B and B

This is one of my wife's favorite recipes.  It is quick, cheap, and delicious.  We discovered this dish at Yat's, a now chain restaurant centered in Indianapolis.  They have a great selection of cajun food cheap.  There dishes are great vehicle for hot sauce, which I love.

So the dish is black beans with caramelized corn and red pepper.  The first "B" I guess stands for "Black Beans", but I am not honestly sure what the second "B" stands for, but it is "B and B".

Part of the key to the flavor is caramelizing the corn.  The controlling factors are moisture and heat level.  I have always used canned corn, but frozen or fresh might work just as well (or better).  Canned corn is of course packing in water, so you need to do a decent job of draining the corn and letting it sit a bit in the sieve to let it drip through.  You are never going to get it all out, so you need to boil off the rest.  Don't be timid with the heat.  I usually crank it up to one notch from max and that gets rid of the water quick.  Max on my stove is killer and I try to avoid it unless there is no risk of scorching.

One the corn is dry, modulate the heat so that the corn start to brown a little.  Don't baby it, but don't get impatient.  You don't want it black.  The corn should deepen in color as the white sugar in the corn turns to brown caramel.

Yes, there is a decent amount of butter in this.  There's no meat, so it is still pretty healthy.

The milk can be switched out with heavy cream.  Skim might work, but they sauce will be a little thin.  Try some red beans, black eyed peas, or pinto beans for a change.  If you don't like spicy, switch the cayenne to paprika.  Mmm.  Paprika.

B and B

4 Tbs Butter (half a stick)
2 cans sweet corn, drained
2 Tbs brown sugar
2 cans black beans, drained
1 red pepper, chopped
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 Tbs kosher salt
pepper to taste

1) Melt the butter over medium high heat.  Be careful not to burn the butter
2) Add the corn and boil off the liquid
3) Fry 5-10 minutes, modulating heat and stirring to caramelize the corn
4) Add brown sugar and fry 2 more minutes.
5) Add black beans on red pepper and fry 2 minutes
6) Add milk, cayenne, salt, and pepper.
7) Heat to boiling, then simmer until the sauce is properly thick, around 2-3 minutes
8) Serve over rice.  Add hot sauce as you wish.

I'll add some pictures next time I make it.