer demand for exotic flavors as well as sustainability, Louisiana rice farmers have become more innovative in their choices of planting rice strains, while others have changed their growing methodology.

In 2000, the LSU AgCenter began a project designed to increase rice production in Louisiana by developing a new strain of jasmine rice capable of being cultivated in the state’s hot, wet conditions. With a desirable robust flavor and appealing aromatic qualities, jasmine rice has long been a favorite of rice connoisseurs, but until recently the strain could be grown only in Asia. A new Louisiana variety was created through careful cross-pollination and resulted in a premium-quality, Louisiana-grown product that’s marketed internationally as Jazzmen Rice. It is available in both white and brown varieties.

Like Jazzmen, additional special purpose rice strains are generally grown on a limited acreage and, because of their unique cooking characteristics, they should not be comingled with standard long-grain varieties. They include Toro-2, a non-aromatic, long-grain sticky rice; Della, an aromatic, long-grain rice favored for its unique popcorn aroma and taste characteristics; Dellrose, with characteristics similar to Della but with a high grain yield, high milling yield, and greater disease resistance.

Other Louisiana rice farmers, such as Kurt Unkel of Cajun Grain in Kinder, started borrowing from organic and biodynamic growing principles. Unkel now grows a highly nutritious brown rice that includes disc-shaped native wild grains once classified by the U.S. government as a “noxious weed.” Cajun Grain has become a favorite amongst Louisiana farmers’ market shoppers and chefs for its high protein content as relative to other rice products.

Cajun Country Rice

Camellia Beans partners with Cajun Country brand rice for sales and shelf-stocking support in Wal-Mart and Winn Dixie stores throughout the region. Owned by the Falcon family, Cajun Country rice products include long grain white and brown rice, medium grain white rice, jasmine rice, and popcorn (Della) rice. Cajun Grain is the recommended rice for serving with Camellia products.

The Falcon family, in the rice business since 1942, sells additional rice varieties under the brand names Falcon, Toro, Home Country, Laredo, and Jackpot rice. Like their Cajun Country rice, all of their products are true products of Louisiana, grown on Louisiana soil, by Louisiana farmers, and milled and packaged at the historic Falcon Rice Mill in Crowley.

The Complete Protein: Rice and Beans Alone…

Protein is made up of amino acids, 12 of which are manufactured by the human body. Another nine, called essential amino acids, must be obtained from food. A complete protein is a protein that contains all of the essential amino acids. Animal proteins are complete, including red meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, and dairy.

Non-animal sources of complete proteins are soybeans, blue green algae, hempseed, buckwheat, and quinoa. Other foods are known as incomplete proteins: beans, whole grains, nuts, seeds, peas, and corn. When substituting incomplete proteins for complete ones, two or more incomplete proteins must be consumed during the course of a day to fulfill the body’s requirements for a complete protein. The proteins may be consumed together in one meal or separately at different meals.

Beans and rice are the most common meat-free complete protein combination. It is a winning mishmash, just as long as the ratio of beans and rice is close. Beans, a low-glycemic-index food that creates a feeling of fullness, are also full of fiber, potassium, foliate, iron, manganese and magnesium, and they are cholesterol- and fat-free. They’re a superfood. This complete protein also needs complete (or near complete) balance to provide the maximum nutrition.

Here are some combinations that work to form a complete protein:

Beans with whole grains:

• hummus (contains chickpeas and tahini, which is made from sesame seeds) and pita bread
• split pea soup with whole-grain bread
• lentil and barley soup
• black beans and grits
• tortillas with refried beans.

The History of Blackeye Peas

On the African continent where these legumes were first domesticated, blackeye peas were planted on the borders of fields to help keep down the weeds. They were also used to enrich the soil. Cattle grazed on the stems and vines, giving rise to some of the legume’s alternate names: cowpeas and field peas.

A Southern Staple

In the United States, few foods are more connected with African Americans than blackeye peas. Before the early 1700s, they were growing in the Carolina colonies, became one of the area’s first cash crops, and were exported to the Caribbean colonies where they were also prized. In the United States, they appear in early cookbooks like The Virginia Housewife, in which Mary Randolph suggests making a fried bean cake that is garnished with “thin bits of fried bacon.” Today, they come into their own at the holiday season when no self-respecting southerner will go without a dish of blackeye peas for luck on New Year’s Day.

Fritter Heaven

In the Caribbean, they turn up in a myriad of beans and rice combinations but take a back seat to the Congo or gunga pea there. They come back into their own in Brazil. There, in the northeast region, the pea is transformed into a fritter known as an acarajé, which is the traditional street food of Salvador da Bahia. The fritters are made to order and dressed with a selection of fish pastes and hot sauces to the buyer’s taste. No trip to the city is complete without the taste of at least one. The following recipe is for non-traditional fritters that use ginger and garlic and that don’t call for skinning the beans. One bite, though, and you can almost feel the sea breezes blowing off the harbor.

Brazilian-Style Blackeye Pea Fritters

Ingredients:

1 (1-pound) package Camellia Brand Blackeye Peas
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
3 teaspoons ginger paste*
2 teaspoons garlic paste*
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

*Both ginger and garlic paste are readily available in supermarkets, usually found in the fresh produce/herbs section.

Directions:

1. Soak blackeye peas 8-10 hours or overnight.

2. When ready to prepare, place soaked blackeye peas in a food processor with remaining ingredients. Process until a smooth, thick batter forms, with no lumps. Add salt to taste. Empty batter from food processor into a large bowl, and aerate it by beating for 2-3 minutes with a wooden spoon.

3. In a large heavy skillet or Dutch oven, heat at least 2 inches of oil for frying. When ready to fry, stir the batter again, and drop by large spoonsful into the hot oil. Allow to brown, turning each fritter once. Continue to stir remaining batter to aerate it before frying.

4. Drain fritters on absorbent paper, and serve hot with hot sauce, salsa or condiment of your choice.

Makes about two dozen fritters.

Written by Jessica B. Harris, a culinary historian, journalist and acclaimed cookbook author who has been honored for spreading the word of African and Caribbean cuisines around the world.

Nothing says “New Orleans” more than red beans and rice on a Monday, but add grand marshal Al “Carnival Time” Johnson plus the Treme Brass Band, combined with more than 100 revelers dressed to the nines in colorful tributes to Louis Armstrong’s favorite dish, and you’ve got a recipe that can’t be topped.

Speaking of the legendary jazz trumpeter, Pops was well-represented as always by the Beanmobile, the tricked-out Volkswagen etched with both his likeness and his famous personal recipe. Starting out at Port and Royal streets to the spicy sounds of a mariachi band, founder Devin Meyers’ krewe of self-proclaimed “beaners” dazzled delighted bystanders on a leisurely route that included stops at Buffa’s Lounge on Esplanade Avenue as well as the Candle Light on North Robertson.

Signaling their presence with cries of “Beans a-comin’!” the gang and its bean-festooned regalia paid tasty tribute to New Orleans’ second-line tradition as well as the Mardi Gras Indians before disbanding outside the Backstreet Cultural Museum in the shadow of the iconic St. Augustine Catholic Church. Did you miss ’em this year? Don’t worry: You’ll have your chance on Lundi Gras 2017.

From Sunday Celebration to Monday Meal

Once upon a time — not so every long ago, actually — families feasted on Sundays and whole hams were a weekly thing. After morning church services, tradition held that folks would gather at Gramma’s house for a proper dinner after the preacher cut the flock loose. In many houses, it was an excuse to loosen the church clothes just a bit and spend the afternoon with extended family and as often as not, the traditional centerpiece was a whole ham sliced and served on the good china.

This regional ritual took place all across the southern US, and for food lovers of south Louisiana, it also provided the makings of a different tradition — a  pot of red beans slow-cooked with a meaty hambone. Cooked on a banked fire or a low burner, ham-spiked red beans became a Monday staple in New Orleans home kitchens and restaurant dining rooms.

Fast forward to modern times, and things have changed. Americans have shifted from family gatherings to late brunches and toaster pastries. Big Sunday suppers are a lot less common, ham comes pre-sliced from the deli counter and there’s nary a proper hambone to be found.

But rest easy friends: you can recapture the traditional magic of gramma’s pork-rich red beans if you know a couple of simple tricks. But first: a little kitchen context.

Hambone Magic

In much of the South, the whole ham represented the very essence of special occasion foods. Whether for a homecoming feast or Easter celebration, it was an at-table event that represents plenty and fellowship. But the Monday magic of the Sunday ham is at the core of the matter. Specifically the BONE at the core of said magically-cured menu item.

From a cook’s standpoint, the “leftovers” from Sunday’s feast contain culinary riches that many modern folks would discard. In addition to the little flecks of meat left behind, the hambone (the sizable shank bone from a hog’s hind leg) is filled with flavor from unexpected sources. The marrow hidden inside the shank adds amazing richness to soups and stews. Layers of tough connective tissue can dull a carving knife,  but melt into silky collagen when slow-simmered for a few hours. And of course, residual fat in the crevices adds its own distinctive flavor.

And not surprisingly, these qualities are EXACTLY what you want in a pot of Monday red beans and rice. The key to unlocking these culinary riches, not surprisingly, is time and patience — not exactly hallmarks of Our Modern Times.

Luckily, there’s are modern-day workarounds at your disposal for this act of delicious recycling.

Spiral Cuts and Slow Cookers

First: Procuring the Bone
While we might not go to Gramma’s house every week, we do live in a world where the pre-packaged “spiral-sliced boneless ham” is readily available. In fact, this kind of party-ready cut is SO popular that there are whole strip mall shops dedicated to this simple product (Honeybaked Hams and Heavenly Hams for example) and sandwiches made with same.

This convenient trend is absolute gold for the canny home cook, because when businesses sell boneless hams, they’ve usually got extra hambones in the freezer, which they usually sell for a few bucks a pound. And as an added bonus, these hambones tend to have plenty of meat on them, as the ham technicians set cutter blades wide so not to dull them on the shank bone. It’s like the meaty core of Gramma’s ham, yours for a pittance.

Second: Cooking Low and Slow
If you’re a crock-pot aficionado, you’re way ahead on this one. The classic “set it and forget it” move so popular with slow cooker folk will extract all the goodness from a hambone, whether you’re making an simple overnight ham stock or starting a pot of red beans while you wait for your morning coffee to brew.

When they’re done, you’ll have all the porky, beany goodness (church clothes optional).

Slow Cooker Red Beans and Rice – How to Prepare and Save Time

Our Favorite Recipes For Leftover Holiday Ham

Delicious Blackeye Pea Recipes & More To Start Off The Year Lucky

Who doesn’t hope for a new year filled with good fortune and prosperity? In most cultures, foods prepared for New Year’s Day are said to bring good luck. Every culture has variations, but the recurring themes are: beans – resembling coins or closed circles signifying the end of one year and prosperity in the next;  greens – representing wealth; and pork products because pigs root forward as they eat – symbolizing a positive direction in the upcoming year.

African Americans in the 18th and 19th centuries made one of the most enduring contributions to the modern holiday. Starting in the Carolinas – but later extending throughout the South – Hoppin’ John (blackeye peas and rice) and greens (collard, mustard, or turnip,) became traditional New Year’s fare. Blackeye peas to bring luck, and greens to represent money and prosperity. The tradition of using ham, salt pork, or sausage used to flavor the greens and the blackeye peas started as a frugal way to use less popular cuts from the pig, but the smoky flavor and richness they impart have become an essential and beloved flavor in the dishes.

Garlicky Shrimp & Blackeye Peas

Southern Blackeye Peas

Blackeye Peas One Pot Meal Recipe

Pork, Collards and Black Eye Pea Gumbo Recipe

New Orleans Style Blackeye Peas Recipe

Blackeye Peas and Spinach

Bessie’s Best New Year Blackeyes

Hoppin’ John Recipe

Slow Cooker Spicy Blackeye Peas

Cowboy Caviar

Blackeye Pea Salad

Camellia Brand Black-Eyed Peas

Southern Collard Greens

Braised Collard Greens Recipe

Ana’s Brazilian Style Collard Greens Recipe

Easy Pan Fried Pork Chops

Pork for the New Year

The Reveillon Tradition and History
The sharing of an opulent repast following the holiday Mass on Christmas Eve and again on New Year’s Eve was a custom inherited by Louisiana’s Creoles from their European ancestors. Though guests were invited for New Year’s Eve, the Christmas Reveillon was strictly a family affair with grandparents given places of honor at the table, the choicest selections from the meal, and the attention and adoration of the younger members of the family. Only the most exceptional foods would suffice for these feasts. While their European relatives dined on escargots, foie gras and turkey stuffed with chestnuts, the south Louisiana celebrant would have enjoyed a regionally adapted menu of oyster stew or turtle soup; rich puddings and custards; cold beef daube glace; and fragrant roast game or sausage, perhaps braised in a savory pie or casserole with beans or legumes. Copious amounts of wine, brandy and cordials would have loosened things up for participants on either continent and candied fruits and fanciful desserts like bûche de Noël or croquembouche would have completed the meal and sent the devout tottering off to bed stuffed and satiated, probably as the sun came up.

Reveillon’s Rebirth
By the 1930s, the tradition of the old Creole Reveillon dinner had largely disappeared from the roster of holiday celebrations. However, by the 1980s, the Creoles’ descendants embraced anew those historic customs that distinguished them from everyone everywhere else. The custom of lavish holiday dinners was resurrected. Restaurants started offering multi-course “Reveillon” dinner menus during conventional dining hours throughout the holiday season, and ambitious home cooks eager to show off their talents (and their fine china) re-adopted the practice as well.

The Contemporary Reveillon Dinner
The contemporary Reveillon dinner can take virtually any form so long as the foods bear an air of luxury in either their composition or execution. This is the time to trot out the delicacies or slave over something complicated and impressive. Being at the peak of their season, oysters are often chosen to start the meal, followed by a rich bisque or hearty gumbo. A course of roast game or a lavish cut of meat might follow along with a rich savory pie or casserole. A once-a-year showstopper dessert should round out the meal.

