Football Beans and Rice
Start cooking at kickoff, and these beans and rice will be ready to serve at halftime!
Pregrame:
* cut: 2 cups onion, 1 cup celery, 1 cup bell pepper, fresh hot pepper to taste (for most people, probably 1-2 banana or jalapeno peppers, or the equivalent), and 5-6 cloves of garlic.
* Assemble: 1 can beer, 2 cans beans that have been drained and rinsed, 2 cubes chicken bullion, and a hot cast iron pan with a tight fitting lid. The best way to heat the pan is probably to put it over low heat while you’re cutting the veggies.
* 15 minutes before kickoff: pour enough vegetable oil into the pan to coat the bottom, and sprinkle it with ground pepper. Add the onions into the pan with a small pinch of salt. Keeping the heat very low, put the lid back on the pan and greet your guests as they arrive.
* While the announcers are introducing the starting lines, add the rest of the veggies into the pan with another small pinch of salt. Stir them in with the onions, and put the lid back on. Head back toward the TV to watch kickoff.
During the first quarter:
* During the first commercial break: turn the heat up to full and crumble the chicken bullion cubes over the vegetables. Stir the pan constantly to dissolve the bullion into the vegetable juices, and to keep the veggies from scorching. As the game is coming back on, pour the can of beer over the veggie-bullion mix. Leave the heat at full.
* During the second commercial break: Fill the empty beer can with water, and add half of it in with the veggies and beer, along with all of the beans. Stir a few times to get everything mixed together, ease the heat back to medium, and put the cover on the pan.
* Feel free to skip the next couple of commercial breaks. There’s so much liquid in the pan at this point that everything ought to be doing fine. In fact, kick back until quarter-time and enjoy the company of your guests.
Second Quarter:
* At quarter time: give the beans a stir and make sure there’s still plenty of liquid. Measure out 1 1/2 cups of rice.
* 10 minutes real time into second quarter: duck into the kitchen and stir the rice into the beans along with the second half of the beer can full of water.
* With 1:30 left in the half: check on the rice. It’s probably about done. Turn the heat off underneath it, stir it, and put the cover back on.
Half time:
Serve at halftime, and enjoy!
December 7th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
What kind of beans?
December 7th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
That sounds really good, Jesse. A couple of questions:
1) Minor detail — how are you cutting the garlic? Thin slices? Fine or coarse chop? Do you think it matters given the long cooking time?
2) I always hesitate to use bullion cubes, since they seem sorta like little nuggets of salt and MSG. Is there a work-around? Am I just being sorta snobbish/luddite here?
3) What would you say is the volume of this recipe at its maximum (I’m trying to decide which of my pans to use, balancing size vs. heat retention).
December 8th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
For the kind of beans, any canned will work. I’m partial to red beans or black beans, but have used black eyed peas and pinto beans. Pinto beans wind up very close in color to the rice, though.
As for the bullion, feel free to substitute stock for the water and bullion combined. I was going for something quick and easy to feed folks during a game, and figuring in all reality most people don’t have stock lying around–but if you do, that would make it better because bullion really is salt and MSG with flavoring.
For the amount described, which will comfortably feed 4-6 depending on appetites and whether you’re having anything else with it, you’ll need a minimum 3-quart saucepan. Add in some sausage other other includions, and I’d go for a minimum 4-quart.
I tested this with a cast iron pan, but expect that it would work with a pan of another metal just fine.
December 8th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
And, oh, yeah, the garlic–I’m cutting it to large chuncks since I’m adding it in with the onions and I don’t want it to burn.
December 9th, 2008 at 12:32 am
Thanks, Jesse. I’ll put this on the menu next week.
December 11th, 2008 at 8:58 am
I’ll have to assume that you 1) unintentionally used “can” of beer or that 2) you were surreptitiously referring to one of the few good beers that can be purchased in cans, namely Guinness or Boddington’s!