Cooking rice and beans in quantity?

[mannyrock]

Dear Guys,

    I keep hearing folks say that cooking beans and rice is a thrifty way to eat.  Not being from the southern coastal areas, however, I must say that I've never tried to cook them except on a small portion, meal by meal basis.   And, preparing them  to cook, and cooking them, seems to take forever.! (Most of the time, I cook kidney beans, and plain white rice.)

   I have heard that in Mexican households, the wife cooks large pots of beans every Sunday, and then reheats them and serves them up throughout the week.  I'm not sure whether or not they do this with rice as well.

    Does anyone have any advice or experience, as to what is the easiest way to cook up large portions of these foods, so that they can be dished out as desired during the week?   

    Also, in my experience, cooked beans keep well in the refridgerator, if simply kepted in a covered dish.  Cooke rice, though, seems to dry out really really fast in the refridgerator, and become hard and crinkly.  Any tips on this?

Thanks,

Mannyrock

[mcwoodduck]

What about using a turkey fryer?
Big pot.  Flame can go pretty low and it will not heat up the house for the day of cooking.
I have used mine to make pasta for a huge party and that worked well.

[mjh]

When I was cooking beans regularly I always cooked up a pot.  Two cups of beans cooks up into one good sized pot.  Once in a while I would cook up a whole bag 12oz to 16oz??   Pot of beans last about a week depending upon numbers of people eating and other available foods.   Generally I cook up enough rice for the number of people eating for one meal.  1 cup at a time is about regular in our house.  I'd rather cook up the rice fresh each time.  If I can refrigerate the left overs, I'll add in old rice to new rice at the end of the cooking process.  For refrigeration I like to store the left overs in meal portion size containter if I have them.  Depending upon temperatures and location keeping cooked beans in pot may or may not be the best option.  If kept that way make sure you bring back up to boil.

[Oldshooter]

"Does anyone have any advice or experience, as to what is the easiest way to cook up large portions of these foods, so that they can be dished out as desired during the week?   "

I have always frozen them in wide mouth jars, then nuke em or defrost and heat on stove, we use Quarts

    Also, in my experience, cooked beans keep well in the refridgerator, if simply kepted in a covered dish.  Cooke rice, though, seems to dry out really really fast in the refridgerator, and become hard and crinkly.  Any tips on this?

Zip lock bags, or better yet food saver bags vacumed and sealed, then always nuke em for a few minutes before mixing with  the beans or whatever. You can also freeze it in bags and nuke it for use, just open the baga little and heat in microwave(nuke)

I forgot, cook em with some deer sausage and plenty of seasoning, Ca cest du bon mange' (thats good eating)

[pastorp]

The Mexicans I lived around cooked fresh beans every day. Thay only used pinto beans. Their rice is cooked fresh also in a cast iron frying pan with tomato sauce and spices.

Kidney beans, yuck!!!!!!!!!!!!

Regards,

[Dee]

My wife has always cooked red beans (pintos) by the bag but, when she married me, I changed things a little.
Not only do we add rice, we add stew meat (fat trimmed off), brat wurst sliced up, a can of rotel tomatoes, and about 30 minutes before their done, a pound or more of shrimp. We will eat on this for a couple of days, and or sometimes she will freeze some of it in bowls. It is a complete meal, and all you need is home made cornbread.
For this 1 cup of yellow corn meal, one cup of self rising flour, one egg, two table spoons of olive oil (our preference), a table spoon of raw honey, and a cup of whole milk.
Oil a good seasoned cast iron skillet, and stick it in a preheated oven at 350 degrees. When it comes out we smear a good blob of REAL BUTTER on top, and let it melt in.
You should be able to figure out what to do next.
By the way, this takes a good sized pot, but it's worth it. Finding a good stainless steel one is not difficult.

[Oldshooter]

30 minutes before their done, a pound or more of shrimp.

Well I'll be a yankee union worker!

Never thought or heard of that! Good Idea "D man" I'll try that soon, maybe today!

[Dee]

Oldshooter I put everything named in the pot all at once, and let the flavors mix while their cookin. The shrimp go in last or they will simply cook away to near nothin.
Never tried it with JUST SHRIMP, but with all three meats it is out standing.

