Red Beans And Perfect, Life-Changing Rice (Really!)

I finally came to the end of the ham shank I got on special at Save Rite last week. All that was left to do was toss the bone into a pot with a sack of Camellia red beans and some chopped onion, celery, garlic, bay leaves, water and lots of salt and pepper for a couple of hours.

I know red beans and rice are a Monday staple in these parts, but like soup and spaghetti sauce, this dish needs an overnight rest to "get good." I am so looking forward to tomorrow.

The Southern way of making red beans is with a meaty ham bone (and any left over bits of ham) and cornbead on the side. The New Orleans Cajun way is with spicy sausage (preferably andouille) and buttered French bread. I'm flexible.

Today I cooked the beans with ham and toward the end threw in some sliced rendered smoked sausage. You don't want to put the sausage in too early or you run the risk of all the flavor cooking out into the beans and leaving you with tasteless sausage bits.

There is no great trick to making good red beans. You just need to remember to:

• Soak the beans in water overnight to soften them or spend an extra 2 hours cooking them.


• Mash up a cup of the beans and broth when they are cooked and add back to the pot to make the beans good and creamy.


• Add enough salt. Seriously, no matter what other flavorings you put in there, the salt is really key to making the beans taste good.


• Wait 24 hours before eating them. No matter how perfect they look the day you cook them, they will taste so much better the next day.

While cooking red beans isn't hard, perfect rice on the other hand has been ... elusive. Until today.

We've all been there, --the sticky, gummy rice you get when you follow the instructions on the package. Who developed those anyway? And why are they still on all those packages when they so clearly do not work?

I've also tried cooking rice in the microwave (which usually results in a starch bath in the microwave) and the tedious three-rinses-before-boiling-on-the-stovetop method. Today I tried baking the rice in a conventional oven.

I first came across Francis Lam's method for baked rice in his blog for cooking koshary (something else you definitely want to try) in Gourmet magazine. I was intrigued, but didn't have an immediate need so I forgot about it.

Then, I came across Francis' recipe in another cooking blog, The Wednesday Chef. When Luisa described this style of cooking rice as "life-changing," well, clearly I had to try it for myself.

Life changing indeed! I wanted to fall to my knees and weep with gratitude. This is perfect, fluffy rice you could eat all on its own with a pat of butter and and some grated Parmesan. Rice as it should be. And so I am passing it on. Because life is too short to eat gummy rice.

Francis, if you're reading this (and I know you visit Mike and Mary's Kitchen occasionally), you are a kitchen god. And my hero.