Southern Washday Sustenance

About author / Sarah Christine Bolton

Coffee addict; professional food writer; food fusion. Her slow cooker recipes go above and beyond your normal crockpot fare.

I first visited New Orleans during fall break from my sophomore year at Belhaven College, in Jackson, Mississippi. I had come to Jackson from California just a few weeks before, and was definitely still in culture shock.

I went to New Orleans with a group of people I barely knew, crammed into a mini van for the three hour drive. I sat with my face glued against the window on the way down, watching the swamps and the trees, wishing and hoping I would see an alligator.

It was a gray, damp day, and the smells of the city were strong, broken only by the sounds of the street performers. We, of course, had beignets at Café du Monde. No trip to New Orleans would be complete without a stop at the famous café in the French Quarter. Friendly waiters served beignets covered with powdered sugar, creamy café au lait, and tiny glasses of ice cold water, necessary to rinse out your mouth from the sticky sugar.

Afterwards, we carefully looked down Bourbon Street and shook our heads at the street of debauchery like good Christian girls at a good Christian college should (I have since been back and indulged in the more scandalous version of N'awlins).

We finally decided on a restaurant for lunch. I’m not sure if it was Cajun or Creole food. I used to think I knew the difference between the two cuisines, but then I read an article online and lost all knowledge. Internet articles will do that to you.

I ordered red beans and rice with alligator sausage. It tasted like chicken. The sausage, that is. Being the Southern culture-virgin that I was, I had no idea that I was eating a very integral component of Louisiana Creole cuisine.

Red beans and rice was traditionally made on Mondays with red beans, vegetables (onion and celery), spices (thyme, cayenne pepper, and bay leaf), and pork bones left over from Sunday dinner. All the ingredients were cooked together slowly in a pot and served over hot rice.

The reason for the dish to be cooked on Mondays was because ham was a Sunday meal and Monday was washday. A pot of red beans could simmer on the stove all day while the women were busy scrubbing clothes.

While today we have the conveniences of a washer and dryer (thanks to the brilliant genius who invented them), a meal of red beans and rice is still a great way to start off the week, or to wrap it up.

Even though the dish was originally a domestic meal, cooked mainly in people’s homes, it is now often served in restaurants, especially in New Orleans. Many neighborhood restaurants continue to offer it as a Monday lunch special, usually with a side order of smoked sausage or a pork chop. Even though most people associate Creole food with spiciness, all the notes and recipes I found recommended serving it mild, with a bottle of hot sauce on the side.

Serves/Makes: 4

• 1 pound red kidney beans
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 bell pepper, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 pork ham bone
• salt, to taste
• cayenne, to taste
• black pepper, to taste
• water
• 1 pound smoked sausage cut in 1/2 inch pieces
• cooked rice