Dirty Rice with No Chicken Livers: Recipe

Flavorful, savory, beans and rice you will love, a meatless replacement for the classic southern "dirty rice" which uses chicken livers. Serves 8-10.
 
Pecan-Bean Rice
 4-5 cups cooked rice
1 red onion, chopped
1 bunch green onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
1 green pepper, chopped
2 Tablespoons oil
1 cup broken or chopped pecans
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 can red beans, rinsed
Sauce:
1/4 cup soy sauce or Bragg's
2 teaspoons dry mustard
2 Tablespoons sesame oil

Saute onions, garlic, and green pepper in the oil until soft. Add the nuts and cayenne pepper, and continue cooking. Combine the soy sauce and enough water in a measuring cup to make about 1/2 cup. Add the other sauce ingredients and stir well. Add to skillet mixture. Stir in beans. Turn down the heat and cover.

Grease a 9x13 casserole dish and preheat the oven to 350. Spread the rice in the bottom of the casserole and spread the skillet mixture over it. Dot with margarine and bake for 20 minutes; 30 minutes if rice is cold.

Shrimp and Grits: Recipe

It's simple: Saute onion, bell peppers, tomatoes and shrimp, and serve on a bed of cheese grits! I personally developed the grits recipe because the box doesn't give a microwave recipe for more than 1 serving. You will love sharing your shrimp & grits.

Cheese Grits Cooked in the Microwave (serves 4)

3 cups water
3/4 cup grits ("quick cooking," not instant)
hunk of butter (maybe 2 Tablespoons)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Pour the water into a 2-quart microwavable dish and heat it on High about 7 minutes until the water boils. Carefully pour in the grits (the water will foam up) and stir. Cook on High for 5 more minutes. Remove from microwave and stir to make sure no lumps remain. Stir in the hunk of butter and cup of shredded cheese until they melt.

Shrimp for Grits (serves 4)

1 Tablespoon safflower or vegetable oil
1/2 pound of medium shrimp, raw, with shells off; thawed if frozen
1/2 of a large onion, chopped
1 small or 1/2 large bell pepper (any color), chopped
1/2 can of diced tomatoes (too much will overwhelm the shrimp)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon dried thyme
salt, to taste (not too heavily; remember the grits have cheese in them)
ground black pepper
hot sauce, to taste

Heat the oil in a pan; saute the onion and the garlic for 3 minutes. Add the pepper and saute for another minute or so. Add the dried thyme and the tomatoes and black pepper. When vegetable mixture is hot and bubbling, pour in the shrimp. Cook until the shrimp are pink, stirring occasionally, for a maximum of 5 minutes. Do not overcook the shrimp. Season with salt, pepper and hot sauce to taste. Serve over grits.

Recipes: Lazy Gumbo and Lazier Cornbread

Stir up the cornbread batter according to package directions, place in a pie plate; microwave for 5 minutes. It won't brown, but it'll be ready to be cut and buttered, and mostly we like white cornbread down here anyway. Yellow is eaten by Yankees out east.

The "lazy" gumbo begins with a can of product from Glory. They have a whole line of Southern-style food, like canned collards, or canned potatoes and green beans, or fried apples, or plain okra and tomatoes. I like the okra and tomatoes with corn; a Midwestern touch for gumbo.

Start with a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of flour in a saucepan. Heat the pan and whisk the butter and flour around and cook until they're unified and the color of a penny and the flour no longer tastes raw. Then pour the can of vegetables into the saucepan, add a can of water and some tomato, whether sauce or chopped. Cut up and throw in any meat, ham or bacon available. Simmer until it looks good. Add shrimp. If shrimp are raw, cook in the gumbo for five minutes; if cooked, heat them through. And don't forget the hot sauce! Better lazy gumbo than none.