-And this is going to go fast now, so don't blink.

♪♪ Don't look at your phone either.

♪♪ Today, we are talking about the combination of beans and rice.

And when you eat beans and rice together, you're eating a complete protein.

And once you have that, you have it made.

-Believe it or not, we don't have to flood rice to make rice.

-Beans with this gravy like this is about one of the healthiest things you can eat.

Mm-hmm.

-Well I'll let you know tonight if I've got any gas.

[ Laughter ] I'm Vivian -- part chef... This is a match made in heaven.

...part student... What is gluten, anyway?

...full of questions.

What's this?

How cold is it in here?

How do you heat it up?

Welcome to "Kitchen Curious."

-Major funding for "Kitchen Curious with Vivian Howard" is provided by... the ETV Endowment of South Carolina, the proud partner of South Carolina ETV and South Carolina Public Radio.

With the generosity of individuals, corporations, and foundations, the ETV Endowment of South Carolina is committed to sharing entertaining and uplifting stories and series like "Kitchen Curious."

And by Penny Kay Cooper.

Additional funding provided by the Bea and Ray Norwood Foundation, building community in Florence, South Carolina.

And First Citizens Bank.

♪♪ -Hey, Viv.

-Hey.

-How you doing?

-I'm good.

How are you?

-Alright.

How was vacation?

-It was good.

It was short.

-Short?

-Yeah.

I didn't know I liked amusement parks so much, but.

-It's far away from Deep Run, North Carolina.

-It is, it is.

[ Laughs ] -Okay.

How's the show doing?

New show?

-It's good, it's good.

We're working on the rice and beans episode.

You know, as part of this, I've been thinking about, you know, my rice and beans memories.

And do you remember when Bojangles opened here?

Like, I'm going to do a little bit of research on the Bojangles dirty rice and pinto beans.

-I'm so glad the show is doing good.

-Me, too.

Me, too.

I'm very grateful to be making it.

I love you, Dad.

-I love you, honey.

♪♪ -Alright, so today, we are not talking about bacon.

Just a little bit.

But we're talking about beans and rice.

Not beans or rice, but the combination of beans and rice.

Now, the combination of beans and rice is eaten in some form all over the world, really.

You know, some of the prime examples I can think of are black beans and rice, red beans and rice, daal and rice.

And then in my own culture, we have something called Hoppin' John, which is field peas, black-eyed peas, red peas, and rice, usually laced with a pork product.

So today, we're going to make a salad version of that that is also inspired by a spinach salad with a hot bacon vinaigrette.

So the reason I wanted to talk about beans and rice is because I'm of a certain age, and every time I turn on my social media, it's telling me that because I'm going through perimenopause, that I need to be eating more protein and more fiber, and beans and rice are a place to find it.

So here we find ourselves.

And when you eat beans and rice together, you're eating what they call a complete protein.

Now, I can't tell you what that is, [Laughs] but I can tell you that it's good for you.

So for our salad, I've got some white rice here mixed up in my bowl, canned black-eyed peas.

I'm going to put in some red bell pepper for some color and texture, some arugula, for the same reason.

I did say we're making a salad, right?

A little bit of salt... and black pepper.

And then I'm just going to mix this up.

And this is what's going to be at the bottom of my salad.

This is the salad without the dressing.

So we have really kind of many of the ingredients that you would have in Hoppin' John, which would be rice and field peas, maybe a little bell pepper.

And so I have been rendering some bacon.

So bacon is going to add a lot of flavor and texture and actually be the fat that makes the vinaigrette for the salad.

So you see I've got this bacon nice and crispy.

Now I'm going to take it out of my pan and let it drain.

And this is going to go fast now.

So don't blink.

Don't look at your phone either.

Okay.

So now you see I have this beautiful bacon fat right here.

I'm going to add some scallions -- the white part only.

Add a little bit of garlic, some Dijon to add some body to the vinaigrette... ...some honey for sweetness, and then my acids, because the vinaigrette has got to have an acid.

