I had some free brown rice to use. I knew there had to be a beans and rice recipe out there for that. The last three ingredients of the first recipe I saw included dry sherry, soy sauce and balsamic vinegar. That was a combination I needed to try.

I was going to scale the recipe up and some of the numbers just didn't look right. For example it wanted so much onion that it would overload the recipe. I took the picture of the mise en place after cutting the onion in half and knowing that the three ingredients are the end were definitely going to need adjustments. I ended up doubling all but the soy sauce just before serving.

It's getting harder to trust recipes.

But was I able to get it to work? Yes.

Cost per person: $2.45, a little more than the bread and butter.

I had some free brown rice to use. I knew there had to be a beans and rice recipe out there for that. The last three ingredients of the first recipe I saw included dry sherry, soy sauce and balsamic vinegar. That was a combination I needed to try.

I was going to scale the recipe up and some of the numbers just didn't look right. For example it wanted so much onion that it would overload the recipe. I took the picture of the mise en place after cutting the onion in half and knowing that the three ingredients are the end were definitely going to need adjustments. I ended up doubling all but the soy sauce just before serving.

It's getting harder to trust recipes.

But was I able to get it to work? Yes.

Cost per person: $2.45, a little more than the bread and butter.

I think I would have cut the onions the other way so they break down a bit more.

There's a reason "beans and rice" is a cliche for the diet of "The Poors."

It's relatively cheap, will keep you alive, and relatively healthy.

That's the goal. I broke out one of my Indian cookbooks today to see if I could find something In the rice and beans category that offer the balance protein profile, but also add a lot more flavor than we would typically find in an American rice and beans dish.

But I'm going to have to get some money before fully doing that because I need to hit up the Super G and stock up on ginger and curry leaves. So I'm still in the research phase.

The recipe said to slice them length wise. If I did this again i would reduce the amount of onion and celery by half again and I would probably just chop the onion instead of slicing. This gave it too much of a chop suey texture that I didn't really care for. It worked. It could have been better.

When I make red beans and rice I use equal parts onion, celery, and bell pepper. I chop them very finely and then cook them till they turn to a mushy, thick, aromatic sauce.

About an hour before the beans are done I'll scoop out a cup of them out and mash them up to thicken the sauce some more. It's at this point that I'll add some browned sausage into the pot.

I do like adding some pickled onions when serving, because the acidity balances the fat from the sausage nicely.

I wish I could get andouille here.

Andouille is great, but really any smoked sausage works well. I actually prefer boudin if you can get that, because the chunks all stay together.

But don't forget to brown them first, that's very important.

I'll have to try boudin in mine one day, though I'm skeptical that what red beans and rice needs is ground meat and more rice.