Can there be such a thing? This is America! Why not!
As you guys know, we are big soup eaters at our house. You probably also know there has been no better weather the past week or two for eating soup than we have experienced. Of course, you can't eat it unless someone makes it.
Folks have been making soup for a long
time. As little whippersnappers, we sang the old rhyme, “Peas
porridge hot. Peas porridge cold. Peas porridge in the pot, nine days
old.” I think chanting it may have allowed the girls to keep time
as they did jump roping stuff, but I could be wrong. There are a few
things the rhyme tells us. Number one is there are many things you
can call soup, other than soup. It can be porridge, broth, consommé,
stew, goulash, bisque, chowder, gumbo, pottage, borscht, and many
more that these. Number two is vegetables are a nice/cheap addition.
I make soup with ingredient lists that are strictly followed, and I
make soups that are mostly intended to empty the refrigerator of
leftovers. Number three? Cold soups are gazpachos, vichyssoise, and
several I can't spell or pronounce properly. Hot soups are just that,
either from the fire or a viscous mixture of spices. As the jump rope
rhyme writer wants us to believe, back in the days when folks died at
a young age from food poisoning, the pot of pea soup might sit on the
hearth, close to the fire for quite a while, under the belief, if you
can make it past the smell, it must still be OK to eat, even after
nine days.
I am a member of the group that believes soups and
gumbo are always better the second day, but I prefer my pot of soup
to be stored in the refrigerator, or freezer to slow undesirable
microbial growth. I blame this food-safe storage opinion on good old
Dr. Michelson PhD, my first microbiology professor. Dr. Mick was fond
of keeping a case of Jax Beer in the trunk of his '68 Mustang on the
parking lot behind Harned Hall at MSU. Even on afternoons when the
temperature might hit 100-102 degrees F, Dr. Mick could be found
propped against the trunk of his wheels drinking a hot Jax Beer at
3:00, just before he made himself available for needy students and
office hours. In his opinion, there was no soup better than the one
in a Jax Beer can.
All nations have their favorite soups, maybe French onion, English Cod, German sausage, Russian Beet, Tex-Mex Taco, Classic Mexican Pozole Rojo, Italian Minestrone, Swedish Artsoppa, Zambian Egusi, or Cajun or Creole Gumbo.
With this in mind, I recently decided to upset lots of folks by making a Cajun/Creole inspired Red Bean Soup. Is it different from straight Red Beans and Rice? Probably not a lot, but it is my soup and can be whatever I want to call it. We like it and enjoyed the pot I made for two days and then put a container in the freezer for use on a night when cooking was the last thing we wanted to do.
Here is how I made my Red Bean Soup
Ingredients:
1 Cup Dried Red Beans
1 1/2 cups (4
ounces) Country Smoked Sausage
1 small onion Onion
1 stalk
Celery
1/2 cup Green Bell Pepper
1 can Diced Tomatoes
1
teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper
1 Tablespoon Brown
Sugar
2 teaspoons Cumin
2 teaspoons Herbes de Provence
2
teaspoons Garlic Salt
2 teaspoons Slap Ya Momma Cajun
Seasoning
1/2 teaspoon Liquid Crab Boil
1 teaspoon Liquid
Smoke
1 Tablespoon Chicken broth paste
1/4 cup Basmati
Rice
Directions:
Dice onions, celery, green
pepper. Rinse 6-8 ounces of dried Red Beans and check for
sticks and stones.
Dice sausage into 1/2 inch pieces
Cook sausage in your soup pot. Cook
using medium high heat until slightly crusty.
Add trinity (diced onion, celery and green pepper) and continue cooking until tender
Add seasonings
Mix chicken broth paste in 4 cups hot
water
Add broth to pot, then tomatoes, red beans, and brown sugar. Bring to a slow boil.
I actually forgot to add my Green Bell Pepper to the trinity, so I added it after adding the red beans and liquid to the pot. Doing a late addition makes no real difference in the soup when all is done.
I also added a teaspoon of liquid smoke to the pot (Not shown), because I like the slightly smoky taste. Cook slowly for 2 – 3 hours, until beans are very tender.
When the beans are soft, add the rice and cook at a simmer for 15-20 minutes with a lid to cook the rice. Serve with Cornbread crumbled in the bowl or as a side.
Enjoy
Thanks for looking at my post.
God
Bless you.
10 comments:
Maters in beans? Get you in trouble in Gentilly
I love bean soups and this one looks very tasty.
Yesterday I discovered I had 5 Idaho potatoes starting to sprout so I made baked potato soup with them. I baked the potatoes instead of cooking them in liquid because I was lazy and didn't want to peel and chop 'em. Served the soup with bacon, extra cheese, and dollop of sour cream for dinner. That's the beauty of making free-range soup - just round up whatever is on hand and turn it into soup. I jokingly tell my Yankee relatives that we southerners can turn anything into a delicious soup or casserole.
I just read the NYT republication of Paul Prudhomme's chicken and sausage gumbo recipe and the comments debating the proper way to use file powder. Got me to thinking about making my own file powder with the leaves of the big old sassafras tree in the backyard. I'm going to do that this spring for the heck of it.
What say you, Chef Bear? Do you add file while cooking a gumbo or only as a condiment when serving gumbo?
Looks like a good choice for the next cold weekend. I like the Freudian misspelling “Rad Bean.”
Looks delicious -- think I'll give it a try! Thanks!!
Get the Beano ready!
Cumin should be fresh ground from seed, easily done with an old, cheap coffee bean grinder. The flavor is immensely improved.
8:21 I have a bottle of file in the cabinet. I only add it to gumbo after it is in the bowl, or rather I place it on the table, alongside a bottle of LA Gold hot sauce for anyone who might want to use it. I hardly ever use any, since I like my gumbo just fine as it comes from the pot. Side Comment - I am guarding my several bottle of LA Gold hot sauce, since the good folks who made it have gone out of business (I think). Not sure what I will do when my stash is gone, since no two brands taste the same and I really like LA Gold. Oh well, I have been forced to make other, similar, decisions in the past and will probably survive the days after using the last few drops out of the last bottle in the pantry. When I die, which could be anytime because I am an old geezer, I will probably leave the remaining bottles to my youngest son, who will happily take any I have left, along with my marble collection, that is probably worth $14.37 on the retail market.
OOPs! I stopped too soon. Don't hate me, but the Taco Bell sauce in the little foil packs is pretty good stuff. NO where close to LA Gold, but I like the way it tastes just fine on a Taco, and maybe in a bowl of gumbo. I'll try that and let you guys know. First, I need to make a pilgrimage to Taco Bell and ask for a couple of extra sauce packs with my Mex-Pizza and 2 Tacos combo meal.
I'm 8:21. Totally agree that if file is used, it should be used after the gumbo is cooked.
I love that LA Gold, too, and I'm hooked on Pickapeppa Sauce which is hard to find. I buy several bottles whenever I can find it.
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