It’s been awhile. I know. I get so behind with blog posts. There have been lots of dishes cooked and places visited since my last post. But for now, here’s a recipe that I created for a dinner that I cooked for our friends Josh and Melissa. They watched our dog when we went to New Orleans in March and asked us only to repay them in food. Great deal for us!
Since we were in the Big Easy, I was inspired to create these red bean and rice cakes. They combine everything good about red beans and rice in a compact little package. Because Melissa is vegetarian, I used a soy sausage, but meat eaters can certainly substitute a good andouille sausage.
Red Bean and Rice Cakes
Serves 4
3 tbsp. olive oil
½ large onion, chopped small
1 large green pepper, chopped small
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp. tomato paste
2 tbsp. Cajun seasoning*
6 oz. soy smoked sausage (andouille preferable, but I could only find soy chorizo), crumbled
1 can, red beans, drained
2 cups cooked brown rice
1/4 cup bread crumbes
1 cup flour
2 eggs
1 cup bread crumbs
Vegetable oil, for frying
Heat the olive oil in a saute pan on medium heat. Add onion, green pepper, and garlic. Cook on medium to medium-low heat until soft, but don’t let the mixture get brown, about 10 minutes. Add tomato paste, Cajun seasoning, and sausage. Cook for 2-3 minutes longer. Add red beans to the pan and stir to combine.
Put half of this mixture into a food processor and process until it’s a smooth paste. Return to pan and stir to combine with the remained, unprocessed mixture.
Stir in brown rice and bread crumbs.
Let this mixture cool in the refrigerator for about an hour. Portion into 8 servings and create round cakes out of each portion
Set up a breading station with flour, eggs, and bread crumbs. Cover each cake in a thin layer of flour then egg then bread crumbs.
Add about 1/2 inch of vegetable oil to a deep sided pan. Heat to about 350 degrees. Shallow fry each cake by cooking to golden brown on each side. Drain on a rack with paper towels below. Serve with remoulade sauce.
* I like Joe’s Stuff cajun seasoning mix, but there are tons of different mixes out there. Just use your favorite. Joe’s Stuff has less salt than other cajun seasoning mixes, so if you have a salty one, use half of the seasoning listed in the recipe and add more to taste if needed.
Remoulade Sauce
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tbsp. Dijon mustard
1 tsp. Cajun seasoning
1 tbsp. Apple Cider Vinegar
1/8 cup flat leaf parsley
salt and pepper, to taste
Whiz all of this up in a food processor or whisk together in a bowl (make sure you chop the parsley fine if you use this method.)