RED BEANS AND RICE
01 mar 2006

so here at MHR world HQ (aka my house), wednesday nights have quickly become NIGHTS OF TERROR & DOOM. b/c, you see, daniel has class till 10pm, which means i schedule my evening overtime (i conduct interviews for two behavioral research studies) from pretty much the minute i walk in the door (5pm) till as close to 10pm as i can cut it without wanting to totally fall into a telephone-induced coma. i usually shove food in the general direction of my mouth during one of my wicked short breaks, but daniel arrives starving without fail, & almost always after 1030pm. i try to have something ready for him -- & usually i'm hungry again at that point anyway -- but also? i'm either cooking between interviews (ie, in fifteen-minute chunks) or after my last one wraps up (again, nearly 10pm), so i'm not gonna be doing any kind of fancy dinnering, especially not one that involves lots of post-dinner dishwashing, if you get my drift.

further complicating matters, tonight? i am car-less. & i am in DIRE need of groceries. which basically means that i'm out of every single kind of juice i normally have on hand. & also, today, out of crackers, peanut butter, eggs, & anything else i could possibly use to put together something for daniel that's not (a) pizza (which he refuses to eat after spending four days in NYC eating nothing but) or (b) tortellini (which, although he likes it, is something we've already had twice in the last seven days b/c it's an easy go-to meal).

what i DO have is a big old bag of rice. & i'm armed with the knowledge that daniel's been known to enjoy rice involving spices. & i only have about eight vegetarian cookbooks, & oh, an extra can of kidney beans, so, you know, i can probably come up with a decent red beans & rice recipe.

INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions, finely diced
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 green pepper, finely diced
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1 cup tomato sauce
1/4 cup water
a few dashes hot sauce
2 (15-ounce) cans kidney beans, rinsed well in a strainer
4 cups hot cooked rice (from 1 cup raw rice)
sour cream (optional)

METHOD
heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. add the onions, garlic, & green pepper, & sauté until the pepper is very tender, about 10 minutes.

sprinkle in the chili powder & paprika, & cook 30 seconds. mix in the tomato sauce, water, hot sauce, & kidney beans, & simmer about 10 minutes, or until the mixture is hot & fragrant. serve over rice with a small spoonful of sour cream on top, if desired.

tip: to give the beans a smoky flavor you can add 1 small chipotle pepper in adobo sauce. mince it on a small plate with 2 knives before adding it to the beans. omit the hot sauce.

DEVIATIONS & OBSERVATIONS
first off, i halved the recipe. b/c seriously: two people.

secondly, i didn't even think to take pictures of this as i was preparing it b/c, really, it's just more of the same, ie, dicing & sautéeing.

as an FYI, i used a yellow bell pepper instead of a green one b/c i never buy green (don't care for the taste, even though daniel insists that they taste the same), & i used a little less onion than i normally would b/c of the size of the onion i happened to have on hand -- but everything else was pretty much spot on. i was lucky that i had the spices on hand due to previous recipes (finally!), & also? i had the beans leftover from a stew i made where i decided, at the last minute, to not double the recipe.

& you know what? it tasted pretty good, especially for something i threw together at 1010pm.

"Red Beans and Rice" from Vegetarian Classics: 300 Essential Recipes for Every Course and Every Meal by Jeanne Lemlin, © 2001.