Cassoulet, a rich white bean casserole, is perfect for the Holiday Table
This cassoulet of fresh Gulf shrimp, Louisiana’s famous smoked andouille sausage, and creamy white beans is a rich and fragrant one-pot dish that can simmer away on the stove as you work on other parts of your celebratory meal. It pairs beautifully with roasted meats and game as well as fish. The regionally-adapted stew would have been familiar to our French ancestors. Though traditional European cassoulets vary by region, they were historically built upon a base of white beans and cooked in a sealed crock with slanting sides, known as a cassole, from which the dish takes its name.

Camellia’s Shrimp, Andouille and White Bean Cassoulet

1 (1-pound) Camellia navy beans soaked overnight
5 bay leaves, in all
Creole seasoning
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound Andouille sausage, cut into 1/4-inch pieces (another smoked sausage or bacon may be substituted)
1 medium onion, diced
4 ribs celery, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 28-ounce can whole peeled Roma tomatoes
2 bay leaves
3 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons fresh thyme
1 bunch green onions, chopped
3 cups low sodium chicken broth
3 cups Panko breadcrumbs
1 1/2 cups shredded Parmesan
3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper
4 pounds medium Gulf shrimp, peeled and deveined
Hot French bread

Add the navy beans, three bay leaves, and Creole seasoning to taste to a large saucepot. Add enough water to cover the beans by 3 inches. Bring to a boil and cook, adding additional water as necessary, until beans are soft, about 1 hour. Drain and set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven, preferably cast iron, over medium-high heat. Add the Andouille and cook until brown, about 10 minutes. Add the onion, celery, garlic, oregano, and Creole seasoning to taste; cook until the vegetables are tender and translucent, about 7 minutes.

Crush the tomatoes with your hands over the contents of the Dutch oven before adding them to the pot. Add the 2 remaining bay leaves, Worcestershire, reserved navy beans, thyme, and green onions. Add the chicken broth, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until the beans have absorbed the broth, 15 to 20 minutes.

Meanwhile set a low broiler. Combine the Panko, Parmesan, oregano or thyme leaves, olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

Add the shrimp to the Dutch oven, and cook until they are thoroughly pink, 8 to 10 minutes. Top the contents of the Dutch oven with the Panko mixture. Place under the broiler and cook until the Panko is lightly golden, 2 to 3 minutes.

Alternatively, the cassoulets may be broiled and served in individual ramekins.

Makes 8 servings.

Historic Way of Preserving Meat Adds Piquancy.

Before the advent of refrigeration, preserving foods was a challenge. Every culture developed some version of pickling, or preserving in a salty brine or vinegar. Herbs and spices, such as mustard seed, garlic, cinnamon or cloves, were often added, not only for their flavor, but because they helped with the preservation process. If the food being preserved had a high enough water content, it could be packed in salt alone. Salt pork and salt beef were staples of a sailor’s diet before steam engines made ocean crossings much less time-consuming.

Pork was a cornerstone of the diet of the French settlers who lived in Acadiana, now called Nova Scotia. When the British forced them out of their homeland many found their way south to French-speaking Louisiana, where wild boar was plentiful, allowing the Acadians to retain pork in their diets while evolving its preparation with the different herbs and spices they found in their new home.

A Recipe Born of Frugality.

As Native Americans did with the buffalo, the Acadians, a.k.a. Cajuns, utilized virtually every part of the pig. Before the advent of refrigeration and commercial curing, meat not destined for immediate consumption was often rubbed with a mixture of salt and saltpeter and layered with mashed cloves, ground allspice, chopped onions, bay leaves, and more salt, then stored in barrels where it would last as long as a year.

What Pickle Meat Brings to the Red Bean Pot.

Pickle meat, a.k.a. pickled pork, remains a staple in the Louisiana kitchen, where it is most frequently used to season pots of long-simmered beans, smothered vegetables, or greens. The meat, rendered supremely tender and pre-seasoned from the brine, can be relied upon to break down and saturate the other ingredients in the pot with its delicious flavors. Hold off on adding additional salt before tasting the cooked beans — the salt released from the pickled meat should be plenty to season the pot.

Still Acadiana Made, Now Widely Available.

At most Louisiana grocery stores pickle meat is readily available in hunks, in smaller chunks, or in slices from brands such as Richard’s and Savoie’s — both of which classify themselves as “Cajun” — and Vaucresson’s, which claims Creole as its heritage. No matter, the aromatics and spices used in the brining process are all about the same. If pickle meat is unavailable in your area, it is available online, but you can easily make it yourself:

Pickled Pork Recipe

Ingredients:

1 quart distilled white vinegar
1/2 cup mustard seed
1 tablespoon celery seed
2 tablespoons Louisiana-style hot sauce, such as Tabasco
1 bay leaf
6 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
1 tablespoon kosher salt
12 whole black peppercorns
2 pounds boneless pork butt, or rib tips cut into 2-inch cubes

Directions:

1. Combine everything except the pork in a non-reactive saucepan. Bring to a full boil and retain at the boil for 3 minutes.
2. Cool the brine and add it to a stainless steel, glass, or plastic container.
3. Add the pork, stir thoroughly, and push the meat down to fully submerge it in the brine.
4. Cover and refrigerate for at least three days before using as a seasoning meat. Drain, rinse, and drain the meat again before use to remove all traces of seasoning aromatics.

“An army marches on its stomach,” Napoleon Bonaparte once declared.

And so does the army of service professionals who maintain one of New Orleans’ — and America’s — most treasured culinary institutions: Galatoire’s.

What is the secret ingredient that fuels their daily march toward gustatory excellence? The late-afternoon staff dinners, which employees refer to as the “family meal.”

While legions of bon vivants dine on the signature French Creole dishes that made Galatoire’s legendary — such as Trout Marguery, Pompano Meuniere, Eggs Sardou, Godchaux Salad, Crabmeat Yvonne, Oysters en Brochette, and Shrimp Remoulade, to name just a few — the staff itself feasts on hearty, mostly off-the-menu fare prepared by the same kitchen crew that satisfies paying customers’ tastebuds.

What combination dish arguably reigns supreme at the Galatoire’s staff meal? Red beans and rice paired with fried chicken.

Galatoire Descendant: “Beans Are Perfect”

“Obviously for a staff meal you want something tasty, you want to keep your employees happy, and you want to keep them well-fed,” opined David Gooch, a member of the Galatoire family and former general manager. “And you need something that’s reasonably priced. That’s why beans are perfect. Beans are delicious, cheap, but they taste very good and they’re filling. Chicken is very reasonably priced. … You try to keep your soldiers healthy and happy and well-fed — and our employees, too. When you have a happy employee, you have a happy customer.”

Although Galatoire’s has never offered red beans and rice on its official menu, preferring to focus on the more highfalutin jewels of French-inspired Louisiana cuisine, Gooch himself doesn’t turn up his nose at Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong’s favorite dish. “My family, we cook beans at home just like everybody in New Orleans does. We do red beans on Monday just like most people do, but … other days of the week too.”

How does Gooch, who worked in the Galatoire’s kitchen for four years in the early ‘70s, do his beans? “I like a little extra butter, and I do put a dash of ketchup in it. Not too much, but I do like a little. The sweetness of the ketchup adds to it for me. And a little bit of butter adds to the richness. But of course they have to be cooked way down. I like them thick, creamy. Ham hocks, sausage, smoked sausage — I don’t like anything too spicy in sausage.”

“Tuesday Was Always Our Monday”

Ironically, although red beans and rice are synonymous with Mondays in New Orleans, they’ve never been served to the Galatoire’s staff on that day — for an obvious reason: The restaurant is closed Mondays.

And while red beans and rice are now served on Saturday, it wasn’t always so. The 2004 book “Galatoire’s: Biography of a Bistro” by Marda Burton and Kenneth Holditch describes how cook Wallace “Wally” Shelby, who started out as a busboy in 1947, spent his twilight years there:

“Wally still works strictly from memory, and now works a limited schedule, preparing the staff’s meals. When the food is ready he calls ‘Fooooooood Oooooooout!’ Red beans and rice is one of his specialties. Since the restaurant is closed on Monday, ‘Tuesday was always our Monday, so I cook red beans on Tuesday’ — red beans and rice being the traditional Monday dish in New Orleans. Often regular customers ask for a dish of it.”

With Shelby since retired, 36-year Galatoire’s cook Fernando Guiterrez now whips up most of the staff meals but doesn’t recall when Saturdays became red-bean day at Galatoire’s. A native of Managua, Nicaragua, Guiterrez learned to cook at a young age. “My mother, she used to have a restaurant, and I grew up just watching what she was doing.”

How does Guiterrez prepare the red beans? “It’s regular red beans, Camellia. Yeah, we get the big sacks. We just cook 5 pounds every Saturday for all the employees. We use pickled meat, smoked sausage, and ham, and the rest is vegetables, like onions, celery, bell pepper.”

Guiterrez adds his own special mojo to the flavor. “I make my own Creole seasoning. We use all the spices, everything ground like garlic, onion, cayenne pepper, black pepper, white pepper, salt, paprika.”

“One of the Favorite Meals Anywhere”

Family meal occurs daily around 4 p.m., with cooks, waiters, bartenders, porters, hostesses, and managers lining up, filling their plates in the kitchen, and taking seats in the main dining room, or else fanning out to tables in the adjoining restaurant, Galatoire’s 33 Bar and Steak. Others eat in the kitchen or standing up in the hallway behind the dining room’s central-control desk.

“It’s good, always good,” longtime maitre’d Arnold Chabaud observed while eating on his feet. “A staple of New Orleans, red beans and rice. It was only on Monday that they made red beans because you put a pot of red beans on. It would last all day while your laundry got done the rest of the day. That’s how it came to be. Most restaurants were closed on Mondays too. That’s why I think red beans were a big hit.”

“Anywhere you go around New Orleans, this is one of the favorite meals anywhere: red beans, rice, and chicken,” said porter Reggie Johnston, leaning against a kitchen wall, plate in hand. Commenting on the Camellia product, Johnston noted, “That’s probably one of the most popular beans here in New Orleans. That’s THE bean, yeah you right.”

“This is one of the best staff meals in the city,” waiter (and WWOZ disc jockey) Michael Dominici enthused. “Good, solid red beans, which keeps you nourished for the afternoon, and for a busy shift, it’s a perfect meal. It’s also very New Orleans to have red beans — a continuation of a New Orleans cultural thing to have red beans and staples like that. Most restaurants don’t take the time to prepare a really soulful, substantial meal like that.”

Sitting at a table in the main dining room, waiter Chris Evangelista Torres explained how his personal embellishments to the dish before him pay homage to his Puerto Rican roots. “I Latinize my red beans with cheese, green onion, and — as an ode to my childhood — my grandmother would put capers in her beans. I do the same.”

The Best Fried Chicken In Town? You Be the Judge

The other half of Saturday’s staff meal, the fried chicken, also has its devoted fans — among both the staff and the public. The golden crispy yardbird is not on the regular Galatoire’s menu but is available by request, with some waiters suggesting an accompaniment of Crab Maison, Shrimp Remoulade, and a side of brabant potatoes. “Our customers claim it’s the best fried chicken in town,” Arnold Chabaud confirmed. “The chicken is the best,” seconded Robert Engelhardt, head bartender at Galatoire’s 33. “Saturday-night chicken is my favorite, personally.”

White Beans That “Melt in Your Mouth”

Fernando Guiterrez cooks a variety of other dishes for staff meals, including blackeye peas, tacos, beef stew, and Salisbury steak. Another favorite is his white beans, served about every other Tuesday. “We call it butter beans,” he said. “We use the big ones. … It’s a big difference (from cooking red beans). They have bacon. You sauté bacon after you sauté onions and you don’t put a lot of vegetables, just onions and bacon and parsley. You use seasoning.”

“Spectacular,” Chabaud said of the white beans. “It’s a great dish. It’s creamy, soupy, delicious. I have one waiter here that does — it’s like a soup. He takes the beans and smashes them and he puts the liquid on and it comes out like a soup. He loves it.”

The white beans are a “special treat,” Robert Engelhardt said. “We get the red beans — they’re awesome. But you get the white beans as a special treat because those are just as nice. They’re just creamy; they melt in your mouth. Beautiful.”

And one of the most distinctive foods served at the Galatoire’s staff meal is yakamein soup, a dish virtually unknown outside of New Orleans but sharing recognizable characteristics with several ethnic cuisines. Legend has it that yakamein descends from recipes brought by Chinese immigrants of the 19th century, and it also resembles the pho that is the mainstay of New Orleans’ large Vietnamese community and its restaurants.

But modern-day yakamein is found mainly in African-American neighborhoods, with its most famous proponent being Linda Green, “The Ya-Ka-Mein Lady.” Some food historians attribute the dish’s introduction stateside to African-American soldiers who developed a taste for noodles during the Korean War. “It’s a traditional New Orleans dish in the black community,” Chabaud explained. “It’s a lot of substance for little money.”

Join Galatoire’s Now for “We Live To Eat Restaurant Week”

Except for the fried chicken, most of the grub served at the Galatoire’s family meal won’t be coming to your table there (unless you have the right waiter — wink, wink). However, you can always count on savoring any number of the countless iconic dishes that helped earn Galatoire’s the 2005 James Beard Foundation Award for Most Outstanding U.S. Restaurant.

The perfect time to visit Galatoire’s is now, during the Sept. 14-20 “We Live To Eat Restaurant Week” celebrations, sponsored in part by L.H. Hayward and Company, the packager of Camellia Brand dry beans, peas, and lentils. Galatoire’s and Galatoire’s 33 are joining dozens of local restaurants across the metro area in offering special menus to encourage diners to get out and experience New Orleans’ unique culinary heritage while supporting the restaurant industry, a huge cog in Louisiana’s economy. If this is where you’re at, don’t just eat to live — live to eat. And Galatoire’s is a wonderful place to start.

Corner store? Check.

Run by Sicilian-Americans? Check.

Selling roast-beef po-boys dripping with brown gravy and a heaping helping of character? Check.

With a list like that, you might think you’ve found yourself in some 6th Ward back-of-town joint in downtown New Orleans, where ravenous young Italian jazz cats like Louie Prima, Freddie Assunto, or Sharkey Bonano once chowed down after all-night blowout Bourbon Street jam sessions.

