Crock Pot Red Beans and Rice

Based on a lot of experimentation, serves 4-6
Date made: 2/7/2011

1 lb red kidney beans, sorted*
1 green pepper, seeded and chopped
4 celery stalks, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 bay leaves
Cajun brown rice*
Salt, pepper, Tony's, cumin, thyme, to taste
1 lb andouille sausage, sliced or chopped, optional

Place beans in a pot and cover with water.  Soak overnight.
Add more water to cover the beans and bring to a boil.
Boil for about 10 minutes and then transfer to crock for the slow cooker.
Add veggies and herbs/spices.  Cook on low heat for 10 hours.
Add sausage about 20 minutes before serving (while you're cooking your rice).
You know how to do the rest...


Before I got this new Crock-Pot for Christmas, I'd been using my mom's old slow cooker from, like, 20 years ago.  The first time I made red beans and rice in the Crock Pot it turned out disastrous since I cooked it on low and the beans didn't cook through AT ALL, even though they were there for 12 hours.  Mind you, I also consulted several slow cooker recipes online that made no indication that this might happen.

I thought the culprit was a defective low setting since I tried to make slow cooker corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick's Day, which yielded similar results.  Thus, I've been making red beans and rice on the high setting to avoid further culinary embarrassment.  When I got this new Crock-Pot, I figured my low heat setting woes were a thing of the past, so I attempted to make chili a couple weeks ago over low heat.

This story is probably predictable, so I'm sure you can guess what happened -- crunchy chili.  Lo and behold, when I consulted my handy-dandy Crock-Pot manual (which I had the foresight not to throw out, though I guess there's always the internet), it explicitly states that you have to boil the beans beforehand, especially if you're adding any acid (aka tomatoes) since apparently it acts as a hardening agent.  Thank you, internet home cooks for not bringing this to my attention.

At least I got a sweet Crock-Pot out of it.  Thanks, Mom and Dad.

Shredded Beet Salad

Adapted from Simply in Season, serves 4
Date made: ???

8-10 small/medium red beets, boiled, peeled, and shredded*
2-3 carrots, shredded
3-4 celery stalks, chopped finely
1/2 head of lettuce, roughly chopped*
balsamic vinegar
olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
pepper to taste

Combine beets and carrots and toss with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and salt and pepper.  Combine with lettuce when ready to serve.


Like I said, I'm not a big beet eater, but it's slowly growing on me.

Gołąbki

Adapted from my mommy's recipe, Gather and another food blogger, 6-8 servings
Date made: 1/19/2011

1 large head of cabbage*
1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground pork
2 c cooked Cajun brown rice*
2 eggs
3 garlic cloves, minced
2  10 oz cans condensed tomato soup
1 14 oz can tomato sauce
3 carrots, peeled and finely chopped
3 ribs of celery, peeled and finely chopped
1 bell pepper, finely chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
thyme, salt, pepper, parsley to taste, other seasonings can be used as desired.

Core cabbage and place in boiling water.  Peel the leaves as they get soft and remove from the pot and set aside.
Saute onion in oil or butter until translucent.  Mix half of the onion with ground beef, pork, one egg, one cup of rice, and two garlic cloves.  Add about 1-2 tsp each of the seasonings.
Mix other half of onion with bell pepper, celery, carrot, the remaining rice, garlic, and one egg.  Again, add about 1-2 tsp each of the seasonings.
Take a cabbage leaf and cut off the thick stem.  Place a spoonful of filling in the middle of a leaf, fold the left and right sides over, and starting at the end closest to you, roll the cabbage up (see referenced recipes for photos).
Repeat until you have used all the mixture up.
Mix together two cans of tomato soup and tomato sauce.  Add 3 bay leaves and salt and pepper to taste.
Place cabbage rolls seam side down into crockpot and pour tomato soup/sauce mixture over the rolls.  Cook on low for 8-10 hours.

Jason and I had made a Russian version (Голубцы - golubtsy) of this dish a while ago, but it it was my first time making this Polish version that my family has been eating at reunions, parties, etc. for years.  My friends have been doing a "family dinner night" where every other Wednesday evening someone hosts the group for dinner.  The veggie version was for the vegetarian in our group.  Since I had gotten a huge head of cabbage from Hollygrove Market and Farm the week prior, I figured I'd try my hand at this and also make cabbage noodles.  All-in-all it turned out okay -- it was pretty underseasoned, but that was my fault since I'm pretty timid when it comes to seasoning my food.