Shopping list:
2 cups red beans
Liquid smoke
Sea salt
Gumbo file
Garlic powder
2 Potatoes
Meat choice: New Orleans’ Patton’s sausage, Smokey Hollow sausage, Popeyes chicken, shrimp or merguez sausage.
Black pepper
Beef bouillon
Cayenne pepper
Salted butter
Yellow onions (3)
Bell peppers (3)
Celery (1 bunch)
Vegetable oil
Scallions or chives for topping
Rice

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Measurements:
2 cups of red beans (500 grams)
15 cups water (to start)
1/4 cup Liquid smoke
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1.5 teaspoons gumbo file
1/4 cup garlic powder, plus add 2 more teaspoons toward the end
1 cup skinless potato chunks
4 cups of a meat of your choice
4 cooked cups of sausage
2 tablespoons Patton’s, Smokey hallow, or merguez oil. If not using sausage, add 2 tablespoons more of salted butter, instead.
1 tablespoon black pepper
7 teaspoons of beef bouillon
1 teaspoon Cayenne pepper
1/4 cup salted butter
6 cups Holy trinity:
{holy trinity is 2 cups chopped onions, 2 cups chopped bell peppers, and 2 cups of chopped celery.}
2 separate tablespoons of vegetable oil (for caramelizing the holy trinity)
Rice
Add hot sauce if desired

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Instructions:
1. Thoroughly rinse beans & check for small debris including rocks. Soaking beans is a silly step, which is unnecessary.
2. Cook on high for 1 hour minimum, with a wooden or plastic spoon left inside of the pot, to reduce foam overspill. Don’t burn.
3. Caramelize your holy trinity with the vegetable oil, only.
4. Add 1 cup of fully cooked beans & one cup of bean gravy into a blender or mash thoroughly by hand.
5. Put most back into the pot.
6. Then add 3-4 cups of water, to blend the remaining, and add that to the pot too.
7. Cook again with all seasonings (except for the last scoop of garlic powder to add at the end).
8. Add the chopped potatoes, but on medium, again don’t burn.
9. Note: If you do burn the beans, quickly repot, leaving the burnt layer at the bottom. It’ll ruin the flavor, however, this is how we have come to love the liquid smoke flavor, but with just a little burnt flavor. You’re new, so don’t try it.
10. Use liquid smoke only, instead.
11. Assure that potatoes are completely cooked & melted away into the pot.
12. Add the ending garlic powder, plus 2 cups more of water to cook down on medium again & for about 20 minutes or until all is melted in & creamy again.
13. If using Pattons, roll into 1 inch balls, then cook thoroughly on medium high.
14. Only add the cooked sausage at the end, because adding it too soon, will extract much of the flavor within the sausage.
15. Lightly brush garlic chips until toasty, and chop chives / scallions
16. Cook rice without a rice cooker by adding 2 cups of rice & NEARLY 4 cups of water. (For New Orléans cuisine, we use slightly less water, to have more separated rice.)
17. Cook on high with lid on & bring the rice to a boil, then let it boil until it foams.
18. Reduce heat to very low, and let the rice steam with the lid on, for at least 8 minutes.
19. Plate nicely and add chives / scallions

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For a 10 minute version:
1. Start the rice first
2. Put 6 cans of canned red beans in a pot. (Walmart’s blue runner is good).
3. Hide the cans.
4. Add all listed ingredients except for potatoes & holy trinity.
5. Plate nicely & top with something bright green.
6. Serve with a tired smile, since it took 4 hours. 😉

Directions:
1. Toast 6 cloves of thinly sliced or chopped garlic, or use your pre made garlic.
2. Chop 6 cups of holy trinity.
3. Brown veal chunks in a pan on high.
4. Take the veal out and thinly slice it, until you have only thin, bite sized pieces.
5. Lower the temperature to medium and add the butter, and melt.
6. Add 1 cup of water and turn back on high. Cover & simmer for 5 min.
7. Stop & keep warm low, in the oven.
8. In a separate pot add the bell peppers, onions & celery w/ one TBS of oil.
9. Cook on medium put the top on.
10. Peel & thinly slice the egg plant (about 18 slices).
11. In a ziplock bag, add the eggs, garlic powder, and herbs de Provence.
12. Add the sliced eggplant in the egg mixture bag 2 at a time.
13. In another bag, add the flour, black pepper, cayenne and garlic powder.
14. Cover the egg covered eggplant in the flour mixture.
15. Shake off extra flour.
16. Fry ( six at once, if possible) on medium heat with 1/3 cup of preheated oil. Add a teaspoon of oil at a time, if needed.
17. Cook on each side until golden brown.
18. Immediately after frying, place each on a plate with a cloth towel (or paper, if you don’t have cloth.
19. Boil water for pasta in a large pot, up to the handles level.
20. Add 6 cups of the pasta of your choice, and remove excess water, if the water level is too high.
21. Remove pasta once chewy & al dente, not mushy and overcooked.
22. Leaving the toasted flour from the frying of the eggplant, add the plain tomato sauce to the pan that you’ve previously fried the eggplant in, along with one cup of water.
23. Add the holy trinity.
24. Pat yourself on the back. You’re doing well.
25. Add 2 teaspoons of bouillon.
26. Add 1 tsp of cayenne.
27. Cook on high for 10 minutes, while stirring to prevent burning.
28. To assemble the eggplant into a Parmesan, spread a thin layer of the tomato sauce on a big tray or plate.
29. Add a layer of 4-6 fried eggplant, and another layer of sauce, plus a layer of cheese.
30. Repeat this until you have three of these layers, with cheese also atop the final layer.
31. Broil the eggplant towers carefully, until the top layer of cheese is melted. Don’t burn.
32. Add toasted garlic chips on top.
33. Mix the rest of the sauce with the pasta and plate, with a swirl design as pictured, and then add the veal atop.
34. Make sure that everything is served hot. That’s the balancing part.

Challenge 2 Shopping list & measurements:
Créole veal tips aubergine parmesan.
3 cups of veal chunks
6 cups holy trinity
6 cups pasta
3 cups plain tomato sauce
1 TBS unsalted butter
1 tsp beef bouillon
1 tbs chives
3 eggs
One large eggplant, peeled
One TBS herbs de Provence
2 TBS garlic powder
Two cups flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 TBS black pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
500 grams pizza blend cheese of choice
12 leaves of fresh basil
6 cloves of garlic

(Cook potatoes first, then chicken, etc)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
800 grams chopped chicken breast
4 potatoes
1 julienned red pepper
6 cups red bell pepper juice
4 tablespoons ginger juice
10 tablespoons garlic powder
10 teaspoons beef bouillon
2 cups caramelized onions
6 tablespoon lemon juice
4 teaspoons cayenne
3 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoon ginger powder
6 cups full fat coconut milk
2 cups water to cook down (5-10 minutes)
6 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon of oil to sauce
3 cups Jasmine rice
Top with freshly sliced mint (or basil)