But you’re not. You’re in Metry, brah, in suburban New Orleans, at the corner of Aris Avenue and Rose Street, on the “lake side” of Metairie Road. You’re at Radosta’s Grocery. This temple to the po-boy is a throwback to the neighborhood joints of yesteryear, before zoning laws and gentrification turned Old Metairie into one of the area’s ritziest ‘hoods. Radosta’s is a real-deal slice of old New Orleans superimposed in a suburban setting.

Of course, Radosta’s roots are firmly planted in the city, at the South Carrollton Avenue grocery that Jerome and Rosemary Radosta ran from 1920 until the ‘70s.

The Metairie po-boy shop is now owned by Jerome’s son Don and his wife, Joan, and it’s still very much a family affair, with help from Don’s brothers Mark and Wayne, who has been cooking the roast beef and other menu staples every day since the ‘70s. In fact, this past June marked the 40th anniversary of commerce for Radosta’s current incarnation.

Pick Up A Fifth Or A Footlong

Radosta’s still looks very much like a grocery store, albeit one specializing in alcohol. A meat counter at the back of the store, where diners place their orders, contains cold cuts and other sandwich fixings.

But don’t go to Radosta’s thinking you’ll make your daily groceries here. This ain’t Whole Foods — or even nearby Langenstein’s — but is more akin to Nor Joe’s down the street. The shelves and racks are dominated by Italian olives and dressings, seafood boiling spices, fifths of liquor, gallons of mayonnaise and Creole mustard, potato chips, baked goods, and other snacks. Stuffed deer heads and fish trophies adorn the walls, along with neon beer signs and images of Louisiana cultural icons like the Tabasco logo. Checkered-cloth tables fill out the dining space, while the wall by the front door is lined with refrigerator cases packed with a mind-boggling array of beers and sodas.

Plate lunches and po-boys long ago replaced bread and butter as Radosta’s primary bread and butter. “My family has been in the grocery business for four generations,” Don Radosta told an interviewer in 2010.  “I used to work in our family grocery store out in New Orleans East. We moved to our current location 30 years ago, and about 15 years ago we made the switch to a po-boy shop. We had always made cold po-boys in our deli, but about 15 years ago we moved almost all the groceries out and opened up the kitchen.”

“We sell some beans now, yuh heard me?”

You’ll find many of your classic New Orleans daily specials at Radosta’s, including red beans and rice cooked up by Don and served every Monday. The main ingredient? Camellia Brand beans, bought by the 25-lb. sack.

“Don’s never used no red beans unless it’s Camellia,” Wayne Radosta noted. “You want to make the best, you use the best. That’s Camellia red beans.”

The Monday special offers red beans with a choice of smoked or hot sausage, plus a tossed salad and French bread. Hungry locals flock to Radosta’s for these beans with the same single-mindedness as they swarm the late Tony Angello’s Lakeview restaurant for the “Feed Me” special. Only, customers can expect to fill their ears as much as their bellies once the garrulous Radosta brothers start shucking and jiving. “We (are) like hambones over here,” Wayne Radosta admitted — a claim that many regulars would recognize as perhaps the understatement of the year.

And the formula is working. “We sell some beans now, yuh heard me?” marveled Wayne Radosta. “You ain’t in your grandma’s kitchen. This is a 90-lb. pot.”

According to Wayne, brother Don uses no salt pork or pickled meat in his base bean recipe, favoring chicken broth instead. He also employs a plentiful amount of thyme. “Don has a heavy hand,” Wayne noted, out of Don’s earshot.

“They Come High And Low” For Hot Sausage

But chicken broth is a far cry from the red-bean recipes of yesteryear. Wayne recalled that several “old-timers” have confided in him that for the “ultimate pot of beans,” chefs back in the early 20th century didn’t think twice about submerging a whole 1-lb. brick of pure lard into the mix. “And that kicked them up about 18 notches,” Wayne said, echoing Emeril. Thankfully, times have changed … maybe.

As for Radosta’s choice of sausage, Wayne swears by the “Black Oak” brand supplied by F. Christiana and Co. “Best smoked sausage you ever eat in your life. It don’t get no better.”

But the product of which he’s proudest is his own handmade innovation: the hot sausage. “People come from New Orleans East and — look — Norco. It’s patties, not links,” he noted. Wayne conceived the recipe 30 years ago and it hasn’t changed since. “That’s me. I invented it. I created it. … I worked on that formula for five years. They come high and low for it.” Wayne estimated that the hot sausage, whether served in beans or on po-boys, is one of Radosta’s top four or five sellers.

Wayne also whips up Radosta’s soups, which are available only in cooler months. Again, Camellia plays a key role. “Camellia beans, they’re the best. I don’t care if they red beans, white beans, blackeyes — it don’t matter.”

And Wayne should know. Recalling his salad days as a wide-eyed toddler staring up at the crammed shelves of exotic foodstuffs at his parents’ grocery, Wayne asserted: “I knew food before I could talk.”

And knowing food means there are no shortcuts to quality when concocting his bean-based soups. “I boil ’em separately in the pot,” Wayne declared. “I ain’t using no canned beans. That’s cheating.”

Roast Beef Po-Boy Fit For A King

Radosta’s has made its mark on the Crescent City’s culinary landscape with red beans and rice and other plate lunches, but its claims to fame don’t stop there. No less an authority than celebrated Louisiana chef John Folse has named Radosta’s his favorite roast-beef po-boy. “After living in Louisiana all my life, and being an expert on po-boys, I went out this spring to find the best roast-beef po-boy,” he said. “I thought beyond a shadow of a doubt that the best was at Radosta Grocery in Metairie. When you can hold a crusty piece of French bread that is absolutely overflowing with fresh, tender, juicy, flavorful slices of roast beef, and it’s saturated on the inside with the wonderful gravy, but the bread is still crusty on the outside, you know it’s something special.”

And the dean of New Orleans-area food critics, Tom Fitzmorris, said Radosta’s roast beef is “a contender (along with dozens of other places) for the honor of best in town. … The roast beef is seriously good, and will appeal particularly to those who like their beef in integral slices rather than falling apart.”

“We make our own gravy and cut our own tops of roast beef, so that’s our best seller,” Don Radosta said. “It don’t matter how you cook the roast,” Wayne Radosta told The Times-Picayune in 2011. “Bake it. Boil it. Do whatever you want. It’s the pot of gravy that makes the roast.”

In addition to its own hot and Italian sausage, Radosta’s also rolls out the real throwback, old-school cold-cut options, such as luncheon meat and liver cheese — not to mention the classic French-fried potato po-boy. Other homegrown spins include Joan’s Special, a grilled-shrimp po-boy; Don’s Special, a sausage-and-provolone po-boy covered with olive salad; and Wayne’s Special, a veal-parmesan po-boy topped with red gravy and provolone.

Plate Lunches And Pies Power Katrina Recovery

With the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina around the corner, south Louisiana is counting its blessings. And one of those blessings is that Radosta’s survived the failure of the federal levees completely unscathed. In fact, it served as an oasis to recovery crews and returning locals working to bring the devastated city back to life. “We were back six weeks after the storm serving sandwiches,” Joan Radosta recalled. “We were driving around trying to scratch together some bread for po-boys, and Don had to drive to Denham Springs every day to get ice. Even with all that … we were still selling about 200 po-boys and 100 Hubig’s pies a day.”

Although the fate of Hubig’s has remained unclear, Radosta’s is still going strong, and it’s become a tradition for multiple generations of local lunchgoers. If you’re looking for festive food to take to parties or the parades, look no further than Radosta’s, a pillar of the New Orleans po-boy tradition and the perfect place for your palate to say “Farewell to meat” during Carnival ahead of the Lenten season.

And in a town where red-bean Mondays are as sacred as the holy rituals on Sundays, don’t let a week go by without partaking in a heaping sacramental plate of Camellia Brand legumes done the Radosta’s way.

Home cooks experimenting with the “Meatless Monday” trend are often attracted to the New Orleans red beans tradition as a way of building 24-hour stretches of vegetarianism into an otherwise omnivorous lifestyle. But sometimes, adapting a traditional cooking method rich in meaty products (sausage, hambones, pickled pork) is more complicated than just leaving your favorite pig products out of the mix. Too often, a batch of vegetarian beans can be lackluster and bland compared to its meaty counterpart.

Luckily, there are simple steps that any home cook can follow to add flavorful dimensions to meat-free beans and making it an easier sell to families accustomed to a meatier version of the New Orleans classic.

Here are a few options to fleshing out the flavors of meatless Monday night red beans recipe.

Amp It Up: Herbs and Spices

When we leave out the meat, we need to compensate for the flavors we’re losing. Oftentimes the subtle flavor notes contained in a favorite sausage (pepper, garlic, heat from cayenne) or ham product (bone, hock or actual ham) also disappear when we go meat-free.

Counteract that flavor loss by upping the amount of your favorite spices or herbs by a bit to distract your tongue from the missing meat.

For example:

• Add more garlic to the initial sauté. Because… garlic.
• Increase your black pepper by a teaspoon or so.
• Instead of quick-sautéing onions, cook the onions beyond golden-brown to a deeper shade. Even a slight caramelization adds flavorful depth to the mix.
• Experiment with flavoring herbs (adding a little thyme or dried basil to mimic sausage ingredients).
• Add a little more green onion than you usually would to freshen the final bowl.

The key here is to excite the taste buds, but with a balanced addition of other interesting flavors.

Bait and Switch: Substitute the Smoke

Much of the savory profile of our favorite flavoring meats (andouille, tasso, ham hocks, smoked chicken wings) come from the distinctive flavor of woodsmoke. Done right, it’s a little reminiscent of a backyard BBQ in your bowl of Monday night beans.

The thing is, cooks have realized over the years that smoking is great for foodstuffs outside the animal kingdom. For example:

• Chipotle Peppers in Adobo — This classic Mexican preparation teams smoked jalapeño peppers and a tangy tomato sauce. Unless you’re a fan of the heat, use latex gloves and a paring knife to carefully remove the seeds and internal membranes where most of the hot stuff resides. (Readily available in most grocery stores.)
• Smoked Paprika — Spanish cooks developed a smoked mild chile pepper called pimenton that adds an earthy but substantial smoky note to meatless beans. Heat isn’t so much the issue here as color; overuse can make your beans RED RED, so adjust accordingly.
• Liquid Smoke — Many home cooks in south Louisiana swear by this spice-aisle staple as the secret to their red beans. If you’re interested, give it a shot, but ever so judiciously — a little Liquid smoke goes a long way.

Double Cream: Mounting with Butter

This little trick comes straight from classical French cuisine, specifically their rich tradition of mother sauces. Specialists called sauciers often “mount” a slightly heated concoction (steak juices and red wine, for example) with chilled butter, resulting in a rich but simple sauce.

The key here is to keep track of your temperature. If the beans are too hot, the solids and fats will separate instead of adding creamy richness. Avoid this rookie mistake by taking beans off the heat about 20 minutes before serving, then stir in half a stick of butter to the pot before serving. As the butter melts, you’ll have extra-rich beans and your guests won’t even miss the meat.

Vegetarian Louisiana-Style Red Beans and Rice

A Properly Made South Louisiana Andouille Might Become a Culinary Addiction

For fans of one-pot Louisiana cooking, a stick of Louisiana andouille (ahn DOO wee) is a beautifully savory sight to behold.

A properly made link of this dense, porky delight carries more heft than a standard smoked sausage (about 2 to 2.5 inches in diameter) and in its cured state can fill a room with the powerful aroma of woodsmoke. Cut into it and you’ll feel a coarse, chunky texture that’s closer to spicy ham than your average kielbasa. Browned in a little oil, chunks of andouille give off the smell of crispy breakfast bacon with a little garlic and pepper thrown in for good measure.

It’s no wonder that andouille is a classic, go-to flavoring meat for many red beans aficionados.

German Roots

Despite having a decidedly French name, andouille owes its trademark flavor to the sausage traditions of a different South Louisiana immigrant group — the Germans.

Beginning in the 1720s, German pioneers from the Rhineland came to the New World and settled up the Mississippi River from New Orleans in modern-day St. Charles, St. James and St. John the Baptist parishes (a region known as the Cotes des Allemandes or German Coast). In the years since, the farmers and sausage makers built a reputation for a traditional sausage-making style that’s as delicious as it is straightforward.

The style calls for chunks of lean pork shoulder to be simply spiced with garlic, salt, black pepper, cayenne and salt, then put in sausage casings and slow-smoked for hours over smoldering pecanwood fires. Before the advent of modern refrigeration, farmers would make andouille as part of the cold-weather hog slaughters (called boucheries) that filled home larders for the warmer months. Thick links of andouille — cured by salt and smoke —would hang in the barn until they made their way to into bean pots or batches of gut-warming gumbo.

And over centuries, the Germans gradually intermarried with Acadian communities and contributing their distinctive foodways to evolving Cajun culture. Their andouille — a prize of south Louisiana’s culinary traditions and staple of local meat-market culture — earned the German Coast town of Laplace the title “Andouille Capital of the World” in the 1970s.

In the Kitchen

Bean cooks should be cautious when approaching andouille, as a properly made south Louisiana andouille might become a culinary addiction. (Don’t laugh. We’ve seen it happen.)

The taste and texture — with plenty of smoke, a jolt of garlic and just a bit of peppery heat — might just raise your standards as garden-variety smoked sausages pale in comparison.

Inside the mahogany brown skin, sizable chunks of pork shoulder (the cut of the hog used for classic pulled pork and picnic hams) are compressed into a cylinder the size of a youngster’s t-ball bat. Once you discard  the inedible protective casing, cut the andouille into thick slices or chunks, always allowing for a few more ounces than your red bean recipe requires. Once the pinkish meat starts to crisp around the edges, your whole house will fill with the aroma of spicy pork goodness, and you’ll have to keep curious snackers away from the stovetop. (The extra few ounces are for the cook to nibble and use to distract persistent guests drawn to the stovetop like moths to a flame.)

As for the red beans:  the chunks of andouille will add a smoky savor to the pot, with the occasional morsel of hammy goodness adding texture to the creamy beans.

