Tappingflamingo : EASY DIRTY RICE

Thursday, March 15, 2012

EASY DIRTY RICE

I love Cajun food. Living in Louisiana, I get to eat a lot of it, and have learned to cook some good stuff! One thing down here, though, everyone thinks Southern food is spicy. Southern food is usually stuff like, fried chicken, fried catfish and fried okra, (Notice a theme? They like their food fried). They also like biscuits, gravy, grits, and cream corn. Anything cooked in bacon is always a hit too. A lot of times they add bacon or bacon grease to their food. Have you ever had green beans done Southern style? Oh, how yummy they can be, they aren't too healthy though. One of my husbands favorite things are white beans. I've just listed a few of the Southern foods that many of my friends ate. You really didn't see much spice added to it, just A LOT of salt and a little pepper.

Cajun food, on the other hand, is very SPICY!!! And I LOVE it! My family is originally from Colorado, and so I ate a lot of Mexican food when I was young. When my husband and I moved the family down to Louisiana, I was able to handle the spiciness. One of our favorite things to use is Tony's Cajun seasoning. We pretty much add it to everything.

When my daughter went out to BYU, I sent her with a giant size Tony's, and it seemed it was always missing. She got all her roommates and friends hooked on the stuff too.

I would like to share a recipe with you that I just tried.

EASY DIRTY RICE
Brown 1/2 or 1 # of spicy sausage (I used 1#, next time I think I'm going to use 1/2#).

Once it is brown, add 1 stalk of celery, 1/2 large onion, and 1 bell pepper. This is known as the Trinity in Cajun cooking. I used a red bell pepper because I had some frozen from our garden last year, but you can use any color.