[pastorp]

Dee, that sounds a lot like a mixture of Red beans&rice and Jambalaya. You must have a little cajan in you. Regards,

[Cornbelt]

Mannyrock, if you're using minute-rice and it dries out, you might try brown rice or wild rice. They seem more moist as left-overs. For beans, you can soak 'em overnight or pressure cook 'em.  This is soybean country. Supposed to be good for you, and taste like it. Even self-respecting hogs won't be bothered. Only fit for vegetarians. Or do I just have the wrong recipie?

[Oldshooter]

Oldshooter I put everything named in the pot all at once, and let the flavors mix while their cookin. The shrimp go in last or they will simply cook away to near nothin.
Never tried it with JUST SHRIMP, but with all three meats it is out standing.

Yep thats the way "we" cook shrimp, in gumbo, creole, stew, and Etoufee. They only take about ten minutes to cook but 20 will get the flavor in the gravy!  Never tried the beans and sausage and all that together but dang sure sounds good!

That would be "cajun" Pastorp. I dont know if he has any cajun in him but he will for sure have gas in him after he eats that stuff!   

[mechanic]

The best way to cook beans is in a crock pot.  Yeah I know, that ain't survivalist but it sure is good.  Get some good lean ham chunks, toss in an onion if ya' like it, put the lid on the crock pot and go to work.  When you get home, bake a pone of cornbread and break out the pepper sauce.  Rice is ok too, if you just want to make it go further.  Now there's certain kinds of beans to cook this way.  Navy beans pink eyes, black eyes, black beans, pinto beans, lintils, lima beans, speckled butter beans....then theres all the peas...well you get the idea.  I guess if the world goes dark I'll have to get a hand crank generator for my crock pot.

Dang!  I'm getting hungry!

[mannyrock]

   Wow.  Thanks for all the answers to my post.

   BUT, I've got a question, that's SURE to start a firestorm!

   When people talk about "red beans" (as in red beans and rice), exactly what bean is this?  No guesses, no opinions, no "in my town it means," I wanna clear answer.  :-)

   If red beans are just pinto beans, then why don't they just call them pinto beans?

   I see that some folks don't like kidney beans.  Yes, they (the beans) are large and thick skinned, but here is the secret:  When you get ready to cook them, start by BOILING them hard, for 15 minutes. This will soften the skin, and cause them to split open at the outset, so that they can slow cook after that.  I like them because they don't turn into mush like the smaller beans.

Thanks, Mannyrock

[Oldshooter]

Red Beans and rice were more than likely a product of Creole chefs in the South and the red beans are Red kidneys, now that being said. some like pintos. As far as I'm concerned it don't make any diffweence!
If my grandmother and mother cooked em they were good! Or as we said on the River it would make you go home and slap yo mama! That always made the cooks feel good!

[no guns here]

Well, we mix the beans up a bit.  Half red beans and half pinto beans.  Soak'em overnight.  When I leave for work in the morning I throw them in the crock pot with  about a half a chopped up onion (my wife don't like too much onion) and a big 'ol ham bone with a bunch of meat scraps left on it.  If we haven't had ham like that recently I go to the local rotisserie truck (we call him the "chicken man") and get a ham-hock or two for dinner the night before.  Use those leftovers instead of the ham bone.  Ham chunks work but the bone seems to do better.  It's gotta have some red pepper in there, not much but some.  If momma's not home, I can throw in some sausage wursts cut up in pieces.  If she's eatin' then I can't.  I'm definitely going to have to try the psuedo red beans and jambalaya mixture from above.  We love sweet cornbread.  I still like the regular old Jiffy style but I like it best with some grated cheese and chopped jalapeno's in it.  It might be sacriligious but I mix my cornbread in my bowl with my beans...

Dang... guess what I think I'll fix on Saturday... y'all made me HONGRY!!!


NGH

[Dee]

When I say red beans in this part of Texas, we all know we're talkin pintos.

[mannyrock]

OK Guys,

  I tried this on a medium size scale, and here's how it shook out:

   1.  One pound of dried red kidney beans.  $1.25

   2.  One cup of dried rice.  Approximately 50 cents

   3.  One half pound of Smithfield pre-cooked smoked sausage.   $1.75

   4.  One can of tomatoe sauce.  $1.25

   5.   One-half  packet of dry, slow cook, chili seasoning.  .75 cents

   6.   A couple of light dashes of onion powder.  No charge.

Total Cost:  $5.50

This produced about 4 pounds of food.  (Those dried beans soaked up FOUR cups of water!)