KITCHEN NOTE: In many grocery store meat sections, you’ll find products labeled “andouille” that pretty closely resembles standard-issue smoked sausage (albeit with a little added pepper or other flavorings). These products (such as Manda’s, Savoie’s, and Richard’s brands) have a smoother texture than the classic meat market style, and as such don’t have the inedible casing issue. Just slice ’em as you would smoked sausage and brown ’em in the pan.

Getting the Good Stuff

If you’re lucky enough to live in south Louisiana, check your local community meat markets for the real stuff. Small-town butchers pride themselves on this Cajun classic.

Barring that, you can get grocery store sausages called andouille, but with a word of caution. Many commercial sausage makers just add additional spices (cayenne, paprika for color) to regular smooth-textured sausage and call it andouille. And though it might be delicious, it’s no substitute for the real thing.

If you’ve got a direct connection to Cajun Country, you owe it to yourself to try out the real deal, preferably from a local meat market or purveyors from LaPlace, LA.

Here are a couple of recommended purveyors from the Andouille Capital of the World.

Jacob’s World Famous Andouille
505 West Airline Highway
LaPlace, LA 70068
(985) 652-9080,
fax (985) 652-9022,
toll free (877) 215-7589
cajunsausage.com

Bailey’s Famous Andouille
513 West Airline Highway
LaPlace, LA 70068
(985) 652-9090
baileysandouille.com

A beloved ritual and tradition.

Making red beans and rice is a beloved ritual and tradition in New Orleans, and for many, prepping the beans and vegetables and gently coaxing that pot of goodness into a state of creamy perfection is both a pleasurable experience and a bit of kitchen therapy. There’s just no rushing the process of slow-cooking red beans on your stovetop, and yet there’s nothing difficult or tricky about it either. It may take time, but it’s actually hard to get it wrong. There are so many different ways to deliciously flavor and season your red beans, that about the only thing you need to be concerned with is not burning them. And when you’re done, you will have created something truly worth savoring with family and friends.

No matter who you are or where you live, you can learn to cook a pot of New Orleans-style red beans that really gets it right.  Simply set aside some time at home – a Sunday afternoon is great – and follow these step-by-step instructions and tips. (Bonus: some say a pot of red beans made on a Sunday tastes even better the next day, and lucky for you, makes enough for several lunches.)

New Orleans-style red beans done right.

First up, to soak or not to soak your beans? As with many aspects of making red beans, there’s no right or wrong answer here. If you want to reduce the actual cooking time on the stove, then by all means soak your beans starting the night before. Rinse and sort beans in a colander, pour into a large bowl, and cover them with fresh, cold water – about an inch or two above the beans.

The next day, you’ll see that the beans have soaked up much of the water. Several beans might look split open. No worries, that’s as it should be. Drain what’s left of the water in the bowl.

Next, chop the aromatic vegetables known as “the trinity”. The trinity consists of onion, green bell pepper and celery, usually in equal amounts. (If you live in south Louisiana, you can take a shortcut at this point and use a container of pre-chopped trinity readily available in local grocery stores.) Otherwise, chop the veggies ahead of time, so they’re ready to go into the pot once the sausage is browned. Note that you can even chop your veggies and freeze them for later use.

Now, slice up a pound of smoked sausage, and brown it over medium heat in a large heavy pot. Note: a thick-walled pot like a cast iron pot or a Dutch oven is your best choice for even heating and avoiding any chance of burning the beans.

You’ll notice that the browned sausage leaves a nice amount of fat in the pot that’s perfect for the next step – cooking the trinity.

Along with the trinity, add chopped garlic and ¼ stick of butter, and cook until the veggies are soft and translucent – about 5-10 minutes. As you can imagine, now is when the flavors are starting to meld, and the aroma is amazing.

Add the soaked, drained beans to the pot, along with a bay leaf and 5-10 cups of fresh water. While that might sound like a big variance, it allows for whether or not the beans were soaked. If they’ve been soaked, they’ll need less water at this stage; if they haven’t, they’ll need more. Again, it’s not an exact science, so don’t fret – just be sure to use enough water to cover the beans by an inch or so.

At this point, the boiling and simmering starts the softening of the beans. Some call for bringing the pot to a rolling boil for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes and then reducing to a simmer for a couple of hours. Others advise covering the simmering pot with a tight-fitting lid for an hour or so, and then removing and continuing to simmer. The point here is for the beans to absorb the water, and for the excess liquid to slowly evaporate, or cook off. Basically, how soft you like your beans and/or how soup-y you prefer the bean liquid will dictate how long you simmer – with the pot covered or uncovered. Either way, remember that the key to creamy red beans is longer simmering as well as the continued act of mashing beans against the side of the pot. Note that mashing will also give you a good indication of the softness of the beans. If they’re soft, they’ll be easy to mash; if they’re not, they’ll be more difficult to mash and will need more time to simmer.

Finally, when the beans are soft and the amount of liquid in the pot is to your liking, it’s time to add salt, pepper, hot sauce, and Cajun seasoning to taste. It’s important to add these spices at the end because salt can keep beans from softening if added too early. And the sausage affects the flavor and saltiness of the beans as they cook. Be sure to taste and season, and then taste and season some more! It’s always better to add a little bit of seasoning at a time, stir and then taste – so as not to inadvertently over-season the pot in one fell swoop.

Congratulations – you should now have a pot of delicious, creamy red beans. All that’s left to do is cook up some hot, fluffy rice, add to individual bowls, and ladle the beans over the rice. Garnish with a little chopped green onion, and you’ve got the perfect New Orleans meal to share with those you love. Don’t forget to put out an assortment of hot sauces, and let everyone adjust the spiciness to their own taste. Bon appétit!

Camellia’s Famous New Orleans-Style Red Beans Recipe

Ingredients:
1 (1-pound) bag Camellia Brand Red Kidney Beans
1 pound smoked sausage
8-10 cups water
1/4 stick of butter
2 cups chopped seasoning blend (onions, celery, green bell peppers, parsley flakes)
1 toe garlic, chopped
1 bay leaf
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Cajun seasoning to taste

Directions:

1. Rinse and sort beans. (Optional: Soak beans using your preferred method.)
2. In large heavy pot, cook sliced sausage for 5 minutes.
3. Add chopped vegetables and garlic to cooking sausage, along with 1/4 stick butter, and continue to cook until onions turn soft or clear.
4. Add beans, water, and bay leaf.
5. Bring to rolling boil for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.
6. Reduce heat, simmer for 1-2 hours, stirring occasionally, until beans are desired tenderness.
7. Add salt, pepper, Cajun seasoning to taste.

There are as many ways to make your #RedBeansDoneRight as there are beans in a bag, but the one thing they all have in common is a passion for red beans as big as ours.

Here are some of the amazing ways you suggested for making a perfect pot of beans. If you don’t see your secret below – tell us in the comments section!

“The roux.”
Kristin W.

“The garlic n smoked sausage”
Monteria I.

“Smoked ham hocks and sausage, bell peppers, onions and garlic! Oh yeah!”
Aimee M.

“Lots of love, and killer cornbread on the side!!!”
Bobby S.

“Chicken broth, bacon grease, and ham hocks.”
Heather V.

“Pork neck.”
Victor F.

“Bacon grease. Gotta have it!”
Claire S.

“Allspice.”
Angelle G.

“Crab boil!”
Jamie A.

“Ketchup.”
Ellen H.

“I learned from Frank Davis to use beef and chicken broth for the water.”
Benny’n’Angi J.

“The andouille from Cajun Specialty Meats Pensacola, FL.”
Karen C.

“Smoked bacon, smoked turkey neck, and the grease from the bacon, celery”
Theresa G.

“My secret is cooking with love.”
Tiko A.

“LOTS of onions and ummmm good!”
Chris H.

“Butter.”
Charlene G.

“A Bud Light.”
Benny R.

“A lil brown sugar – not much though. Between a teaspoon & a tablespoon”
Susie M.

“A can of cream of mushroom soup, and a can of rotel tomatoes.”
Theresa S.

“The trinity, smoked sausage, liquid smoked and garlic.”
Chastity M.

“Gotta have pickle meat and beef broth.”
Judy C.

“Gotta have the trinity plus garlic, bay leaves, Tony’s and hot sauce!!!”
Stephen M., Jr

“Tasso.”
Jennifer M.

“Smoked ham shank.”
Anne P.

“Smoke ham shank, mesh some of the beans on the side of the pot. I use a little file and a little butter. Take frozen bacon and a sharp knife and cut in thin half inch slices cuts perfect when frozen.”
Harvey H.

“Cajun Power Garlic Sauce, Tony Chachere’s, smoked ham shanks, braised ham hocks and lots of bay leaves.”
Gretchen W.

“Andouille and slap-ya-mama seasoning…”
Ron S.

“The secret is to only use Camellia Red Beans! No other bean cooks to be as creamy as y’all’s do! The BEST!”
Adele S.

“Bay leaves is a must have ingredient!”
Troy R.

“Boil the smoked ham hocks first to make a smokey broth and use that broth for the beans.”
Southern L.

“Camellias..lots of onions..bay leaf..fry ground green onion sausage Patton’s Sausage and Smoked Cajun Sausage drain S&P cook slowly mash 2 cups creamy.”
Bonnie M.

“The only kind of bean I cook!”
Angela M.

“Bay leaves.”
Robert M.

“Soak beans overnight in water and vinegar night before cooking.. Always use slow cooker and chicken broth.”
Alison S.

“Some good smoked green onion sausages, smoked Tasso, smoked ham hocks, onion, Bell pepper, Tony’s seasoning. Slow cook for hours!!!!! I forgot.. GARLIC!!!”
Tonya M.

“Bell peppers of course…”
Vanessa W.

“I love pickled onions in my red beans!”
John F.

“Manda’s hot sausage, trinity, garlic, 1Tbs Tony’s, 2 Tbs Worcestershire, 1/2 tsp thyme, 3 bay leaves, Crystal hot, in a crock pot, sometimes tasso too.”
Rhys M.

“Hot Rod’s Creole Seasonings and Sauces and butter with plenty of sausage and ham.”
Rodney B.

“Soaking them overnight, trinity, tabasco.”
Lee B.

“Fresh herbs, celery, shallots, onions, parsley, bay leaf, garlic, pickle meat, smoke sausage and seasoning salt.”
Bonnie W.

“Garlic and butter.”
Patrick S.

“Soaking beans and little bit of garlic with onion.”
Beth Ann W.

“Bacon grease.”
Kuris N.

“A ham hock and slow cooking,seasoning,hot and smoke sausage pig tails and tips y’all don’t know.”
Charleyne L

“Zatarain’s Red Bean Seasoning Mix….it’s AWESOME….taste like Popeye’s red beans… but better because they’re full of delicious sausage!”
Lisa D.

“Rouses Andouille.”
Dawn O.

“Going back to the way my Mom cooked red beans, soaking them overnight, saute’ onion, celery, garlic in bacon fat, add pickle meat, drain beans put in pot, add water, season with salt & cayenne pepper, add bay leaf and let cook until creamy.
She didn’t add all that stuff you buy today and the were delicious!”
Rose Anne L.

“Bacon grease-sauté onions-pickled pork, Tasso, little roux, ham base, low and slow till they cream, green onion tops at the end!”
Jimmy Y.

“Smoked meats.”
Shannon M.

“Pickled chayote squash better none as mirlitons.”
Eddie C.

“Cooked some of these yesterday. Used sausage.”
Debra R.

“Andouille:)”
Marquand P.

“Zatarains crab boil.”
Lisa C.

“Just Tony’s.”
Lis B.

“Chicken stock. Cumin.”
Debra E.

“I soak the beans a few hours, trinity of course, garlic, bay leaves, tonys, rotel. My secret is cream of celery soup. Andouille.”
Kirk P.

“Zatarains Liquid Crab Boil.”
Roma E.

“Every Monday! Try with Patton’s Hot Sausage from Louisiana.”
Deirdre S.

“Coffee!”
Karen B.

“Bell pepper, garlic, onion, bay leaf, ham, skinless smoked sausage and pigtail, cayenne, Tony’s …. New Orleans style”
Linda G.

“Okra at the end.”
Rene T.

“Since I can’t eat pork anymore, I gotta use some liquid hickory smoke with my beef sausage and fresh bay leaves!”
Karen H.

“Time. Not thyme.”
Mitchell P.

“A shot of Zatarain’s liquid crab boil and a double shot of liquid smoke with a lot of crushed garlic and fresh parsley finely chopped.”
Gary C.

“Bay leaf, a little dried basil and a little dried rosemary. Also, my grandma used to serve her pickled mirlitons alongside the beans. Delicious!”
Gail S.

“Pickled pig tails and cooking oil @ the end.”
Teara M.

“Butter, chicken cubes and pickled tips… and garlic.”
Dina G.

“Smoked hot sauce.”
Mike S.

“Sazon”
Aracely L.

“Andouille and smoked Tasso and or ham. In the slow cooker. All day.”
Try H.

“Andouille, diced pickled pork, garlic, Tony’s, and a really good blend of other seasonings.”
Liz X.

“Cumin.”
Donna W.

“Sazon, Adobo, sofrito.”
Corey S.

“BACON!!!! Tbsp cornstarch and tbsp cold water at the end to thicken.”
Nicole N.

“Curry and lots of Splenda near the end.”
Marc L.

“Soak them overnight.”
John G.

“Liquid crab boil.”
Randy J.

“A Chisesi ham hock and a healthy dose of Tabasco.”
Randy S.

“A ham hock from heavenly ham or one of those ham stores
and half stick butter per pound!”
Maria C.

“This sounds disgusting (and perhaps it is) but some add ground up hot dogs in their beans. Popeye’s beans are said to have this “secret ingredient”…”
Michael R.

“A little bit of baking soda when soaking the beans.”
Rene E.

“Thyme, fresh cut bay leaves, 1 tsb catsup, tonys, one clove of garlic, fresh green onions.”
Sonny C.

“A nice fresh piece of salt meat, fresh squeezed garlic, green onions, parsley, and 1 large diced yellow onion, don’t forget the big cooking spoon of Mazola Corn Oil for creamy beans! These are the best!! Cooked in a crock pot!!!!”
Cindy N.