Got some red wine vinegar... and some lemon juice.

And what you want is to just see this vinaigrette come up to a boil all across the pan.

And once you have that, you have it made.

So now I'm just going to plate my little Hoppin' John salad.

And you can mix this up and have it ready to pour your dressing over top.

But the dressing you want to pour it on right before you eat it.

This is not one of those bean salads that you can, like, marinate and refrigerate and it improves over time, because the fat in this salad is bacon fat.

So, like, this would be like pouring melted butter on top of something and then putting it in the refrigerator.

So you want to eat this right away.

And you will.

And then finish the whole thing with some of our crispy bacon.

And we have what they are calling a complete protein.

Now, I'm going to be honest and say, I don't know what that is, but my friend Christine is going to help me figure it out at the grocery store.

♪♪ Nowadays you hear so much about protein, and then you hear about the fact that beans and rice are a complete protein.

And I have to be honest, I don't really know what any of it really means.

-Yeah.

So proteins, it's a macronutrient, but every protein is made of amino acids.

But there's nine amino acids, they're called "essential", that our bodies can't make.

So we have to get them from food.

-Okay.

-When someone says "complete protein," it means that they have all nine of those amino acids that we can't make in our bodies.

-And why does that matter?

Why do we -- Why is protein so important?

-It's what our muscles are made out of.

It's kind of the building block of our own bodies, too.

But I would say most of us probably are getting enough already.

-That is not what they're telling me on the Tiktoks.

♪♪ As a nutritionist, I imagine you do a lot of talking about rice and beans.

-Yeah, it's a staple for sure.

-And, you know, beans, like, what specifically -- What's so good about them for us?

Like why -- Why?

-Sure.

So from a nutrition perspective, they've got a lot of stuff in them.

They have protein, they have carbs, and they have a lot of fiber, which means they're good for your digestion.

And that mixed with protein really helps to keep you full.

You can pick your favorite one.

There's really no need to go for one over the other because it has half a gram more of this or less of that.

-Right.

So they're all, like, across the board, more beans, more better.

-More beans, more better.

-It depends on who you live with.

[ Both laugh ] ♪♪ We all know that brown rice is better for us because everyone's told us it is.

I can't really tell you why, but we also all know that white rice tastes so much better.

Like, is it -- is it that important?

-Brown rice has more fiber than white rice, which is why everyone says it's better.

But when we actually look at how much fiber these things have, this one, the white rice, has one gram and this one, the brown rice, has two.

So you're not getting all your fiber from rice anyway.

I think it's a pretty minuscule difference.

-If you enjoy white rice, eat it.

-Just eat the white rice.

-Right.

Thank you.

-Yeah.

-I'll take that home with me.

♪♪ So I used to have a show on public television called "A Chef's Life".

On that show, in almost every episode, I go to a farm to learn from a farmer more about where our food comes from.

So today, since I now know what a complete protein is, we're going to celebrate and we're going to go to two farms -- one that grows beans and one that grows rice.

And then I think I'll be complete.

♪♪ -[ Laughing ] -This is the first time I've heard him not talking since I've been here.

-Well, we like to keep it entertaining.

We don't want to take ourselves too seriously.

Nice to see you again.

-Nice to see you.

-We're excited to have you visit our farm.

And after we're done, you're going to say, "All this to kill a duck?"

-So I thought we were here to talk about rice.

-Oh, no.

Rice is just how we're making the duck hunting work.

-Oh.

-So where we're at, we're at Tidewater Grain.

We are a heirloom rice farm.

We were trying to hunt ducks.

We were trying to farm to pay for our duck hunting hobby.

-But what in the heck do ducks have to do with it?

I think you take for granted that people know.

-Okay, well that's good.

So, you know, the formula we used to use is water plus corn equals ducks.

It's math.

We're math folks.

-Okay, Sorry.

Yeah, yeah.