Problems.

    1.  This turned out to be more expensive than I thought it would.  Of course, I bought the beans in a one pound bag, and the rice in a 5 pound bag, so perhaps the costs of these would be cheaper if I got a 25 pound bag of each at Walmart or Costco.  Still, I doubt that this would shave off more than 50 to 75 cents from the total cost.

    2.  I cooked these danged things for 5 hours.  The taste turned out to be, . . .well,. . . just blah.  Lots of flavor of the dark beans, some annoying light chili flavor in the sauce (just enough to spice your mouth and make you really thirsty), and occassionally a bite of smoked sausage, the flavor of which just didn't match the mix.

  Do you see anything big that I did wrong?  (I've still got 3.5 pounds of this stuff to eat!)

Thanks,
 Mannyrock

[billy_56081]

Take one cup of pintos, half a cup of frijoles negros, soak in water over night. Drain soaked beans cut up one onion, 2 cloves garlic one ham bone or 6 slices of bacon. put it in the crock pot in the morning 3/4 full of water, salt and pepper to taste and get ready to come home to a vewry fine hot meal.

[Oldshooter]

OK Guys,

  I tried this on a medium size scale, and here's how it shook out:

   1.  One pound of dried red kidney beans.  $1.25

   2.  One cup of dried rice.  Approximately 50 cents

   3.  One half pound of Smithfield pre-cooked smoked sausage.   $1.75

   4.  One can of tomatoe sauce.  $1.25

   5.   One-half  packet of dry, slow cook, chili seasoning.  .75 cents

   6.   A couple of light dashes of onion powder.  No charge.

Total Cost:  $5.50

This produced about 4 pounds of food.  (Those dried beans soaked up FOUR cups of water!)

Problems.

    1.  This turned out to be more expensive than I thought it would.  Of course, I bought the beans in a one pound bag, and the rice in a 5 pound bag, so perhaps the costs of these would be cheaper if I got a 25 pound bag of each at Walmart or Costco.  Still, I doubt that this would shave off more than 50 to 75 cents from the total cost.

    2.  I cooked these danged things for 5 hours.  The taste turned out to be, . . .well,. . . just blah.  Lots of flavor of the dark beans, some annoying light chili flavor in the sauce (just enough to spice your mouth and make you really thirsty), and occassionally a bite of smoked sausage, the flavor of which just didn't match the mix.

  Do you see anything big that I did wrong?  (I've still got 3.5 pounds of this stuff to eat!)

Thanks,
 Mannyrock

Salt if it tasted blah! Red pepper also.  I personally would never cook the rice in with the beans unless you like it mushy.

[Chilachuck]

I soak the beans until all of them are plumped up, plus a couple of hours. That can take up to a day and a half in cold weather. It soaks some of the flavor out and all of the gas. That's just pinto beans, the ones that looked marbled. The lighter ones are newer and easier to cook (from what I read on the USDA site on beans).

The only beans I've seen called "red beans" have been a solid color, reddish brown, not marbled.

I'll second the crock pot. One pound of beans really crowds my biggest crock pot, I think it's a 5qt. Generally I toss in a smoked pork shank, some garlic and chipotal pepper, and onion if I have any. I'll have to try adding that other stuff.

That dried up rice can be revived by heating it with a little water added to the pot. Be sure to cover it.

[mcwoodduck]

OK all this rice talk has me thinking I need to make Pialla with chicken, sausages ( I like to use a couple different types), shrimp, scallops, clams, peas, onions and Carrots.

[teamnelson]

Old cowboy told me to soak your beans in a new pair of boots - softens the leather, and makes 'em less gassy he said. Tried it, boots were soft but nothing else was different.

Try sticky rice instead of cornbread if you want to branch out.

[mannyrock]

OK,

   I added alot more salt, and it does taste better.

    I didn't cook the rice in with the beans.  I cooked that up separately.  .

