Beans, Beans, the Musical Fruit-- Red Beans & Rice, My Way

So... since August, every foodie magazine has front covers with all kinds of fattening food & desserts. January rolls around and it's a whole new picture! Low-fat this, Diet That.... Food Blogosphere is chock full of "healthy recipes".   Does that mean that now isn't the time to post my puff pastry, butter-ridden, sinfully good Christmas Evedinner recipe?  Fine. I'll wait. Valentine's Day is just around the corner!  Okay, I admit it-- I over-indulged with the rest of you.  I've been cooking healthy! Honest! I made a gorgeous pot of vegetable minestrone soup. Did I photograph it? No!   Just this weekend, I had a craving for beans.  The Latina side of my genetics loves beans, just as the German side of my DNA adores potatoes.  I make a pretty tasty batch of refried beans, if I do say so myself.   Since I cook meatless at least once a week, I stock up on Trader Joe's black beans. We love them.  My cravings were being very fussy, though-- I wanted Red Beans & Rice and had not soaked any beans overnight! No problemo! I love my Digital Pressure Cooker.

A quick soak is easy peasy to do.   There's a debate, I've read, whether or not to salt beans before or after cooking them.  I always salt them at the time I cook them, and it works great for me.   You can easily do all of this on a stovetop.   I keep preaching that, once you realize that pressure cookers do not explode (they're much fancier nowadays) you will fall in-love with pressure cooking. I promise you that!  I covered the beans with water, and two teaspoons of kosher salt--closed the lid and turned the digital timer to "two minutes".  A quickie lesson on pressure cooking-- once the trapped heat/steam builds up inside (because of the tight seal of the gasket and lid) the pressure cooker cooks for 2 minutes.  Essentially, it took about 15 minutes for all of this to happen.  I simply press the large button, to release the steam and let the beans sit for up to 1/2 hour.  I drained the beans and now, it's time to get the aromatics going--

Garlic! I used two big cloves of garlic and 2 small onions, chopped.  My digital pressure cooker has a "brown" feature-- love it! So I added a little olive oil, and cooked the onion until tender...then I added the garlic.  Now, what kind of spices should I use?  I looked at "Creole Seasoning" at the supermarket, but I didn't like the preservatives and M.S.G. in them.  I figured I could make my own seasoning, since I hoard spices anyway.

So, here they are-- dried oregano, paprika, cayenne pepper, Lawry's Seasoned salt, dried basil & celery salt. I liked to "bloom" my spices by cooking them for a couple of minutes. I really think it packs more flavor.

I also added about one tablespoon of tomato paste, which I cooked for 1 minute longer...

I added about a quart of water to the pot, the quick soaked beans and some smoked ham that I had diced, and two bay leaves.  (Many recipes use sausage, but this ham was leaner.) I added just enough water to cover everything by no more than an inch.  I turned the digital timer on to 25 minutes of pressure cooking. Stovetop, I'd guess you'd want to cook these for at least 90 minutes.  So.... don't you think pressure cooking is a "microwave slow cooker"?!

More traditional pressure cookers require that you pour cold water on the lid, so that you can release the steam.  My version has a button that I press.  My cats scatter when I do this! (It does get a little loud.)

Done!  The only thing that I wanted to adjust was the thinness of the beans. Granted, cooking beans on a stovetop for a long period of time does thicken liquid-- but that did not deter me. I thought about it, and...

Using a slotted spoon, I removed the beans from the liquid; then, I decided to drain the beans to remove all of the liquid.  I whisked cornstarch and water and used it to thicken the liquid.  Perfect!

Then, I returned the thickened liquid to the beans...

I tasted the beans and I did my "Happy Dance". I've been to New Orleans a few times, and I love to order red beans-- followed by beignets at the Cafe du Monde.  I might not have true Southern roots, but I think I nailed it!

All I had left to do was to fluff the brown rice...

All you need is to add extra hot sauce, if you want more heat to this!

This is healthy, I tell you!  All that fiber...brown rice...  I ate two bowls of this, without any guilt and it really makes you feel full for a long time. ( I made sure that my husband ate two bowls so we could make music together.)  Detox or toxic? Hmmm.... I guess this isn't totally "meatless", because there's ham in here. Are you ready to buy a pressure cooker? I bought this model on QVC, about ten years ago. It's made by Cook's Essentials.

I've got some great recipes to post, but they aren't exactly "diet food".  I figure that the non-diet, detox recipes should be slowing down in another week or so?  In the meantime, I'm making meatless dinners, more fish and cutting back on red meat-- just like most of you! How's it going?

(Now, I'm totally craving beignets. Great...)