Beans and rice convert!

[Jenise]

Last night, a friend served beans and rice for dinner and it was wonderfully good. This is a dish I haven't liked in New Orleans; didn't hate it either, but it was so uncompelling I'd have never sought it out again. Most likely, looking back and comparing last night's, both rice and beans were somewhat overcooked, and the beans were rather bland. Renee's version was very very well seasoned and featured andouille sausage and both red and black beans, the latter of which stayed more toothsome and provided excellent texture I'd miss if they weren't there. Her rice was also quite well made, with denser more compact grains than you get from the typical 2:1 water to rice ratio espoused in typical American rice cookery. I tasted the beans both with and without the rice, and have to say to my surprise I liked the bites with rice the best!

Another nice touch was the cool romaine salad that she served alongside, with a kind of tangy caesar-like dressing but made especially flavorful and attractive by the addition of thinly sliced (unpeeled) fresh lemons tossed amid the greens. A very nice touch. With a young rich red wine from California's Amador wine region, it was a splendid meal with good attention to detail, the kind that makes great food look easy.

And I could eat it all over again tonight.

Well, I must say that I have never had lemon slices tossed in a green salad. Did you eat them or were they there to flavor the salad and add color? Were they Meyer or Eureka lemons? I use lots of lemons, especially this time of year when I am cooking with lemons from our tree. I discovered roasted lemons last year...what a great flavor.

Beans and rice if done badly can be absolutely awful - mushy without any texture and really bland flavours.
I loved the beans and rice sides I'd get in some of the cheaper Trinidadian or Jamaican restaurants in south Chicago when I lived there - flavourful, really great textures (with both red and black beans), and perfect with a good amount of jerk chicken on top of it.

Dal and pullao, mmmmmmm.

It's in the book.

People really don't read cookbooks, do they? They just buy them - sometimes.

I love red beans and rice, Jenise! But there's more badly made than the good stuff, that's for sure. Your neighbor's sounds great.

That lemon thing: I've seen that once before, to amazing results. A group of us were on a trip to northern Italy and we boated out to Isola Comacina, a small island in Lake Como, to have a group dinner.

The first course was a half tomato, sliced side up, with a thin mandoline of lemon---as you said, peel and all---a little oil, a sprinkle of sea salt, and a minute sprinkle of herbs, all on a small bed of fresh greens. Most of us, assuming the lemon was garnish, somewhat akin to the ubiquitous parsley snip on American plates, began to take the lemon slice off. This slice, by the way, was the thinnest, sheerest mandoline I've ever seen, positively translucent. No, no, the waiter assured us: the lemon was very much a part of the dish!

It was wonderful. Transcendental. Just a brief flash of lemon purity, an even briefer zip of pithy bitterness, mingled together with the oil, the salt, the herbs, then the flood of tomato-ness. Incredible. I can remember it to this day, quite vividly.

After Jenise's post, I went to my lemon stash and found a small lemon. Using my mandolin to slice off paper thin slices, then adding them to my salad greens I already had in the refer for tonights dinner side. Oh, how I loved that! It will be a regular on my table when we have our fresh lemons. Brilliant!

With Meyer lemons, it's a slam dunk.

I don't think I can remember having a bad example of beans and rice.

One of the most interesting examples is "Moros y Cristianos" -- "Daisy Cooks" has a nice presentation with a ring of white rice surrounding "lava" of black beans. It is something really delicious.

http://globalveggie.files.wordpress.com ... h-rice.jpg

It was wonderful. Transcendental. Just a brief flash of lemon purity, an even briefer zip of pithy bitterness, mingled together with the oil, the salt, the herbs, then the flood of tomato-ness. Incredible. I can remember it to this day, quite vividly.

How terribly Emersonian.

My most recent rice and beans meal would have been risotto with white beans, rosemary and tomato from Biba Caggiano. One of my faves.

My most recent rice and beans meal would have been risotto with white beans, rosemary and tomato from Biba Caggiano. One of my faves.

How funny. I recently was doing one of those refrigerator cleanout meals. In this corner, we had a container of leftover risotto Milanese. In that corner, were some prepared garlicky white beans.
I threw them both in a skillet, moistened with just a touch of broth, mixed in some chopped up tomato for color, and viola! Dinner.
I guess I'm on Biba's wavelength.

[Jenise]

People really don't read cookbooks, do they? They just buy them - sometimes.

Do you have to take everything so personally? I have your book AND I read it. Doesn't mean I was tempted to make beans and rice based on the dish as I had it several times in Nawlins.

[Jenise]

My most recent rice and beans meal would have been risotto with white beans, rosemary and tomato from Biba Caggiano. One of my faves.

I'd have tried to choke that down.

Speaking of beans and rice, in the store last week I saw a rice mix with butter beans from the Tony's Cach----- spice people. Made me wonder if that's just some one-off idea of theirs or if that's also a popular bean/rice dish in the south.

[Jenise]

After Jenise's post, I went to my lemon stash and found a small lemon. Using my mandolin to slice off paper thin slices, then adding them to my salad greens I already had in the refer for tonights dinner side. Oh, how I loved that! It will be a regular on my table when we have our fresh lemons. Brilliant!

You worked it out! Lovely and surprising, isn't it? To answer your earlier question, though, Renee's lemon had the pale color of a Eureka, but it was nicely sweet. I think they picked it off their new property in Arizona a few weeks ago.

[Jenise]

One of the most interesting examples is "Moros y Cristianos" -- "Daisy Cooks" has a nice presentation with a ring of white rice surrounding "lava" of black beans. It is something really delicious.

It's one of those interesting Spanish dishes from the time when Southeast Spain was ruled by the Moors, isn't it? Now that you mention it, I did have it there in one of the towns that has a beautiful, huge Islamic mosque dating from that period that has been interestingly converted to Catholic use--Cordoba? There, of course, it tasted wonderful and didn't present me with the textural issues that the Louisiana specialty had.

One of the most interesting examples is "Moros y Cristianos" -- "Daisy Cooks" has a nice presentation with a ring of white rice surrounding "lava" of black beans. It is something really delicious.

It's one of those interesting Spanish dishes from the time when Southeast Spain was ruled by the Moors, isn't it? Now that you mention it, I did have it there in one of the towns that has a beautiful, huge Islamic mosque dating from that period that has been interestingly converted to Catholic use--Cordoba? There, of course, it tasted wonderful and didn't present me with the textural issues that the Louisiana specialty had.

Jenise, you are both right and wrong here. As I was using it, this is the national dish of Cuba and a very new world thing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platillo_M ... Cristianos

As you were using it, it is both a historical event and a series of festivals in Spain commemorating that event

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moros_y_cristianos

Daisy Fuentes is Puerto Rican and on her TV show, when she presented something outside her personal ethnic tradition she would always highlight that, "A Mexican friend showed me this" or "A Cuban friend served this to me and I loved it!" This recipe was from "a Cuban friend."

I think the building you were describing is the Alhambra. Lots of moorish influence down in southern Spain...

Frank