Arkansas Blog

Lissen, Big'un, the vat of RB&R I cooked last week from your recipe turned out GREAT! I made such a huge amount the little woman and I dined in fine style on it for two nights. It was even better the second night. I used andouille and added a giant glob of Panola Sauce to my serving to complement your prescribed amounts of cayenne and red pepper flakes.

Yum! Makes me want to go cook another vat.

Yum, Pitt Grill. I haven't thought of that place in ages. We'd go there to eat away our sorrows whenever my high school's football team got their ass served to them on platter by ASH. Which was every time we played ASH, as I recall.

After eating, we'd talk the school bus driver into spinning around the traffic circle a few times, because we thought it was so exotic and European. Only us rednecks could get so excited about unusual traffic patterns.

Thanks for the memories, Max!

P.S., Mackie, there's a great new band on the scene, name of Feufollet. Young people from the Eunice/Lafayette metroplex playing traditional Cajun music. They have a great version of your favorite song, "Drunkard's Dream."

You can find 'em on iTunes.

Um, recipe?...

ARK. BLOG: Two pounds Camellia brand red beans, if you can find them.

Two chopped onions.
About 10 cloves of minced garlic
A bunch of minced parsley
A chopped green pepper

A ham bone or ham hock or hog jowl. Some "pickle meat" if you live in New Orleans near Langenstein's Gro. and Mkt.
Some andouille if you don't.

Put beans, vegetables, ham bone and nine cups or so of water in pot along with couple teaspoons of salt, quarter teaspoon each of cayenne, red pepper flakes and black pepper, couple of bay leaves, half teaspoon of dried crushed thyme.

Hold out the andouille or hot sausage or smoked sausage links.

Bring water to boil, reduce heat, cover, cook until beans tender. Stir occasionally so they don't burn on bottom. Add water as needed, but you don't want it too soupy.

When it's time to eat, fry up the sausage in separate pan and then toss it in beanpot to cook with beans for 10 or 15 minutes.

You cook the rice separately, of course. I love Texmati because of the aromatic smell. But Cajuns like sticky medium grain rice, like Mahatma.

Serve with crisp french bread (Boulevard's heated does perfectly). And a green salad with a sharp vinaigrette dressing. Put the beans on the plate with the salad so a little of that vinegary taste blends in with the beans.

You may drink a Jax or 10 with this. Or a Dixie. Or a Falstaff. Or a Regal. to name some of the brews once made in the Crescent City. Or a Barq's rootbeer since Rex isn't available around here.

Don't forget to have a big bottle of Tabasco handy.

Panola, as Claude recommends, is also good on anything, including to drink as an elixir.

By God, Max, I remember that Pitt Grill in Alex. Cleanest restrooms in 50 miles.
Unfortunately, I once got stuck for two days on one of the traffic circles in that fine town. Sounds like UCA is going to have to pawn the football uniforms in order to keep the doors open.

ARK. BLOG: Yes, ttraffic circles at either end of MacArthur Drive. That was a big deal for us rubes from L.C., to drive through a traffic circle.

Man, Ya'll are sho nuff makin' me hongry!

Texmati ?

Is that Basmati rice grown in Texas? Long grain, fast cooking, smell of popcorn when done?

ARK. BLOG: That's it.

.

Anyone remember Lea's, just south of Alex on hi way to NOLA?? Best ham I ever ate.....
wrapped in a dough and slo baked, we always stopped at Mr. Lea's on trips to and fro......

by the way, south of Alex is when you leave the US and enter a foreign land.

GO BEARS!

But I have met several great McNeese fans/students/alumni in the past few years.

So I guess this makes our second Arkansas-Louisiana reciprocal trophy. I wonder if any states have more than two for intrastate college sports contests each year?

THIS IS AN EMERGENCY! Where do you find Falstaff? I thought it was extinct . . .

Doigotta, Falstaff is bye bye as is/was my fave, Schlitz.

Here ya go Max, and all cajuns and wanna be cajuns.

clicky

Darn, thought I'd been saved . . .
But I'm gonna try Max's recipe. (His dip recipe is a winner.)
Now I've seen that brand of beans somewhere . . . somewhere . . . some little hole-in-the-wall grocery store somewhere, I guess. With gas prices down and hubby aching to get out a bit, we can do a recon of the little towns around here.
Makes as much sense as some of our other boredom breaking expeditions. (No doubt about it, the man was not ready to retire.)
Saddle up, dear, we're prospectin' for red beans.

Red bean and rice notes:

1) You might need as much as 12 cups of water or more. Most people recommend soaking beans in water overnight, draining and then cooking. I don't find straight cooking makes much difference.

2) Camellia beans. Terry's in the Heights has them. Also, I understand K. Hall's produce on Wright Avenue has Camellia beans and many other food items peculiar to NO tastes, out of deference to the many Katrina refugees who relocated here permanently. I've been meaning to check the stock for some time. Maybe this week. And we'll report on Eat Arkansas. Belly Boy visited there long ago for one of their great greasy burgers.

Oh, Doigotta.....don't sweat it, if you've seen one red bean you've seen 'em all...BTW

before I moved to La. we called them kidney beans.

Me, I don't like 'em, find the skin too tough....I use pinto's when recipe calls for red.

What a coincidence, Jazzy, I was just thinking of Lea's today. I was catching up with the Tivo, watching True Blood. There was a restaurant on there that I'm sure was meant to be Lea's. How I loved a fresh ham sandwich and a slice of lemon icebox pie.

You got it Mean Girl....melt in your mouth ham sandwich, we always bought a pie to

take home....Mr. Lea went from table to table greeting everyone, except for the month

of august which he spent in Hawaii. He was an older gentleman then so I'm sure he has gone

on to that great resturant in the sky.

Wonder if his kids, g'kids carry on the business??? Worth a trip to Alex.

Hoo-boy, Jazzy, for only $25 you can have a pie delivered right to your door. Check the link -- seems to still be going strong.

What I wouldn't give for a slice of pecan and a cup of Mello Joy right now.

Maybe link will work this time. If not, leaslunchroom.com

...............and best pizza is Johnny's pizza in Monroe....get the Sweep the kitchen

floor, something like that............#2 son worked there when he was in college.

Anyone driving that way be sure and stop for ham sandwich, pie and coffee.....heaven.

clicky

Johnny's Pizza is another delish item you can get delivered. They pack it in dry ice, ship it frozen. There's a Johnny's in my hometown, and I eat it every time I go home.

Good Lord, I can feel my ass growing just thinking about all this food. I like my good eats too much.

Jazzy, I hate to tell you this, but people have been mispelling the name of that Louisiana town for many, many years. It is correctly "Moron."
Moron, La.
So, there!

If you don't want to do all the work, this Saturday noon, the local chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association will be cooking RB&R at their monthly fly-in/drive/in lunch at the NLR airport off Remount Road. I you have an interest in old & new small planes, check it out, it is a fun group.