Vince Hayward cooks his red kidney beans all day in a slow cooker — sometimes with smoked ham hocks, sometimes with vegan sausage, always “heavy on the bay leaf.” If they aren’t creamy enough by the time he gets home from work, he smashes them with the back of a spoon.
Hayward knows from beans: He's the fourth-generation owner of Louisiana's venerated Camellia bean brand.
Gina Lee takes a different approach with the spicy staple of New Orleans cuisine. She treats the components individually: Red beans simmer in chicken stock. Andouille sausage and tasso ham are sauteed with aromatics in their own skillet. Jasmine rice steams in a cooker.
"I cook the three ingredients separately to save the aroma of the holy trinity," says Lee, general manager of the Garden & Gun Club at The Battery Atlanta. She's referring to the mirepoix of bell pepper, celery and onion known as the Cajun Holy Trinity. Born in Korea and raised in Atlanta, Lee later tended bar at New Orleans' legendary Commander's Palace. She gleaned the art of the bean from spying and eavesdropping on the Commander's cooks. Along the way, she learned that red beans and rice can stir strong emotions in people. She married a man from the Big Easy, and when he gets homesick, she comforts him with his iconic hometown dish.
According to New Orleans lore, red beans and rice became a Monday night tradition centuries ago, because Monday was laundry day. While the clothes were washed and wrung by hand, a pot of beans seasoned with leftover Sunday ham could simmer for hours. In 1923, Hayward’s grandfather came up with the nifty idea of packaging red kidney beans in individual bags, thereby fueling the Monday night tradition. “We pushed ‘em hard,” Hayward says.
The bean king says there’s no correct way to create the dish his family helped popularize. “That’s one of the cool things about the dish of red beans and rice,” he says. “There’s a million variations, and none of them are wrong.”
Until recently, I'd never thought much about the dish, probably because I had never had a memorable version. That changed when I encountered Emily Shaya's recipe last year while I was working on a profile of her husband, Alon, the Israeli-born, James Beard Award-winning New Orleans chef. Shaya wisely leaves the bean cookery to his Georgia-born wife. One Monday last winter, I realized I had the ingredients for Emily's recipe, and after cooking the beans for about six hours — that's three loads of clothes, if you will — I finally understood the essence of the dish.
Unlike all the chunky, chili-like impostors I had dismissed in the past, Emily's concoction was a thick, smoky gravy, rich with fat from bacon, ham hock and andouille. Ladled over her buttery, onion-flecked jasmine rice, it was magic. You can find Emily's recipe with a mere flick of the Google; it's been published far and wide.
For this article, Lee was kind enough to share her thoughtfully considered recipe. (I confess I added a smoked hock to the simmering beans and cooked the dish longer than she would, probably, but I could still taste the trinity!) Hayward, for his part, sent me a recipe he recently developed for a vegan kettle of beans. He’s a fan of Field Roast Mexican Chipotle sausage, made with grain. I found it at my neighborhood Publix.
If you’re putting together a Super Bowl party or a Mardi Gras feast, do like I did, and make a pot of vegan and a vat of meat-based. Fix Emily Shaya’s rice. Braise you some Slow-Cooker Collards (a first for this Southern boy — and a genius idea) and a bowl of Splattered and Smashed Potato Salad. Call all your friends. Tell one to make cornbread and another to bring a gallon of tea or a cooler of beer.
All these recipes can be made ahead of time. The red beans and rice improve if you let the flavors mingle. “ALWAYS better after sitting a day or two!” Hayward roared via email.
His family didn’t invent red beans and rice. They just made them a New Orleans staple.
RECIPES
Red beans and rice are a great way to feed a crowd. Here we offer a meat-based and a plant-based version of the Louisiana classic and two classic Southern sides. All can be prepared in advance. Serve with your favorite cornbread.
Gina Lee’s Red Beans and Rice
Bryan Lewis, director of operations for the Garden & Gun Club, told me his colleague Gina Lee used to live in New Orleans and that she cooked a mean pot of beans. He was right. Lee turned me on to Cajun Meat Co. in Marietta (cajunmeatcompany.com), a great source for andouille, tasso, Tony Chachere's seasoning, Camellia beans and many other Louisiana products.
Vince’s Easy Vegan Red Beans and Rice
Vince Hayward is the CEO of L.H. Hayward & Company, which has been selling beans since 1923. He often cooks his red kidney beans in a slow cooker, but this recipe uses a conventional stovetop method. If you don’t feel like chopping bell pepper, celery, onions and garlic, you can revert to Hayward’s original instructions: Buy a package of pre-chopped Cajun-style veggies — look for labels like Zydeco Chop Chop and Guidry’s Fresh Cuts — and use 8 ounces.
Emily Shaya’s Rice
A Georgia native and longtime New Orleans resident, Emily Shaya makes some of the best red beans and rice around. One secret of her success is that the rice isn’t an afterthought. Shaya’s recipe calls for plenty of butter and onion and one fragrant bay leaf. It’s our go-to for making the most luscious Monday night red beans and rice.
Splashed and Smashed Potato Salad
Potatoes are easy to over-boil. So for generations, many people have served up unintentionally mushy potato salad. However, some people — me, for example — like that texture. Now comes America’s Test Kitchen, with a technique that replicates the creaminess by smashing part of the boiled potatoes and mixing them with a mayo-based dressing perked up with mustard and cayenne. Splashing the still-hot boiled potatoes with white vinegar locks in flavor. This is basically Southern-style potato salad, executed with a smart trick or two, and it is excellent.
Adapted from “The Side Dish Bible” by America’s Test Kitchen ($35).
Slow-Cooker Collards
To get properly tender Southern collards, you must simmer them for hours. America’s Test Kitchen achieves similar results using a slow cooker. You may cook the greens overnight and keep warm in the slow cooker until you’re ready to serve them, straight from the pot if you like, and with your favorite cornbread.
Adapted from “The Side Dish Bible” by America’s Test Kitchen ($35).
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