“A stick or 2 of butter.”
Michael B.

“Bay Leaves!”
Debbie G.

“Add about a tablespoon of butter just before serving…..used 1lb.bag.”
Ruth H.

“Soak overnight. Lots of garlic! Onions celery parsley chives. Pickle meat hot sausage and a pinch of baking soda to help w digestion. Gotta say everyone loves my red beans! And of course salt to taste!”
Cheryl Q.

“Sometimes cook with pickle and salt meat or mild smoke sausage ,also some people use bacon.”
Roxanne F.

“Pickled meat.”
Jennifer M.

“Andouille of course!!”
Mary Lynne F.

“Bacon…. Yum!”
Patty H.

“Salt pork!”
Wade L.

“Tasso”
Ethel M.

“Beef sausage and ham hocks.”
Daphane M.

“Always cook them in the pressure cooker makes them very creamy. All fresh seasonings, plenty of garlic. Add a little pickle juice to each serving! Delish! Judy from the 9th!!!!”
Judy B.

“Don’t soak them, rinse and boil them hard adding water as needed, makes thick intense gravy.”
Scott I.

“Pickled pig tails, pickled rib tips, D&D smoked sausage.”
Kia M.

“Mexene chili powder.”
Loria W.

“The secret to creamy beans is to let them boil for five minutes with fresh green seasoning, garlic and a couple of bay leaves.”
Darlene W.

“A little cinnamon.”
Kenneth M.

“Soak overnight. Salt, garlic and a great big smoked ham hock. Bring to good boil, reduce heat to medium low, cover and simmer for 2 hours or until beans or soft texture.”
Kathy F.

“For creamy beans: wash beans and place in HEAVY-bottomed cooking pot. Pour a kettle of boiling water over washed beans, add a pinch of baking soda and cover tightly, and allow to sit overnight.”
Dez C.

“I use Camillas, my secret starts with seasoning my sausage n fresh seasoning n frying them before I put them in my beans, grease n all. Of course I use bay leaves n celery like most folk.”
Shavonda H.

“Applewood bacon fat!!!”
Arianna P.

“Fresh chopped garlic in the last 10 min of cooking.”
Reed C.

“35 minutes in the pressure cooker…ham shanks, hot sausage, bell pepper and lots of onions=BAM!”
Gina M.

“Pickled meat, garlic, bay leaf ,onions and let them simmer on top of the stove! Serve over rice with a little hot sauce, fried Chicken, and fresh French bread!”
Daphine J.

“I ALWAYS add about 1/4 to 1/2 tsp of liquid crab boil in my red beans depending on the size of the pot. And a few drops of liquid smoke…”
Dyra H.

“Always use ham bone with bone exposed (or saw the bones)-read-a long time ago- a recipe from Leah Chase that said the marrow makes the beans creamy-it works. Plus lots a garlic, onions, little celery, bay leaf or 2 pinches of sage, thyme etc. Add some smoked sausage near the end.”
Carol Jo B.

“I also use crawfish and alligator sausage in mine! Yummy”
Martha F.

“Hot pepper pickled Pickled Onion and Ketchup!”
Charles s.

“U want creamy beans? Add a tablespoon of vegetable oil at the end. Works everytime.”
Shana T.

“Soaked in beer with bay leaves unattended.”
Tearyeyes L.

“I  use bacon grease to help make my beans creamy. I also use bay leaves off of a bush that has been handed down 4 generations! So yummy!”
Rhonda K.

“Plenty of fresh thyme and smoked Tasso.”
Fiera T.

“Soak and rinse them. Put them in the crock pot with some onions, garlic, celery, boiled pickled meat, kitchen bouquet and brown gravy powder.”
Adia H.

“My homemade smoked sausage.”
Brandon F.

“Teaspoon of liquid crab boil, smoked sausage or pickle meat. (Not salt meat). onions finely chopped.”
Jim L.

“I like the Zatarains red bean seasoning but also add lots of onion, garlic and minced celery. For meat I added both beef sausage and a chunk of ham.. Soo good!!!”
Miyoshi M.

“Liquid crab boil.”
Brian M.

“Crumbling cornbread.”
Diana L.

“I use hickory smoked bacon! The grease from the bacon will make the beans creamy and flavorful!! But I can’t forget the smoke sausage, pickled meat and ham hocks!!!”
David H.

“sour cream, tasso, white onion after it’s done cookin!”
Johnny G.

“The woman who taught me to make red beans when I lived in New Orleans added a whole stick of butter…delish!”
Karen K.

“1 tbsp oregano at the beginning.”
Peter T.

“One of the things is I drain my rice water into my beans to help thicken in the end.”
Steve P.

“Syrup!”
LeAnna T.

“The best beans I make all year are always the batch I do after Easter when I’ve got that big beautiful leftover ham bone to throw in to the mix.”
Melissa S.

“Camellia beans only. Slow and long cooking, lots of onion, green onion, a little parsley and celery.”
Sherry B.

“bacon, onions”
Karen B.

“Mayonnaise is delicious in red beans!”
Gary A.

“A stick of butter….and making a roux first.”
James S.

“Zatarain’s red bean seasoning, Cajun smoked sausage or andouille and a secret I can’t tell nobody.”
LaTaiya B.

“Good andouille!!!!!”
Mandy J.

“Some good smoke meat and mother love opelousas in the house you come back for more.”
Ivory C.

“lots of garlic, onion, bell pepper and celery”
Terry S.

“Coffee.”
Georgia C.

“Always soak my dry beans overnight shortens the cooking time. Leave on a medium. Fire covered until they pop. Once they have opened up I throw in my seasoning and salt meat and turn up the fire. I like pickled tips in my beans.”
Bridget C.

“Chicken stock instead of water.”
Gwendolyn B.

“My mom put some chili powder in hers.”
Carmen W.

“Pickle meat and smoked ham hocks and smoke sausage.”
Pamela S.

“All of the above plus ham and cajun sausage lots of garlic,celery, a large onion and gumbo file'”
Lynn D.

“Simplicity. Soak overnight. Rinse. Ham bone & some ham seasoning…. Not a fan of tasso & andouille in beans. Add garlic, onion, bell pepper, bay leaf. Cook til soft, salt & pepper.”
Susan J.

“saute onions, garlic in canola oil, stir in some tony’s roux mix, salt & pepper & a can of diced rotel tomatoes, then add the beans (that were soaked overnight) – add water & cook for a LONG time”
Susan P.

“ Best red beans are ragin cajun red beans with seasoning packette. Add your meat n water. Don’t have to worry about over salting.”
Chris R.

“I put a couple of drops of liquid crab boil in mine”
Ann M.

“Liquid smoke!”
Deborah C.

“creole explosion seasoning”
Jada D.

“Lots of chili powder!!!! It adds flavor but not a lot of heat.”
Julie P.

“Capt’n Jack’s creole spice seasoning and fresh bay leaves Gretna Farmers Market Sat. Am 8:30 to 12:30”
Janis O.

“Tasso.”
Linda M.

“Soak overnight…pickle pork meat…zatarain’s red bean seasoning packet and chicken stock instead of water…Yum!”
Brandi B.

“1/2 cup of bacon grease and 2 ham hocks. Sounds gross, tastes awesome!”
Dawn W.

“ham hocks (smoked)”
Alice W.

“Spicy Cajun Conecuh sausage. Good stuff.”
Johnny C.

“Soak overnight w/ pinch of baking soda! When browning seasoning meats and holy trinity add drained beans to skillet with the above to let the steam expand them further; then I put them in slow cooker with 2 quarts of chicken broth.”
Jimmy C.

“Pickle meat”
Linda C.

“Liquid smoke”
Lacey G.

“Bay leaf a bit of File’ “
Bentley K.

“I use the trinity, salt meat, smoked or regular turkey necks, Tony’s, and that’s about all. I will try the crab boil.”
Saja M.

“Use Smoked Ham Hocks as the Meat, saute onions, garlic, celery in butter and add once the beans start creaming. Add chopped green pepper in at the end – Delicious!!!”
Julie H.

“Add savory to your list of seasonings!”
Ernest A.

“I make a roux!”
Lynda B.

“Soak beans into 12 hour sessions. The first one just water; the second with salt, bell pepper, shot of cayenne & some Lea & Perrins. After 2nd session pour in pot; get beans to a boil, add other seasoning, then slow cook until beans are really soft. Remove a cup of just beans & crush real fine, return to beans & stir to make a nice gravy; let cool.”
Bill R.

“Liquid crab boil”
April K.

“Lard”
Debbie L.

“Make them the day before you want to eat them”
Dana N.

“A teaspoon of bacon grease.”
Connie W.

“little liquid smoke…”
Sue H.

“Rotel hot”
Johnna B.

“Anyone put a little vinegar on top?”
Pam V.

“Zummo Sausage and TexJoy Seasonings!”
Kimberly M.

“Pressure cooking. The creamiest beans ever in 30 minutes.”
Pat A.

“The secret is to soak the night before. Pour that water off. Then cook slow slow and they will be DELISH.”
Chyra D.

“Bay leaves & bacon grease”
Shelita H.

“PICKEL MEAT!”
Alex H.

“Andouille sausage, garlic, Tony’s, onions and mash some of dem beans to thicken it up. Slow cook”
John M.

“Cilantro and celery salt”
Farrah K.

“I put onion, little garlic, celery, bell pepper, bay leaves, chili powder, Tony’s, bacon grease, salted pork. Cook about two and half hours.”
Nancy L.

“A can of Rotels…”
Lily M.

“Smoked pork neck and bacon grease.”
Shannon G.

“has to be Camelia, and REAL ham”
Priscilla C.

“crab “berl”
Lou Ann S.

“Smoked ham hocks”
John H.

“Pickled meat and Double D Smoked Sausage!”
HaroldBecky M.

“It really brings out all of the flavor of the beans”
Donna O.

“Slow cook them overnight and all the next day. Onion, peppers and celery. Tony’s. Perfection!”
Tisha H.

“Slow and low, Manda smoke sausage, picked tips, onion, bell pepper, celery, garlic, bay leaf, Tony Chachere , fresh cracked black pepper”
Morris C.

“Tasso, smoked green onion sausage, onions, little bell pepper, garlic. Chicken broth. Cook on high then turn down. I cook all day. Thick and creamy.”
Janet B.

“Camilla beans cooked in onions, bell peppers, garlic, celery and sausage. Saute everything add water to cover put in 350 degree oven. Cook an hour checking half way to make sure of liquid”
Ruby L.

“Manda Ham Cubes , Bacon , Andouille Sausage, Creole Cut Up Seasoning, Basil, Oregano, and Tony Chachere’s”
Rene R.

“Bay leaves and a few drops of Zatarain’s liquid crab boil!”
Ron E.

“A sprinkle of ground cloves and a dab of tomato paste.”
Kathryn W.

“after the beans are done take a cup out and mush and put them back”
Amy M.

“OH YES,,, GOTTA HAVE BELL PEPPER, CELERY, HOT SAUSAGE, AND OF COURSE 3 YELLOW ONIONS, CUT UP LARGE, SERVED WITH HOT GERMAN POTATO SALAD,, WITH CORN BREAD,,, AND OF COURSE—- LOUISIANA HOT SAUSAGE,,,, ENJOY”
Mark B.

“Camellia beans and Slap ya Mamma”
Doriegh S.

“electric pressure cooker…”
Ellen T.

“Richards turkey tasso,and of course onions,bell pepper,celery,and garlic salt and zatarain’s red pepper always bring to a boil, sit an hour pour off first water, brown turkey tasso and onions,etc.add to fresh pot cook about 1 and half hour, add salt at the end the tasso is salty”
Edie H.

“Garlic, a bay leaf, one or two chicken bullion cubes (I know, right?), and a ton of fresh ground black pepper.”
Dean M.

“Trinity, bay leaf, ham hocks, smoked sausage, low sodium chicken stock,Cajun spice blend (Beazell’s) and dried or fresh dill.”
Linda F.

“I put bacon in my red beans. They come out so flavorful and creamy!”
Peggy C.

“Pressure pot bay leaves onions Bp seasonings at the end a lil cooking oil they’re the best!!!!!”
Tammy B.

“Little bit liquid smoke n Beazells”
Michael H.

“Bay leaves”
Darren L.

“onion, garlic, flat leaf parsley, celery, bay leaf, tony chachere’s, woochushire (can’t spell it) sauce, salt pepper”
Rebecca B.

“For every pound of red beans we add a small can of tomato sauce. My husband’s grandmother’s recipe. Makes the “gravy” awesome. You don’t even taste the tomatoes.”
Mona D.

“Onion, garlic, bell peppers, bay leaf, a little Brown sugar, Worcester sauce, a little tomato sauce, shortening, pork jowls, ham hock, bacon fat, smoke sausage, towards the end, a sprinkling of chopped wild green onions and a pound of fresh shrimp.”
Melernea N.

“ Chitlin puree”
Marc G.

“I’ve been cooking Camellia red beans for 55 years. I use onion, garlic, bacon fat and salt meat. If I can’t get salt meat, I use pickle meat. I taste the beans before I add salt.”
Eunette B.

“Should put a tablespoon of Mint Flakes per pound of beans too!”
Kevin W.

It’s no secret that I LURVE red beans and rice. But only mine. LOL! I’m far too critical of other people’s red beans and rice so I don’t even try them. I know…bad Mingo…BAD! But my beans are pretty dang delish. If you’ve ever had them… you know this for sure.

Here is my recipe for each pound of beans you’re cooking:

1 lb Camellia Brand Red Kidney Beans
1 ham bone or 1 lb ham hocks (This is why you save the bone with the difficult to cut meat on it from the Christmas ham…just wrap it good in foil and put in a ziploc freezer bag! When I don’t have one I use ham hocks.)
1 – 2 lbs sausage (sliced and browned)
1 yellow onion
1 bell pepper
5 stalks of celery
3 cloves of garlic, minced
3 bay leaves
1 teaspoon of thyme
9 cups of chicken broth (I use Herbox chicken granules)

(Rinse and sort beans and then START SOAKING IN WATER THE MORNING BEFORE THE DAY YOU COOK THEM! The gas needs to expel.)

I season the beans while they are soaking in the water.

