I Love New Orleans! I even wrote a love poem (I won’t bore you with it) for her after the storm of Katrina left her in rags. I know she will rise again because she has a huge heart and the soul of an ageless survivor!

There are a few cities I have visited that have had a certain rhythm all their own, where the very air  thrums with a hidden heartbeat and a strange perfume that is a mix of the city’s age, culture and vitality stirs the senses. For me, New Orleans is the Queen- the Grand Dame of this certain “je ne sais quoi!”

In celebration of the biggest party of them all tonight- Mardi Gras in the pearl on the crescent I give you  Rick and Gabi’s Red Beans and Rice.

Rick and I spent an afternoon last week in the kitchen together making Red Beans and Rice. We love this dish and had been anticipating making it for a while. We froze the ham-bone from our Hickory smoked Christmas ham and waited. (When I originally baked the ham on Christmas day I used a Bourbon, dry mustard and brown sugar glaze. It was succulent!) And- we left a relatively large amount of meat on the bone just for this dish.

For a little atmosphere, we threw on some Squirrel Nut Zippers -“Hot“,

an absolutely smokin’ foot stompin’ album (I particularly love the songs “Blue Angel” and “Hell” )and then we went another direction (but no less hot) with Harry Connick Jr.’s new album “Oh, my Nola”.

The Squirrel Nut Zippers are a Delta Jazz band out of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and of course Harry Connick, Jr.is my personal favorite native son of New Orleans, Louisiana.

So, go on, throw on some tunes and cook up a big ole pot of this just for the love of it! AND while you’re at it give a little consideration to making a donation to help New Orleans recover- there is still much to do. Here’s a list of agencies that are still helping there. Or donate to Make it Right a fund to rebuild housing for those who lost everything.

Red Beans and Rice – our style

• one large ham bone from a smoked and glazed ham with plenty of meat left on it
• one pound Andouille sausage, sliced (D’Artagnan‘s is good)
• one large ham steak (about a pound), cubed in 1/4″ cubes
• 2 Tablespoons bacon grease (keep a jar in your freezer and you won’t be sorry)
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1-1/2lbs red beans, cooked until tender and drained- or you could use 4 -14oz cans of organic red beans, drained and rinsed if you’re in a huge hurry
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 large green bell pepper, diced
• 4 ribs of celery, diced
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce- (I like the Chipotle smoked version)
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• water or chicken stock to cover
• salt and pepper and a little cayenne pepper to taste
• Cooked white fluffy rice or even sticky rice to serve

In a 6qt or larger heavy bottomed pot, sauté the “holy trinity” of onion, pepper and celery until they are translucent and cooked through. Add the garlic and cook until it is soft, being careful not to burn it. In a cast-iron skillet or other heavy pan, melt  2 Tablespoons of bacon grease and 2 Tablespoons of olive oil. Add the ham steak and Andouille sausage. Fry until the juices start to caramelize a bit and you get some browning. Add the meat to the vegetables and then the red beans, bay leaves and Tabasco and Worcestershire sauces. Cover with water or chicken stock and add the ham bone. Bring it all to the boil and then either transfer to a crockpot on high heat for a few hours or lower the heat to a low simmer and make sure you stir fairly frequently so it doesn’t scorch on the bottom. It will thicken just slightly as it cooks. Remove the ham-bone and pull the meat off of it into the pot. Serve over white rice to soak up all the gravy. MMMM.

So let the good times roll-again! With love!

xoxo