New Orleans, LA –
Hi, this is Richard McCarthy with the WWNO Farmers Market Minute When is the last time you can recall cooking with fresh red beans? Have you ever? How can it be that one of the more iconic ingredients from the Creole canon simply isn't readily available fresh? The variety we think of as the Louisiana red bean comes to us originally from West Africa. In June, I stumbled upon the most beautiful, jewel-like ros colored offering from young farmer Nick Usner: fresh red beans. Before these nuggets of protein dry and get all hard and deep red, when fresh from the field they look like garnet, only lighter in color. As to cooking, no need to soak for hours and hours. At first I wasn't even sure whether these beans needed boiling. If curious to cook with fresh red beans, hunt down Bush, Louisiana's Nick Usner. He's due for an autumn harvest very soon. For the WWNO farmers market minute, this is Richard McCarthy.