Salt and pepper (black and cayenne) to taste *NOTE! I DON’T PUT IN SALT UNTIL THE VERY END AS YOU NEVER KNOW HOW SALTY THE HAM HOCK WILL BE! WHEN YOU HAVE YOUR LAST “TASTE” ADJUST SALT THEN…YOU PROBABLY WON’T NEED ANY!

In olive oil, saute diced onion, celery, garlic and bell pepper for about 10 minutes. Add thyme, bay leaves, black and cayenne pepper.

Add beans, broth, and ham hocks/bone, and bring to a boil, uncovered.

Add sausage. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 2 hours. YES…I SAID TWO HOURS! The best cooking is done slooooooooooooooow!

After two hours, remove ham bone and put on plate. Then, scoop out about 1/2 cup of beans and mash them up. Carve meat off bone into bite sized pieces. Put meat ONLY back in pot. Taste and adjust seasonings. Bring to another low boil and stir mashed beans in well making sure they don’t stick to bottom of pot. Lower temperature and simmer on low, covered, for 20 minutes. This makes the beans creamy.

Serve over brown rice. Oh yeah…they will be muuuuuuuuuuch better tomorrow! LOL!

P.S. For non-pork eaters…I guess you can use smoked turkey…but I wouldn’t know cuz I use pork…the pig ain’t never done nuttin to me! I eat it “from the rooter to the tooter!”

Monica Mingo is a filmmaker, author, and enthusiastic advocate for living life to the fullest. You can read more about her on her blog, That Gumbo Life.

—

The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is full of tough acts to follow. And when it comes to the red beans and rice served at Jazz Fest, legendary restaurateur Buster Holmes was perhaps the toughest act of all. But Judy Burks did just that, taking the reins from Holmes in the early 1970s and cooking up an empire built on Camellia beans that is still going strong today.

Judy Burks

At his namesake French Quarter restaurant, Holmes served his renowned red beans to everyone from Preservation Hall jazzmen to Louis Armstrong, Vincent Price, and Woody Allen. So he perhaps viewed his red-beans gig at the then-tiny Jazz Fest as just a sideline. He told organizers he would only cook 100 pounds.

Enter Judy Burks and her then-boyfriend Albert Sabi. The pair had worked the 1973 Jazz Fest serving up Cuban black beans based on a recipe from Sabi’s mother. However, as astonishing as it sounds today, the black beans were a hard sell, even as the couple doled out free samples on small plastic spoons. There were “not a lot of adventurous eaters in New Orleans” at the time, Burks recalled. “That looks like mud,” one fest-goer told her.

In the early ‘70s, only about 20 food booths were operating. When Holmes made it clear that 100 pounds of his famous red beans was all he was going to provide, Jazz Fest organizers wanted more. They approached Burks and Sabi about changing their beans from black to red. The couple agreed. Though Holmes eventually bowed out of the festival, he continued with his unquenchable gusto for life until 1994, when at age 89 he received a jazz funeral send-off worthy of red-bean royalty.

Camellia: “Always Good, So New Orleans”

Fifty years later, Burks is the Jazz Fest’s reigning queen of red beans. Locals and tourists alike feast on her definitive recipe at what has become the most famous music festival in the world. Burks has tinkered with the ingredients over the decades, but she says there has “always” been one constant: Camellia red beans. “No rocks, no mess, always good, so New Orleans,” Burks said of the product. She buys Camellia’s 25-lb. sacks and goes through an astounding 1,200 pounds every Jazz Fest!

Morris Douglas, Judy’s partner in Burks & Douglas, opening the 25-lb. bags of Camellia Red Beans

With roots in the Tangipahoa Parish town of Amite, as an eighth-grader Burks moved with her parents to the New Orleans suburb of Metairie and attended East Jefferson High School. She majored in art at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond and later earned master’s degrees from UNO and Tulane in English and fine arts, respectively. Over the years she has worked as a teacher and arts-program coordinator in the New Orleans public school system, and her paintings have been on display at local galleries.

Burks was headed off to Europe with boyfriend Albert when she got her first taste of Jazz Fest in 1973. Bitten by the bug, she and Albert realized that cooking at the fest could be a pretty decent part-time gig. In the early days, when the festival was only a single weekend, it was easy to run the booth. In later years, as Jazz Fest grew to encompass successive extended weekends, she managed to take time off without pay from the school system to work the fest.

It was during her job as visual-arts coordinator at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) that she managed to find the perfect sausage for her beans. Using the teachers lounge as a forum for a blind taste test, she rounded up several different brands and laid them out in tiny cups. The winner: Richard’s links from the Cajun town of Church Point, the brand she still uses today.

Years of Practice Yield “Perfect” Recipe

Burks feels that her recipe has been “perfect” for at least the past 10 years. On the road to perfecting her Platonic dish, over the years she’s learned a few tricks, including the power of white pepper. It’s “aromatic and blends well,” Burks said. She uses about five times as much white pepper as black pepper.

The spice rack of Jazz Fest Red Beans

As for rice, she now uses a parboiled product to avoid a “glutinous mess of overcooked rice.” For many years, following the advice of “some little old ladies from LaPlace,” she stored the rice in small individually prepared Ziploc bags to keep it fresh — until a fellow food vendor convinced her to switch to 5-gallon buckets for convenience’s sake.

For French bread accompaniment, her go-to brand is Leidenheimer of New Orleans. Burks also sells her own blackberry cobbler pie, and in earlier years, she offered iced tea.

Vegetarian fest-goers from around the world rejoiced in the 1990s when Burks made a major breakthrough: a meatless version of red beans. Many customers simply can’t believe that she conjures up such a robust flavor without using meat. Her secret: adding extra canola oil to enhance the dish’s creaminess. She now sells about one pot of vegetarian beans for every three pots of sausage beans.

Family: The Essential Ingredient

Over 50 years at Jazz Fest, Burks has witnessed and weathered many changes. On a personal level, her original partner in the business, Albert, passed away in 1987. “I did the ’87 festival by myself,” Burks recalled.

Ingredients for each large pot of Red Beans are prepped and stored in bags – parsley and green onions are being prepared above.

Burks & Douglas Is Born

But serendipity soon struck when she encountered a former student from her first year as a teacher. “He started out coming to help me in the kitchen, then he’d help out in the booth. Now Morris Douglas and his sister, Pam, are full-time partners,” Burks told The Times-Picayune in 1999.  The business is now known as Burks & Douglas.

You might say that family is another key ingredient to Burks’ red beans. Burks’ life partner, a sculptor, also helps out at the booth, specializing in the blackberry cobbler. And partners Morris and Pam Douglas have several relatives active in the business.

Pam Douglas, Morris Douglas, and Judy Burks

“My partner’s son basically grew up in the booth,” Burks said. “I can remember when he was 8 years old, saying, ‘Can I work here?’ And I said, ‘No, ‘cuz your head isn’t above the counter. But when your head is above the counter, maybe we’ll think about it.’ Well, now he’s an adult and he works in the back cooking the rice and just basically knows the whole thing inside and out. … Everybody along has the same thing. People that I knew who had little kids who were young couples are now relying on their children and grandchildren to stir the pots and carry the things.”

Burks also has a corps of volunteers who help out in exchange for free Jazz Fest tickets, including a couple returning this year from Paris, France, for yet another tour of duty. “Seeing the same people is so much fun,” she said.

Those “same people” include her fellow vendors, especially those from Food Area 1. The kickoff organizational meeting each year is like an extended family reunion, with hugs abounding as Jazz Fest perennials like Creole sausage prince Vance Vaucresson, Angelo Brocato’s owner Arthur Brocato, spinach-artichoke casserole purveyor Peggy Miranda, and Jamaican chef Cecil Palmer all reappear. “I still know everyone we started with,” Burks said. “ We run into each other occasionally at other times during the year. But for the most part, we see each other here, and it’s like old home week.”

1993: “The Fair Grounds in Flames”

Burks had the business swinging effortlessly along like a crack jazz band — until tragedy struck. On Dec. 17, 1993, a seven-alarm fire destroyed the Fair Grounds’ historic clubhouse. Burks remembers exactly where she was the moment she learned the devastating news. And appropriately enough, red beans were involved.

“I was eating red beans at the St. Charles Tavern when I looked up at the TV and saw the Fair Grounds in flames and I thought that was it,” she recalled. “Where are we going to have the festival now? It’s all over. … I thought they’d never pull it together in time for the festival the next year but they did. They didn’t miss a beat. They put all that tent stuff together and kept on going.”

The cavernous kitchen in the original building, with its massive pots and walk-in coolers and freezers, had been essential to Burks’ cooking operations. The clubhouse and its kitchen eventually were rebuilt and reopened in 1997, but for a few lean years Burks and her crew had to rough it. “It’s such a fancy kitchen since they rebuilt after the fire,” she told The Times-Picayune. “And such an improvement on how we’ve had to do it for the past few years. We’ve worked out at Delgado (Community College) and had to truck the stuff over to the grounds, and for a couple of years we worked in a tent. This is better.”

Morris Douglas

Post-Katrina Jazz Fest: “We Pulled it Together”

Things were better until Aug. 29, 2005, when the federal levees failed during Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans flooded. As a resident of Uptown’s “sliver by the river,” Burks mostly escaped the physical devastation inflicted on other parts of the city. And like most locals, she was determined to go on, and that meant firing up the city’s most beloved comfort food once again at the Fair Grounds.

“My thought about it was there’s probably not going to be a lot of people when we came back from Atlanta; there were a lot of people not here. And there are not going to be a lot of people who can work for us. But no matter what, I’m going to open even if we don’t have any customers. If the festival goes on, we’re going on too. It’s important that we do that. Whatever we could do to try to resume a life here was something that I wanted to do. We pulled it together and went back at it.”

“The crowds were small the first year after Katrina. That was really interesting going to see a lot of — the crowds were so small that I could go and actually hear music — and so I went out with a friend and listened to the Bruce Springsteen concert. And what was amazing was that you could stand in front of the Acura Stage without touching anybody. Put your arms out [like this] and there would be space all around you because there weren’t that many people. Never got to do that again.”

“I’m Going to Stay as Long as They’ll Let Me”

Like a good pot of red beans, Burks just improves with age. Asked how long she plans to keep on stirring the pot, Burks insists she still gets a thrill from the annual ritual.

“I don’t feel like quitting,” she asserted. “I really don’t. And the fact that my partner used to be my student means that he’s younger than me, and he’s still cooking. So we haven’t talked about quitting. And then he has his nephew, Pam’s son, working out in the booth a lot, so we just keep using younger people to do harder things. I guess I’m going to stay as long as they’ll let me because I enjoy it. It’s sort of like an essential part of my life at this point. This is year No. 50, so even though it’s just a couple of weeks of the year, it’s a touchstone throughout those years.”

Pressure Cooker Beans Save the Day

Everybody loves a pot of red beans slow simmered on the stove, but sometimes modern life just doesn’t allow for enough time to do it the traditional way – which is when a pressure cooker can save the day. Due to the intense heat and pressure, your red beans will come out as tender and flavorful as if you had spent all day cooking them – and allow you to reduce your cooking time to as little as 30 minutes!

Perfect for dry beans.

Pressure cookers have been around for decades, but modern technology has made them faster and safer than ever before. With today’s cookers, you can create a nutritious meal from scratch in under half an hour, in many cases. Dry beans are particularly well suited to the pressure cooker. Typically requiring a low and slow cooking method of several hours, cooking beans in a pressure cooker reduces the time in the kitchen – including active prep and passive cooking – to less than 30 minutes. Pressure cookers employ water or another cooking liquid to cook food quickly in a sealed vessel. Pressure is created initially by boiling the liquid inside the closed pressure cooker. The trapped steam then increases the internal pressure and temperature. Foods cook quickly, saving both time and energy.

Not your mother’s model – modern pressure cookers are much safer and easy to use.

Many families have horror stories associated with early pressure cookers, which were equipped with only a primary safety valve and risked explosion from food blocking the release valve. Stories of the kitchen ceiling taking a bath in the hot juice of a Sunday pot roast were all too common. Thankfully, modern-day pressure cookers – whether stovetop or electric – typically have two or three redundant safety valves and additional safety features, such as an interlock lid that prevents the user from opening the cooker when the internal pressure exceeds atmospheric pressure. This prevents accidents from a sudden release of hot liquid, steam, and food. If safety mechanisms are not correctly in place, modern cookers will not pressurize the contents. However, there are a few rules one should always follow, whether working with a stovetop pressure cooker or an electric countertop appliance.

Tips for cooking beans in pressure cookers:

1. Pressure cookers should be operated only after reading the instruction manual to ensure correct usage.

2. A pressure cooker should never be filled more than two-thirds full with solid food, or half full for liquids and foods such as beans that foam and froth. Add enough water, or flavoring liquid, to cover beans by up to 2 inches, but do not exceed the half fill rule.

3. Beans should be soaked at least 4 hours before cooking. Rinse the soaked beans before pressure cooking. If you forget to soak beans in advance, use the quick-soak method: Cover washed and sorted beans with water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil 3 minutes. Turn off heat and let sit for 1 hour before proceeding with the recipe.

4. Do not skip the oil! The oil prevents the beans from foaming and clogging the steam vent of the pressure cooker.

5. Taste and adjust seasoning, adding salt, pickled condiments, and acidic ingredients such as tomato-based products, citrus, or vinegars, after the beans are cooked.

6. If working with a stovetop cooker, water may be run over the pressure cooker (use heavy oven mitts to lift the cooker into the sink) to aid in dropping the temperature and reducing the pressure within the cooker. Run cold tap water slowly over the edge of the pressure cooker lid, being careful to avoid the steam vent or any other valves or outlets. (Never immerse the pressure cooker under water.) This cooling method is best for foods with short cooking times, such as beans. It takes about 20 seconds for the cooker to cool down enough to lower the pressure so that it can be safely opened. This method is not suitable for electric pressure cookers, which should never be placed in water.

