Red beans and rice

[WV Sawmiller]

  I have found a quick and tasty use for leftover cooked rice is RB&R. If there's a couple of quarts of rice I'll make fried rice but if you only have 2-4 cups of rice RB&R is in order.

   Depending on the amount of rice available I'll fry and crumble half to one lb of bulk breakfast sausage with a couple tablespoons of diced raw onion. Drain and add one can of red beans to the same skillet or Dutch oven, add the rice and a hand full of dried cranberries (or raisins if no cranberries readily available) and heat thoroughly. Season to taste with salt pepper, hot sauce, red pepper flakes, etc. Great as a meal or side dish for something else.

   I hate to waste small amounts of leftovers and am always trying to come up with a good use for them and this is one of the better uses I've found.

[Don P]

My early career involved a lot of competitive bidding. There was lots of red beans and rice  . If there's leftover rice nowadays there's usually happy dogs  .  Another one was "poor boy stew", boiled eggs sliced, in chicken stock with rice.  And then "Ricey, peasey, cheesey". 

[LeeB]

Whenever I turned leftovers into a new meal I usually end up with more leftovers than when I started. 

[WV Sawmiller]

Lee,

  It is funny how that works. Must be that the 5 loaves and 2 fishes Christ fed the multitude were leftovers. That's how he stretched it out to feed everyone and still had more leftovers at the end of the meal. 

[21incher]

I had a friend with parents that immigrated from Puerto Rico when I was growing up. His mom made the best beans and rice dish in the world. It was amazing and I think it even had olives and potatoes in it with a secret sauce. Beans and rice go together like soup and samwich  .

[Raider Bill]

I had a friend with parents that immigrated from Puerto Rico when I was growing up. His mom made the best beans and rice dish in the world. It was amazing and I think it even had olives and potatoes in it with a secret sauce. Beans and rice go together like soup and samwich  .

2nd x was from P.R.
They lived on R+B.
Made this same dish [maybe] a few times a week, other wise it was just R+B plain. Sometimes it even had chicken in it.
Wish I'd paid more attention as to how it was made.

[WV Sawmiller]

   We built the embassy in Haiti and I think we had red beans and rice as a side dish every day at lunch and I never got tired of it. I don't ever remember meat is the version we were served but it was still very good.

[Raider Bill]

Any meat in the dish was for special occasions. Basically they would fry up chicken legs/thighs or chops and toss them in. Nothing fancy just fried with Goya Adobo

What impressed me still to this date is that they kept a huge container of rice next to the stove with a coffee cup in it. Any of the women in the house and there was always half a dozen coming and going, could take a pan, dump in whatever amount of rice they wanted, go to the faucet without measuring and add water.
The rice came out perfect every time.
Me, I struggle making rice. Don't know why but it's either mushy or hard.
Luckily, I'm a pastatarian.

I had a friend with parents that immigrated from Puerto Rico when I was growing up. His mom made the best beans and rice dish in the world. It was amazing and I think it even had olives and potatoes in it with a secret sauce. Beans and rice go together like soup and samwich  .

I'm tempted to contact one of the sisters and find out how they made this dish. Got my mouth watering remembering it.

[WV Sawmiller]

   I cook my rice in excess water, boil it 20 minutes then drain it through a colander. My wife gets mad if it is sticky from excess starch and chastises me most severe for not washing the starch off before or after cooking it. Steaming rice is probably the best way to cook it. That was the way our Filipino workers always made it and they were pretty much experts at it.

   We ran out of rice in Afghanistan one time in the mess halls and our Filipino and Indian workers all just about went on strike on us. They said they got weak when they did not have their daily rice quotas and could not survive on potatoes or such. 

[sawguy21]

I really like rice properly cooked but have not mastered the technique. My landlord was in Viet Nam with the U.S. military and still refuses to eat it.

[K-Guy]

I really like rice properly cooked but have not mastered the technique

Buy a rice steamer, you won't regret it.

[sawguy21]

I got what I was told is a rice steamer but it is not the ticket.

[K-Guy]

This is the one I have now and I had another that looked the same before it. The make rice like you get from the Asian restaraunts.

https://bellahousewares.com/products/two-tier-food-steamer

[Raider Bill]

This is pretty much what I was thinking about.
Going to make it this weekend I think.
Have everything but the sofrito on hand.
I don't remember the meat added this way though.

[WV Sawmiller]

RB,

   That is a different dish than I was thinking about but just to be sure I did not hurt anybody's feelings I am pretty sure I could eat a quart or so of that at a sitting.

   I am not a big fan of olives so I'd probably leave those out if I were cooking it. I never knew of anyone cooking Vienna sausages but they looked good in the prep and final dish. 

[Raider Bill]

Tonight's the night.
I'm going to give it a try to go with Dukes baked chicken.
May throw some capers in with it.
I'll let you know.

[21incher]

Tonight's the night.
I'm going to give it a try to go with Dukes baked chicken.
May throw some capers in with it.
I'll let you know.

Well was it good 😋. That recipe sounds like the one I remember and I have to try it soon.

[Raider Bill]

DELISH!!
I need to tweek the seasonings a bit but this is a winner! Was a bit bland, could have used another sazon packet but there was only 1 in the box left over.
The jasmin rice actually came out pretty good.
I only used one 8 oz can of tomato sauce and I did throw in some capers. Could have used a bit more adobo too.