   One of the problems seems to be that the fat in the smoked sausage didn't spread out and blend in with the beans.  There is no general "meat" or "pork" flavor to the beans at all.  (Maybe since the sausage is smoked and pre-cooked, lots of the fat was taken out of it?)

   I think I'll try the 2 or 3 pieces of bacon next time.  (I don't want to be brewing up a coronary.)

   I've never bought a ham-hock before, but since I lived in Memphis for 28 years, I was used to seeing every conceivable part of the hog cut up and sold in the meat section, including "hog maughs" (i.e., the face of the pig, skinned off of the skull, with the ears removed.)  Can't imagine what folks did with those.  (I think they just cut it into tiny pieces to flavor greens.)

  Thanks for all of the input.  I re-weighed everything, and it is really about 5 pounds of food. 


Mannyrock

[mechanic]

Now you've done it.  It's almost 11:00 pm and I have a hankerin' for beans

[Dweezil]

Mannyrock.

Needs onions,garlic and bacon or salt pork.  for each lb of beans you need about 1/2 lb of bacon/salt pork RAW sausage, cooked slow to render the grease, then saute at least 1 large onion until glassy then add 4-5 cloves of crushed garlic. Needs a LOT more chili powder to flavor this much beans(about 1/4 cup to start) Precooked sausage doesn't have enough fat in it to flavor the beans. I normally do this with black or red beans. NOT pinto beans. Damn, this is making me hungry.  Come to think of it, I do still have a ham bone in the freezer.    I wouldn't worry too much about that coronary.  Beans have a lot of soluble fiber which binds a lot of the fat.

[Oldshooter]

I need to make Pialla with chicken

oK I give up, I know alot about cajun, french and mexican, but never heard of Pialla, is that Italion

[teamnelson]

Paella is Spanish; its a rice dish typically mixed with meat, beans, vegetables and spices ... or seafood. It you're thinking mexican rice, you're way off - my RP is Puerto Rican, and gets fussy if you try to compare it to mexican food.

[Oldshooter]

OK,  Lets get a cooking sequence for that! I'll try it!

[mannyrock]

Dear Guys,

    Thanks for all of the greta advice about what to add to basic beans and rice.   The reason that I did not add bacon or raw sausage to the mix was that the primarly goal I had was to make a large amount of fairly good beans/rice as cheaply as possible.   Unfortunately, both bacon and sausage are only sold in quantities of 1 pound and up, and are pretty expensive items.  (If I could have just bought 1/4 pound or so, I would have definitely tried that.)

    The good news is that after day 4 in the refrigerator, the pot of beans is tasting alot better.  I think that over time, the beans have soaked up the chili flavor, and this has given a much better taste to the mix.   Also, whenever I have cooked up rice to go with a serving of the beans, I have dumped all leftover rice into the bean pot, and that has seemed to give the sauce a little more "base" or body.

     Putting a half an onion or so in the pot also sounds like a really good flavor idea, but where I live, a nice big fresh onion costs about $1.25.   Again, this would have pushed the cost up further.  (I guess maybe I could afford to just add a tablespoon of dried onion powder.)

     At present, the 4.5 pounds of food I ended up with cost just over $5.00.   Adding bacon and onion and other spices like garlic would have pushed it well into the $10 to $12 range.  (I know it would have tasted great, but then I would have paid $2.00 to $3.00 a pound for the final mix.)

    I think that as for better flavoring, I will explore what it would cost just to add a small ham bone or hock bone of some sort, that hopefully I can buy at the meat section of the grocery store.  (I can't bring myself to add salt pork or fatback.  The cholesterol is just too much for me.)

   Again, thanks for all information and advice as to my "experiment."

  Best Regards,

  Mannyrock
     

   

[no guns here]

Heck... I'm thinking that beans ARE thrifty, even if I throw in the other stuff.  Anytime I can get a FULL meal for the six of us for under $10 I'm happy.  I usually have a bowl or two of leftovers for myself for later in the week.

Beans is cheap
Rice is cheap
ham bone or ham hock is already paid for in another meal so it's free
seasonings are cheap since I always keep them around
onions are cheap

If I really wanted to go cheap I'd go with one type of bean, half an onion, leftover meat of some kind, and salt and pepper.  Alternate days with potatoes.  They are good for you too... and cheap.

NGH