Quick & Easy Pressure Cooker Creole White Beans with Shrimp

Pressure Cooker Red Beans with Tasso and Cajun Spice

This recipe has been our family favorite for over 70 years. My mom would make these red beans every Monday, just like most New Orleanians do. I have probably given out this red bean crock pot recipe dozens of times. It’s pretty traditional. When I worked at Popeyes’ corporate in New Orleans, we put together an employee cookbook and my recipe was included. And when I moved to Houston and I worked for NATCO we put out an employee cookbook and I got emails of many people who loved this recipe.

If it’s Monday in New Orleans, then there are thousands of households and restaurants with a big pot of red beans simmering on the stove. There are as many recipes for red beans as there are for gumbo. This one is my family favorites, based off of a common New Orleans recipe with a few changes my family made. My wife had never had real New Orleans red beans and rice until she had my recipe.

Barry Begault’s Slow Cooker Red Beans

Ingredients:

1 lb Camellia Red Beans
1 lb andouille sausage or good smoked sausage
1 lb pickled pork (pickle meat) (optional – except at my house)
1 large onion, chopped
1 large green bell pepper, chopped
1 whole garlic, minced – yeah, ya gotta have the garlic!
4 ribs of celery, chopped
3 bay large bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon cajun seasoning
1 8 oz. can of tomato sauce – gives it more body and taste
2 – 4 tablespoons olive oil

Directions:

The Night Before:

1. Cut pickled pork in 1 inch cubes and brown in 1 tsp. olive oil. Put in bowl for storage over night. Leave the pan drippings for the next step.

2. Sweat vegetables in the olive oil and pork drippings with a bay leaf. While the veggies are cooking, and there is plenty of water in the pan, deglaze the pan by scraping the brown deliciousness from the pickled pork from the bottom. If not using pickled port, sweat vegetables in 2 tablespoons of olive oil until almost dry. Season with 3 or four grinds of fresh black pepper, 1/2 tsp. of salt and 1 tsp. of Cajun seasoning or to taste.

3. Slice the Andouille or smoked sausage into 1/8 inch rounds and put in the bowl with the rest of the seasoning and pickle meat or smoked ham.

4. Put the sweated vegetables in the bowl covered, in fridge overnight. (with the pickled pork if using it)

5. Get out the crock pot. Wash beans in and remove any debris and bad beans. Put the beans in the crock pot and just cover with water. Stir in 1/2 tsp. of salt, 1 to 3 grinds of black pepper and a 1/2 tsp. of Cajun Seasoning, and place 1 bay leaf in the water. Do not soak for more than 10 hours.

The Next Morning:

1. Turn the crock pot on high. Get the bowl of vegetables and meat out of the fridge and put into the crock pot. Add the 8 oz. of tomato sauce and add water until up to the rim. Best to put the crock pot on a baking sheet with sides to catch the run over once the pot begins to boil.

2 .Cook on high for 4 – 6 hours, after which, reduce to low until the beans are tender. Keep water level near the top. Recycle the water that overflows onto the baking sheet.

3. Taste and adjust seasoning as desired.

4. Cook 2-2 1/2 cups of long grain rice. I like to have enough for leftovers – if there are any!

5. Serve over steaming white rice with French bread, or garlic bread, and a nice green salad. Serves about 6 to 8.

Well tomorrow is Monday. Which means it is Camellia red beans day. And as you can see I have just washed my Camellia red beans and I’m going to put them in the crock pot and fill it with water for tonight.
Tomorrow, I dump my vegetables and meat into the crock pot, turn it on early in the morning and by 2 or 3 maybe 4 o’clock the beans will be ready and the rice will be cooking!

Notes:

“If we don’t have pickle meat, we don’t do red beans.”

Pickle pork, or pickle meat is only available in Louisiana. Savoie and Richards puts it out and I like Savoie’s better. It can be ordered online from Cajun Grocer, but it’s expensive. Mostly the shipping. Order a dozen or so and it’s not too bad. Usually though, I just wait to go home, and get a dozen packs or so. Pickle pork is very lean pork that has been pickled. It was a way of preservation before refrigeration. Not to be confused with salted pork. My mother and both my grandmother’s used both sausage and pickled pork in their red beans.

“a pinch, dash, and a smidgen”

I have a little measuring spoon trio that measures a pinch, dash, and a smidgen. A pinch is between a dash and a smidgen, with a smidgen being the smallest measurement of the three.
Dash- 1/8 teaspoon
Pinch- 1/16 teaspoon
Smidgen- 1/32 teaspoon

“if the kids like it, they will continue the custom and you have another easy meal that feeds a lot!”

I don’t like to over season my food. I put enough seasoning to suit the taste of the person who least likes a lot of seasoning – just a slight after-burn. Then, I put the peppers in vinegar, and Cajun Seasoning on the table with the pepper and salt. You want it more seasoned, then you can do it your self at the table. I cook with what taste kids will eat; because if the kids like it, they will continue the custom and you have another easy meal that feeds a lot!

Louisiana Kitchen and Culture offers a unique view of the culinary culture and heritage of all of Louisiana. Susan said, “Chefs do a lot of writing for the magazine. Subscribers want to read about what inspires them in the kitchen, how they came to be a professional chef, all in their own voice rather than via a generic interview.”

Growing up 100 miles east of New Orleans, Susan knows great Southern cooking and how important the food is to everyone there. “Food is ingrained into our culture down here. We sit down to eat and, while critiquing what’s on our plate, we talk about what we had for dinner the previous night and what we’re going to eat for our next meal.”

She has a love for the culinary scene of New Orleans and Louisiana and it shows in her work with the magazine and in being an outspoken ambassador encouraging people from all over the country to visit Louisiana. She knows that even when you visit, a piece of you stays and a piece of Louisiana goes with you!  With Louisiana Kitchen & Culture Magazine you can continue to have the culture and heritage of this unique place sent right to your doorstep with excellent stories, wonderful recipes and great cooking tips no matter where you’re at.  If you love Creole and Cajun cooking, you’ll love this magazine!

I asked Susan, “How Do You Red Bean?”

1. Where’s your favorite place to order red beans and rice in New Orleans?
Coop’s on Decatur in the French Quarter. It’s a dive bar you’d never think to go into just passing by, but they make a mean pot of red beans and rice.

2. If you make your own, what do you put in it, anything different or unique? Do you use dried beans or canned beans?
Dried beans, Camellia brand specifically (the best, read the feature story on the company in the May/June 2014 issue of Louisiana Kitchen & Culture, order them shipped to you if your local grocery doesn’t carry the brand), and I soak them overnight. LK&C culinary media director and C.I.A.-trained chef David Gallent does not; it’s part of the ritual with me, though. I think the pre-soaked bean produces a creamier pot of beans. They need to cook low and slow, 3 to 4 hours. You’ll know they’re ready to go when the liquid in the pot turns into a natural, creamy gravy. My basic recipe is here, but I add ham hocks or a ham bone if possible.

Two summers ago, when hurricane Isaac was looming in the Gulf of Mexico, I took stock of my freezer to see what I could cook vs. lose in the inevitable power failure — I had all the makings for red beans, so I made a big batch the day before the storm was due. My husband made sure both propane tanks were full for our gas grill, and moved it under shelter. As it turned out, the storm stalled after the eye came ashore, and sat over us for 36 hours. Our power was out from Tuesday early until Sunday afternoon, and I ended up being cook for a lot of our neighbors. We stacked up ice chests in my kitchen and pooled our resources; Wednesday morning everyone brought over their breakfast items and we cooked breakfast on the grill. Those beans lasted for three days, and several neighbors declared them the best they’d ever had. What got everyone talking, though, was the spectacular Bolognese sauce I produced on the grill Saturday night; you can only hold a piece of beef in melting ice so long. I cooked the roast down in a couple of quarts of my red sauce that was also in the freezer, boiled some pasta, made garlic bread, and sautéed broccoli with garlic and lemon, all on the barbecue grill. The side burner was a lifesaver; my kitchen is (unfortunately) electric. No power in south Louisiana in August means we were miserably hot, and the food was pretty heavy, but we ate every bite.

3. What do you eat with your red beans? Chicken, pork chops, turkey, salads, or do you put enough in it that you don’t need anything else?
My beans are hearty enough that, served over hot steamed rice, all I add is a salad or a platter of sliced tomatoes and cucumbers.

4. Do you only eat red beans and rice on the traditional Monday or is any day of the week alright?
Growing up, red beans were served on Mondays in the school cafeteria, and my baby sitter made them on Mondays. Since I soak overnight and simmer on the stove for several hours, it’s generally a weekend recipe. I make a big batch always, because leftovers freeze beautifully in quart-sized freezer bags. Those are pulled out for a quick, delicious dinner any night I don’t feel like (or have time for) cooking.

5. What are you working on now? Do you have anything coming out soon?
We’re putting the finishing touches on the July/August edition of the magazine, and, believe it or not, are planning the holiday issue and 2015. I wanted a cold pickled shrimp and vegetable concoction for the cover of July/August, and Chef Scott Varnedoe of Restaurant I.P.O. in Baton Rouge developed a recipe for me. We shot it last week; I couldn’t stop eating it after we were done. I swear, it’s some of the best food I’ve put in my mouth in a long time. I’ve got a family reunion in a couple of weeks; my family is in for a treat.

This past weekend I judged the Louisiana Seafood Cookoff; ten chefs from around the state competed and produced some outstanding food. As usual, though, the simplest dish won; Chef Aaron Burgau made a crawfish pasta dish that took first place. As this year’s King of Louisiana Seafood, he will go on to compete in the Great American Seafood Cookoff that will take place the first weekend of August, here in New Orleans during the Louisiana Foodservice Expo.

The previous weekend, I took Chefs Cory Bahr (Cotton, Nonna, both in Monroe), Austin Kerzner (Redfish Grill, New Orleans), Jason Brady (Wine Country Bistro, Shreveport), and Dustie Latiolais (Crawfish Town USA, Henderson) to Lake Chicot in Chicot State Park. We “camped” in deluxe cabins on the lake, the chefs fished, various locals cooked local specialties featuring the region’s smoked meats, and the chefs did a crawfish boil and fish fry. We worked hard and played harder; that story will be in the Sept/Oct issue of LK&C.

You can find Louisiana Kitchen & Culture Magazine at Barnes & Noble, Hastings, and Books a Million nationally, and at select newsstands and grocery stores throughout the south. Or, order it online; while you’re there, sign up for the free email newsletter published every Thursday morning, with recipes.

This story originally appeared on Red Beans & Eric and was written by Eric Olsson

Cooking has always been a part of Robert Medina’s life.  Like most kids in the Crescent City, he grew up around some great cooks.  He wanted to be in the kitchen helping out as the meals were being prepared, carefully watching the steps needed to cook and put a great meal on the table for the family.

After serving in the Navy and attending college, Robert worked a series of jobs that left him unfulfilled.  He wanted more.  Following his father’s footsteps, he joined the New Orleans fire department.  On his first day of work, he entered the kitchen, there was an older guy cooking a pot of gumbo.  “He asked me how the gumbo smelled. It reminded me of the smell from my grandmother’s kitchen. All of those aromas wafting around made my mouth water. It rekindled something I had forgotten about, how much I enjoyed cooking.”

Robert was no stranger to eating meals in the firehouse, even before he joined the fire department.  His father, uncle, and brother, who were all firefighters, were also cooks.  He wanted to get back into the kitchen, and not just help, but to cook the meals to feed those in his engine house.  For 24 years, Robert was a New Orleans firefighter.  In that time, he honed his skills in the kitchen.  He says that, “To this day, I stick with the credo that if you can satisfy a firefighter’s palate, you can satisfy anyone’s.”

Since retiring, Robert needed something new to do.  He kept cooking, but this time, instead of for firefighters at the engine house, he cooked for friends, family events, and at tailgate parties.  Any excuse to cook, he did.  He decided to put his recipes together in a cookbook to share his knowledge of New Orleans-style cooking.  He released “If You Can’t Stand The Heat: A New Orleans Firefighters Cookbook” in 2011 by Tate Publishing.  In the book, he shows all the step-by-step instructions you need to take all the guess work out of cooking so you have an excellent NOLA-style meal no matter where your house, or firehouse, is.

Besides writing cookbooks and recipes for his website, he also has a book of poetry, “FREEFALL,”  available and offers a line of Creole spices called New Orleans Original Firehouse Flashover Creole Seasoning.  It’s a spice blend that he has perfected over the years while cooking at the fire department.  Firehouse Flashover Creole Seasoning is sold in select stores in New Orleans and throughout the Gulf Coast.

I asked Robert Medina, “How Do You Red Bean?”

1. Where’s your favorite place to order red beans and rice?
I usually don’t order red beans when I’m out. I make them at home and as terrible as it might sound, I like my own. Maybe because I can control what goes into them. I have eaten many plates of beans and rice over the years. I spent 24 years on the fire department in New Orleans so I have had the privilege of sampling numerous versions of the bean. Some great and some not so great. Amazing how such simple ingredients can turn out so differently. If I were pressed to come up with a restaurant, Copeland’s, Acme Oyster House and of course Popeye’s come to mind.

2. Do you put any unique ingredients in your pot of red beans? Do you prefer dried or canned beans?
I only use dry beans and only Camellia. I have tried many others and they just don’t stack up. I want to add flavor to the beans so I take smoked ham hocks and boil them in chicken stock until the meat begins to fall off the bone. I use that meat along with pickle meat and Andouille along with the smoke infused chicken stock instead of water. Then, the usual ingredients along with a little shot of Tabasco.

3. What do you eat with red beans and rice?
Usually warm French bread and butter. Back at the fire house we always served them with fried pork chops. And not little wimpy thin ones. Thick chops. Those guys could eat.

4. Do you only eat red beans and rice on traditional Mondays or any day of the week?
When I was a kid, my mom always served them up on Mondays. Tradition. Today, I just make them when we feel like eating them. Often I will make them and let them sit in the fridge for a day or two. Maybe it’s a trick of the brain but it seems that for some reason beans get better after they have had a chance for all of those flavors to get to know each other.

5. What are you currently working on?
Still doing the occasional book signing and cooking demos. The first book was called “If You Can’t Stand the Heat… A New Orleans Firefighters Cookbook”.  About half way done on the second one. It will be called “If You Can’t Stand the Heat… Second Alarm”. We are also in the process of getting our Firehouse Flashover Creole Seasoning into stores. At the end of the month our new product comes out. Also fire related. Firehouse Backdraft Butt & BBQ Rub. Also teaching classes for corporate groups. It keeps me busy.

