Red Beans & Rice - A South Louisiana Tradition

Slow Cooked Cajun or Creole-Style Red Kidney Beans with Rice

Oct 26, 2009

Beulah Richard: Traditional Cajun Cook, Maria Blanco

Red Beans and Rice is a traditional meal served throughout South Louisiana. What's for dinner? If it's Monday the answer will be healthy, hearty, Red Beans and Rice!

At 6:13 a.m. October 15, 2009, in breaking news NOLA.com reported President Barack Obama would be making his first post-inaugural visit to New Orleans on Thursday, the 17th.

His entire stopover would, "clock in at three hours and 45 minutes," barely enough time to, "visit the only school to reopen in the Lower 9th Ward since Katrina…and grab a to-go lunch order from Dooky Chase.”

Louisiana Food

When 86-year-old Leah Chase, chef-owner of New Orleans' famous Dooky Chase restaurant was asked what the president would have she responded, "I know he likes gumbo, so there will be gumbo; I know he likes shrimp Creole so there will be shrimp Creole; I know he likes fried chicken, so there will be chicken."

But if President Obama had planned his visit for Monday, there would have been Red Beans and Rice, too.

If it’s Monday, It’s Red Beans – The Tradition

There is a curious tradition in South Louisiana which involves serving red kidney beans and rice for dinner on Mondays. This tradition is deeply ingrained in both the Cajun culture of Southwestern Louisiana and the Creole culture of the area in and around New Orleans to the southeast. But how did this tradition come about?

Beulah Richard was Cajun-born; a native of Vermilion Parish in Southwestern Louisiana from the turn of the 20th century. According to Mrs. Richard, red beans and rice became a Monday tradition out of practicality. Dried red beans and rice store well, they are inexpensive, healthy and easy to cook.

Moreover, dried kidney beans require a long slow cooking process which made them the perfect choice for cooking on Mondays, “since Monday was always laundry day.”

Red Beans and Laundry in the 1920s

When asked how cooking and laundry were related, Mrs. Richard’s face softened displaying a hint of nostalgia, “Well things are a lot easier, now, than they use to be. You know?”

“I didn’t even have a wood-burning stove back then. I cooked in iron pots in the fireplace.”

“I had to heat my water that way, too – for washing, for bathing – everything.”

Red Beans and Laundry All-Day Long

Richard had a large family during most of her adult life – a husband and seven children. At times she even cared for elderly relatives, so when it was laundry day there was a lot of washing to be done.

Besides having to make her own soap in the earliest years, she also had to wash all of the clothing by hand using a rub-board. This included heavy carpenter’s clothing, white dress-shirts that had to be starched and ironed, babies’ diapers, and the dirty dungarees of three very active young men.

Richard went on to explain how she was able to manage both cooking and laundry in the early part of the 20th century, adding the stern reminder, “and there was no washing machines, either; no!”

First, the Fire

“So I had three big tubs and a scrub-board,” but getting the fire going in the fireplace was first on the agenda for Mondays. More often than not the coals had not been allowed to entirely extinguish from the day before. With the fire going, Richard was able to heat her water for washing clothes.

At the same time she would place her soaking red beans with seasonings in a baled cast iron Dutch oven over the fire. Since the beans would cook, “on a slow fire, all day,” there was really no reason to pre-soak – but doing so, “would make them creamier.”

With the red beans started, she could then concentrate exclusively on the laundry. Mrs. Richard explained how on nice days she would take her tubs outside to scrub, rinse, wring and hang the clothes out to dry.

This process took the greater part of the day. In the summer she was fortunate when if it didn’t rain, laundry would dry rapidly in the intense southern heat. Yet, with the laundry hung out to dry, she was still not finished.

Red Beans and Rice, at Last!

At this point Richard would start heating her irons in the fire as well. This gave the first opportunity to check on the progress of her delectable red beans.

Since rice will cook rapidly after the water first comes to a boil, Richard would also wait until she could be inside tending her irons and ironing her clothes before she would put the rice on to cook.

Once inside and finished ironing, Mrs. Richard was home-free. After a hard day’s work, the laundry had finally been completed – and the red beans and rice had actually cooked themselves.

Slow Cooker Recipe – Cajun or Creole Style Red Beans and Rice

(Updated for any laundry day in the 21st century)

Ingredients:

1 pound dried Red Kidney Beans
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium bell pepper, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
1 pound Smoked Sausage (or other seasoning meat) cut into bite-sized pieces
6 cups water
Freshly cooked hot fluffy rice, cooked separately

Instructions:

Rinse and sort the dried beans and place them in the bottom of the crock-pot.
Evenly layering the ingredients, add the onion, bell pepper, garlic, bay leaves and sausage to the slow cooker.
Gently pour in the water, trying to keep the beans totally submerged.
Cover the crock pot and set the temperature to cook on Low for 8 – 10 hours, or for 5 – 6 hours on High. The longer, lower-heat cooking method will yield a creamier pot of beans.
Stir well and serve over a bed of freshly cooked hot rice.

Note: If using Cajun style Smoked Sausage no salt or pepper will be required.

AIC101

The copyright of the article Red Beans & Rice - A South Louisiana Tradition in Cajun Food is owned by Maria Blanco. Permission to republish Red Beans & Rice - A South Louisiana Tradition in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.