It was shitty out today -- cold & rainy -- a perfect day for some soup. In maryland, we like crabs. If you've ever had fresh steamed crabs spiced with Old Bay, you understand why we're nuts about em.
I went down to the wharf, haggled with the vietnamese dude i always buy crabs from and got me about half a dozen. I paid my ten dolla, went home and got to cookin. MD crab soup is really easy & really good. The key is making your own stock. To sum it up:
Stock: Pick the crabs, saving both the meat & the shells. Put the meat in the fridge for later. Discard the mustard, lungs, etc. Combine all the picked shells, 3 cups of dry white wine, a sliced lemon, 6 cloves of garlic, 2 chopped medium onions, 4 chopped celery stalks, 10 peppercorns, some bay leaves, some dried thyme & about a gallon of water. Boil-to-a-simmer routine....simmer for about 90 minutes or so, or until it reduces by half. Make sure and skim the scum also.
Soup: Saute 1 medium onion, 1 green bell pepper, 3 celery stalks, 1 large russet potato (all diced) . After about 10 minutes, throw in a can of diced tomatoes, some cooked white beans, & a cup of corn. Then laddle in about 5 cups of stock, add your crab meat, about two tbsp of old bay and then simmer for 1o minutes. Done.
So I'm straying off the path a bit and doing something that has nothing to do with meat & fire. I'd say this blog is centered around man things and well this next topic, although not cooked with smoke nor fire, is very dude. Today's treat: Red Beans & Rice.
The backbone of rb&r, contrary to popular belief, is not andouille sausage. Lots of people (especially us yanks, myself included) think of rb&r being an andouille flavored smokey dish. Everything I read about nola cooking says otherwise. Think of the rb&r/andouille relationship like that of a gin&tonic/slice of lime. The REAL backbone of rb&r comes from the awesomeness of pickled pork. Yep, you heard right. Pickled.
To pickle, basically you combine water, vinegar, salt & whatever you're pickling and let it sit for days (at least 4). I used water, cider vinegar, salt, sugar, bay leaves, crushed garlic, mustard & celery seeds, peppercorns, chilies, & cayenne. Think of pickling as extended brining. Now onto the fun.
You'll need the following: onion, bell pepper, celery, can of diced tomatoes, red kidney beans (or any other variety, i used pintos b/c my red beans were old) bay leaves, dried thyme, cayenne, S+P, garlic louisiana hot sauce (crystal, frank's...etc) pickled pork, rice, andouille & green onions.
First, you make (not a roux!) the trinity...ratios vary but for the most part it's one medium onion, 2 green bell peppers, and 4 stalks of celery, all chopped. Saute everything till it's good, then toss in some minced garlic and the diced tomatoes and saute a little longer. Then add everything else, the pork, beans, bay leaves, spices & about two cups of water. Also, it's extremely important that your cooking vessel be a dutch oven. Yes, it really does make a difference. Just do it. Shoot for one that's 4 quarts or larger.
Do the whole boil-to-a-simmer routine and cook covered for about 90 minutes. Make sure you stir the pot every 20 minutes or so to mix everything up, and also to make yourself super hungry. After the 90 minutes, take off the lid and cook uncovered for 45 minutes, reducing to your desired consistency.
When it looks done (make sure the beans are cooked, not hard) serve over a bed of hot basmati or jasmine rice. Top everything off with some fried slices of andouille and some chopped green onions for some color. Maybe some hot sauce too.