For more information on Robert Medina, you can follow him on Facebook, Twitter @MedinaLite or his author page.  You can find more information on his cookbook, product line of Firehouse Flashover Creole Seasoning, and recipes on his website.

This story originally appeared on Red Beans & Eric and was written by Eric Olsson

With Panderina Soumas, it’s all about her heritage. In fact, in her company’s tag line for Soumas Heritage Creole Creations, she points out that, “It’s ALL in the history.” It’s been a quest for her to not only promote and cook the Creole ways that is her heritage, but to also educate others about the unique culture.

Panderina started Soumas Heritage Creole Creations as a way to honor her ancestors. The company produces prepackaged Creole food mixes with a nod to the past and influenced by African and Caribbean flavors. The name of the mixes reflect what is unique with the Creole culture and that of south Louisiana. For instance, there’s the “Hoodoo You Wanna Voodoo” dip, “Jumpin’ da Broom” jambalaya, “Knock Knock, WHO DAT” dip, and the “Creole Gombo” to name a few. The gumbo is spelled after the African term for okra, ki ngombo, while the jambalaya is named after slave wedding ceremonies.

It’s all in the history, and it’s all being honored by Panderina. She loves to spread the word of her heritage. So much so that she has a program called, Gumbo CULTURE. With this “creative and universal learning through unique resources and education” system, she shares what is unique and diverse about the Creole culture through stories about the cuisine, food, legends, and of course, the history.  She intends to have fun while raising interest in what is the gumbo pot of culture in Louisiana.

And if that’s not enough, Panderina also caters. She’ll bring the Creole culture right to your kitchen – as long as you’re within an appropriate distance. However, if you order one of her fine Creole mixes online, have her cater your event or meet Panderina at one of the many cooking events she attends, you’ll sense the pride she has in her work, along with a new, deep appreciation for her heritage.  She’s not just cooking from her own culinary experiences, she is also pulling from her mother’s, grandmother’s, and great-grandmother’s experiences – remember, it’s ALL in the history!

I asked Panderina Soumas, “How Do You Red Bean?”

1. Where’s your favorite place to order red beans and rice?
I reside in North Louisiana now, unfortunately I have not found a place yet that has that south Louisiana, cultural Creole kick with red beans and rice here. In this area, some, if not most, and certainly not all, will have red beans and rice on their menu, but it’s actually pinto beans! I STILL CAN’T GET OVER THAT! Anyway, I’ve had them, most were tasty and well prepared, but’s its a cultural thang!

There’s a corner store name “The Brown Derby”, Uptown around Claiborne Ave and also a place called “Dunbars.” There’s an older/mature lady who cooks the food there. I’d say she has the BEST red beans and rice in New Orleans. According to my cousin, Chef Edwardo Soumas, if he’s not cooking them himself, he prefers hers. “I think she put her feet on the pot or somethin’.”

It’s the Mom~n~Pop places that have the BEST cultural cuisine. The big name, tourist marketed attractions are okay, but they are focused on “gourmet”, making it fancy and charging an arm, a leg and a couple of toes for that tourism dollar.

2. Do you put any unique ingredients in your pot of red beans? Do you prefer dried or canned beans?
Dried beans mostly. On quick/lazy occasions, I’ll pray and ask forgiveness from the Red Bean Gods and use a good canned version and doctor them up so much you really can’t tell. I just put the can way at the bottom of the trash can!

I use a lot of garlic and onions, especially garlic! When putting in my bell pepper, I use it all – seeds and stem. The stem can be taken out before eating, the seeds will just cook in the stock, you won’t even see them but they’re packed with flavor! I also use a lot of celery, all the leaves and that bottom part that most people throw away.  Wash it well, chop it up and throw it in.

I use several bay leaves. Most folks just use 1 or 2, I use 4 or 5.  Also, sometime to enhance the flavor, I’ll sprinkle a small amount of File’ powder and maybe a “careful drop” of liquid crab boil.  But know with those ingredients, use just a bit, they’re both very strong condiments. If used too much, it can ruin the red beans.

3. What do you eat with red beans and rice?
Mostly just sausage. On rare occasions I may have a few fried chicken wings with it!

4. Do you only eat red beans and rice on traditional Mondays or any day of the week?
I eat them any day of the week, I LOVE `EM! But mostly prepare a fresh pot on Mondays!

5. What does red beans and rice mean to you?
Oh my. A TREAUX remembrance of my New Orleans Creole Heritage! I remember hearing my great-grandmother in the kitchen early on Monday mornings sorting them out, choppin’ and dicin’ all the trinity, washin’ her pickled meat. Maybe cleaning off a ham bone from Sunday dinna’ and maybe dicin’ some sausage. My grandfather loved fried or smothered pork chops with his. All this as well as with my own mother {cooking red beans} in our family kitchen.

To order any of Soumas Heritage Creole Creations products, her cookbook, or for more information on catering, visit Panderina Soumas’ website at Soumas Heritage Creole Creations.  You can also find her on Twitter @thecreolelady and on Facebook.

This story originally appeared on Red Beans & Eric and was written by Eric Olsson

Anthony Scanio started out wanting to be an English teacher. But his love of New Orleans culture and cuisine guided him in a different direction. He enrolled in a college culinary arts program and began a career that took him from the Crescent City, through Italy, then back to the city he says he has a “love affair” with.

Anthony studied under James Beard award-winning chefs Donald Link and Stephen Stryjewski before finding a home with Emeril Lagasse at Emeril’s Delmonico. He started as a line cook in 2005, was promoted to sous chef in 2006, and then executive sous chef in 2009. Now, as the Chef de Cuisine, Anthony runs the kitchen and plenty of the behind the scene tasks that keep the restaurant one of the top food destinations in New Orleans.

Emeril’s Delmonico is a Creole-inspired restaurant in the Lower Garden District. It bases its food on a fresh, clean, ingredient-based approach to cooking while keeping the Creole heritage the focal point. As a life-long resident of New Orleans, Anthony has tapped into that knowledge of traditional old world Creole dishes but has added new modern touches, keeping the menu fresh and highly rated. His love for New Orleans and Creole cooking shines through in his work, and the customers of Delmonico love it!

I asked Anthony Scanio, “How Do You Red Bean?”

1. Where’s your favorite place to order red beans and rice?
My house or Monday staff meals here at Delmonico. I can’t recall the last time I ordered red beans and rice out at a restaurant. Ironically, as a chef I don’t get to eat out very often. As a kid growing up in Arabi, Popeye’s fried chicken was always accompanied by some red beans and rice. More than likely some dirty rice, too! Nevertheless, red beans seem like one of those quintessential home-style Creole dishes best enjoyed at home amongst family and friends. You know, “Come on over, I got a pot of beans on.” Of course, there are exceptions. At Delmonico, we offer a variation where the beans and rice are cooked together congri style. Essentially it is our version of the conrgi oriental served in eastern Cuba or the rice and peas of Haiti. In fact, our New Orleans red beans and rice probably descended from these versions via the Saint Domingue diaspora of the early 19th century. We naturally serve our congri with a pork chop. New Orleans pork chop and red beans and rice with a twist!

2. Do you put any unique ingredients in your pot of red beans? Do you prefer dried or canned beans?
Well, as I see it, if you’re using canned beans you ain’t making red beans. Now, on the other hand, at home I’m not opposed to using frozen bags of pre-cut trinity or Creole seasoning as you’ll see it labeled at the grocery store. (I’ve also been known to use frozen pre-cut okra at home for a pot of gumbo.)

As far as seasoning meat is concerned, the leftover ham bone is kind of legendary, almost mythical. I usually don’t have hambones lying around even if the flavor and creaminess they produce is indeed wonderful. Instead, I do like I learned from my mother and throw some smoked ham hocks into the pot. And like my Mama, I enjoy the fatty bits off the hock the best! So we have our smoke and our fat, but we still need some acidity, some vinegar. In short, I like to add some New Orleans style pickle meat to the pot as well. Finally, in addition to the usual seasonings such as thyme, bay leaf and cayenne, I like to add a little, just a dash really, of allspice to the pot. Not enough to taste but enough so that you know there’s a little something going on there.

3. What do you eat with red beans and rice?
I made a pot of red beans at the house last night. Red beans and rice and some French bread. Simple, perfect, inexpensive, delicious. That’s one of the great things about red beans and rice is that it is available to and enjoyed by everyone, rich or poor. Of course, red beans and rice are a staple at New Orleans get-togethers; surely, fried chicken or pork chops or some chaurice sausage are more than likely to be part of the pot luck. Likewise, lunching at a neighborhood café, it would be nice to accompany your red beans and rice with a pork chop or chaurice on the side. At Delmonico, you get your red bean and rice congri with a pork chop, baked bananas and a little rum jus.

4. Do you only eat red beans and rice on traditional Mondays or any day of the week?
Any day of the week is fine although with my schedule, Mondays and the occasional Sunday seem to be when I eat them. It is especially nice though to enjoy them on Mondays and participate in the time honored rhythms of the city.

You can find Chef Anthony Scanio at Emeril’s Delmonico, located at 1300 St. Charles Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70130, or by phone (504) 525 4937.  For additional restaurant information and a complete look at the menu, visit their website!

This story originally appeared on Red Beans & Eric and was written by Eric Olsson

Camellia food shoot on 10/10/18 and 10/11/18. Photo by Ryan Hodgson-Rigsbee

Louisiana-style red kidney beans are typically cooked down in water or chicken or vegetable broth with sautéed onions, bell pepper, and celery (also known as “the Holy Trinity”) and garlic.

The cooking liquid is further flavored with herbs and spices that may include any combination of bay leaves, parsley, thyme, rosemary, basil, oregano, and cayenne and/or black peppers. Leftover or inexpensive cuts of meat, such as smoked ham, pickled pork, sausage or wild game, are often simmered with the beans to impart specific flavors. “Heat” spices are usually kept relatively tame, allowing the diner to personalize his or her serving to taste with condiments offered at the table.

Once that plate of red beans hits the table, it’s anything goes.

If you put red beans and rice in front of three different people from three different Louisiana families, you’ll see at least three different ways to dress up those beans before they take a bite.

Common tableside additions to the red beans and rice dish include hot pepper sauce, sliced green onions, chow-chow (a mustard and pickle relish), a big dollop of butter, ketchup, mayonnaise, pickled white onions, olive oil, and vinegar.

From Humble Origin to Holiday Favorite

The association of blackeye peas with prosperity and a new start can be traced to Western Europe in the Middle Ages, with the symbolic round shape of the dried beans signifying that the old year has been completed, and a new one can begin. Seeing the small dried beans expand in size as they absorbed the cooking liquid also came to symbolize expanding fortune in the coming year. And peas also resemble small coins.

Despite the centuries-old tradition in the Old World, American colonists originally rejected blackeye peas as beneath them. Prior to the Civil War, Northerners typically regarded the humble legume as suitable only as feed for livestock, while Southerners considered them a rough meal for field workers, as the beans were first introduced to the region by enslaved West Africans. When the Civil War finally ended, desperate and starving Southerners revised their opinion of the readily available and nutritious blackeye pea. Slow cooked with smoked ham hocks, or other “lowly” parts of the pig, pots of nutrient-rich blackeye peas literally saved the lives of many families, and that led to their inclusion into the Southern culinary canon, where they remain firmly entrenched and much beloved to this day, most notably as part of the New Year’s Day meal.

Southern Blackeye Peas

Blackeye Peas One Pot Meal Recipe

New Orleans Style Blackeye Peas Recipe

Hoppin’ John Recipe

Blackeyed Peas-and Spinach Recipe

Pork, Collards and Black Eye Pea Gumbo Recipe

Any Way You Slice It, Pork Adds a Beloved Flavor to Peas and Greens.

In the early 1540s Hernando de Soto and his men traversed the Gulf Coast and officially introduced fifteen hogs to the American South. At the time, the consumption of pork was a Christian duty for every Spanish-speaking Catholic. In fact, during the Spanish Inquisition, it became obligatory to have pork simmering in a cauldron or chorizo sausages hanging from the rafters as proof of the household’s faith.

Pork is considered lucky to eat on New Year’s Day in many cultures. The association was formed centuries ago in Europe when wild boars were caught and killed on the first day of the year – providing the family food for months to follow. Additionally, a pig uses its snout to dig in the ground in a forward direction – symbolizing positive momentum. Strengthening the association of plenty in America, on most farms the first cold snap signified that it was time for the annual hog slaughter. Neighbors gathered to pitch in at each house, and livers, cracklins, and chitterlings were enjoyed immediately. The hog fat was boiled and rendered into lard, and all scraps of meat were ground up for sausages. Sides of bacon, hog jowls, shoulders, and hams were cured in salt for weeks before they were hung in the smokehouse along with sausages, ham hocks, and knuckles. Every part of the hog was used, providing an abundance of pork in the larder for the following year.

Pork is an essential flavoring ingredient in blackeye peas and greens, adding a smoky, rich flavor that gives these tradional dishes their soul-satisfying staying power.

Easy Pan Fried Pork Chops

Braised Collard Greens Recipe

Pork, Collards and Black Eye Pea Gumbo Recipe

Greens for Greenbacks

In the American South, greens are a favorite side dish all year, but especially prized as part of part of the New Year’s Day meal. The symbolism is straightforward: greens — whether collard, turnip, mustard, or cabbage, represent paper dollars or “greenbacks.” Greens are typically flavored with ham hocks, salt pork, or sausage – both because those parts of the pig are a frugal way to add a deep and smoky flavor, but also because pigs root forward when foraging, symbolizing positive momentum for the new year. The slow and low cooking method brings out the rich and mouth-watering pork flavor and the tender texture of southern-style greens.

The southern style of cooking of greens originated with the arrival of African slaves to the colonies, and can be traced back to the resourceful cooks who discovered that slow cooking greens and seasoning them with various cuts of smoked pork resulted in a delicious and hearty dish that appears on family tables all over the south today.

Southern Collard Greens

Braised Collard Greens Recipe

Ana’s Brazilian Style Collard Greens Recipe