-So if you have enough water and you have enough corn, you're going to attract the ducks.

-Because they eat the corn.

-They're going to eat the corn.

Well, the same is true for rice.

-Okay.

-Rice is just as good as corn in that environment where you would leave the small seeds -- just like we're using for rice -- we would leave the small seeds for the ducks.

The more diverse that ecosystem gets, the better our duck hunting gets.

So we're creating a destination.

We are their Disney World.

-[ Laughs ] -We don't want ducks to fly over dry fields.

We want them to fly over impoundments.

-Well, I would love to see one of these impoundments.

-Okay.

So we're going to get you a straw hat, and we need to get us some water because, so we don't get dehydrated.

-Okay.

-So let's grab some water.

I'm going to grab us a hat, and we'll go from there.

-And do I need to drive the gator for you?

-Nope.

You're going to grab our water.

-Okay.

Oh, me get the water?

Oh.

-Yes.

-[ Screams ] [ Bleep ] [ Whimpering ] There's a snake in there.

-Not a real one.

[ Laughs ] -[ Laughs ] Okay.

-Sorry.

-Go get -- Go -- Let's go.

-It never -- -[ Laughter ] -You just gotta understand, it never gets old to me.

-It never -- It never loses.

♪♪ So we are here in the middle of a farm that we call Sawyer.

And, in fact, this used to be tobacco ground.

-Absolutely.

-Right here, so.

-Which is so interesting because that's sandy soil and we're sitting in the middle of a swamp it feels like.

-I think that's fairly accurate.

-Yeah.

[ Laughs ] -We work really hard to make it a swamp.

-To make it a swamp.

-To make it a swamp.

-So yeah, I want people to understand this is not natural.

-No, no.

-It's natural, but man-made.

-That's right.

-Yes.

-So everything that we're standing on, we've had to build.

-Right.

-And so, in fact, what we're standing on is a dike that Justin built.

-With this levee, we had to pull dirt from over here because this is higher and simply stacked it right here to try to make the water levels.

This water level is probably 8, 10 inches lower than the water level over here.

-Does the amount of rain affect -- Like, if you get too much rain are you, like, going to over flood your rice?

-We appreciate every drop of rain we get.

-Okay.

-We call that free water.

-[ Laughs ] Yeah.

-Right?

-I mean, it's because -- -Well, you don't have to pump it.

-We're not having to pump it.

I mean, it's a big number for our farm for every inch of rainfall we get.

It's thousands and thousands of dollars that we don't have to spend, if the good Lord gives us a rain shower like we had earlier today.

-Right.

Believe it or not, we don't have to flood rice to make rice.

That's a huge misconception.

Rice is only flooded as a herbicide.

-So it's just that rice can grow in water -- -Bingo.

Yes.

-...which is why you do it as a more cost effective way to prevent weeds.

-Right.

-Alright, so we're heading out there.

-Into the great unknown.

-Right.

Well, I'm going behind the three of you.

So it's going to be known three times before me.

-Yes, yes, Al will lead the way here.

♪♪ -That was close to maximum effort.

You need to understand that.

-I thought you might fall backwards.

-Well, and I know you were rooting for that.

-All of this come from one seed.

-One noble seed.

-Of rice right here.

-Right here.

-This is what we planted.

-One of those.

-We planted one of those to get everything that's in your hand.

-How do you go about harvesting something like this?

It's, like, kind of treacherous in here.

You know?

-All this water won't be here when it comes time to harvest.

It has to be the worst drained land six months out of the year and the best drained land the other six months out of the year.

So as fast as we need to put water on, we need to be able to get it off.

When we harvest, we harvest with a regular old combine the same way you would wheat or any other grain crop.

-We're not in this for yield.

-We're not into commodity.

-You're in it for the ducks.

-We're in it for the ducks.

[ Laughter ] ♪♪ -This is the mill.

-This is the mill.

