Red Beans and Rice with Andouille

My niece, a grad student at Tulane, loves living in New Orleans. Family trips to this fabled American city have always been more fun because of her “insider” knowledge.

Except for the time she took us to Mid-City Lanes Rock ‘n’ Bowl, a live music and dance venue set in the middle of a bowling alley. There was a particularly good Zydeco band playing that evening and she said the place was teaming with Cajun fella’s anxious for dance partners.

Problem was, I’d never danced to Zydeco. She assured me it was a simple two-step and my feet would quickly catch the rhythm.

I’ve always enjoyed dancing, whether it be to the oscillating rhythms of Louis Armstrong or Diana Krall, and fancy myself a decent swing partner. But this funny little side step totally caught me off guard.

Humiliation comes on many levels. As I doe-see-doed around the dance floor, crunching the feet of many a well-intentioned Louisiana man, I was soon ostracized from the men folk.

Sitting on the side lines, I studied a Rock ‘n’ Bowl menu, comforting myself by imagining my Red Beans and Rice were just as good as their’s.

This recipe, inspired by Paul Prudomme, is not a “mouth on fire” kind of a heat. It has has an incredible, deep, rich heat. The problem is, though much of the time is unattended, you need a few hours to make sure the beans cook to perfection yet not scour the bottom of the pan.

The “Long-Cook” recipe is pretty close to the real deal. I could have worked it a bit more adding ham hocks and dirty rice, but that would have killed more time. The “Short-Cook” version is also quite tasty, but does lack that bottom layer of slow-cooked flavor goodness.