So you've seen the rice, where it's grown, and this is where it comes after that to be processed into something that people can actually eat.

-So it's like taking it out of the husk.

-That's right.

It takes it out of the husk.

And then depending on if it's going to be brown or white rice, it takes the bran layer off, or leaves it on if it's brown.

And then also does a lot of sorting.

So sorting out anything that we don't want to wind up on someone's plate.

-Alright, so getting our order right, we got Justin first.

We've got our paddy rice to say it's got our shell on.

And then we take the hull off, the shell or the husk.

Now we've got brown rice.

-Right.

-We can sell this just like this.

We can eat this just like this.

This is whole grain, to say it's been minimally processed.

So now we've got whole grain.

But we don't want whole grain.

Now we want white rice.

Okay?

We're going to polish it and remove this dark brown flour called bran.

Now it comes to you.

We now separate it by size.

Now you get middlins and you get whole grain rice.

-Which I like to call rice, "grits."

-Rice grits, middlins, broken rice.

-Makes great risotto.

-Great grits and all kinds of stuff.

-And it's all good.

-And it's all good.

-It's all good.

♪♪ -We were looking for some people in the area who grow beans, but not just basic beans.

And we saw y'all have cranberry beans.

-Yes.

-And I don't know anybody in eastern North Carolina that grows them.

-We don't know anybody else who grows them, because everybody comes to look for them from us.

They're a real popular item that we grow.

-Yeah.

They're beautiful.

I mean, this is beautiful.

So how did y'all get into the business of farming?

-This is a central farm.

This is Martin Family Farm.

This farm has been here since 1883.

My grandfather served in the 135th Colored Troop.

He mustered out after about a year.

After he got the pension, he bought the first land.

And this farm has been in the exact same family since 1883.

-But then how did you start with the beans?

And what types of beans do you grow?

-Our mother grew these beans, and we've always loved them.

We've had these beans as part of what we ate when we were growing up and putting in tobacco, these beans were on the table.

-I want everybody to understand that when we talk about rice and beans, we're also talking about rice and peas.

-Yes, it is.

-It's a a legume.

-Right.

-And then you've got these.

These are field peas over here.

-Well, these -- Well, I don't exactly call these field peas because there is lots of peas.

This is a crowder pea.

-Oh, okay.

What's your favorite pea, then?

-Mine was always this one right here.

-Crowder peas.

-Because the reason I like this 'cause when I cook this, you don't have to really make a gravy in it.

When they get about done, I just take a spoon and just mash some up side of the thing and let it cook down, and then they make a real dark, smooth gravy.

And these will do the same.

-So your favorite -- your favorite pea is that.

What's your favorite bean or legume?

-Well, I'm going to say the cranberry beans.

-Okay.

That's a good answer.

-[ Laughter ] ♪♪ Did you cook me some beans I guess, or...?

[ Laughs ] -Yes.

We cooked you some cranberry beans.

-Amazing.

They do look just like a pinto bean in here.

-Yes, yes.

-Very similar.

-So what did you put in here?

-I'm a pork guy, okay.

Some people like smoked turkey, and they're delicious with smoked turkey, but I like to use the smoked hog jowls, or sometimes I'll use the smoked neck bones.

And then I start that, and then I put the onion and my seasoning salt, and, you know, little... -Little secrets.

-Yeah, just a little -- few secrets in there.

And, uh, and then we put a good pinch of baking soda in there.

That makes the beans tender and it also takes the gas away from them.

-Really?

-And that really helps de-gas the beans.

-This gravy.

I think people don't understand, like, this gravy is just made by the beans, basically, and the water and the starch that they give up.

We're talking about beans and rice.

And so this is, like, ideal... -Yes.

-...having these beans over rice because it's like rice and gravy.

-It's a whole meal.

-It is a whole meal.

It's a complete meal.

-And most people don't realize that's one of the best proteins for you you can eat.

-Yes.

-Alright.

We're gonna try the cranberry beans.

♪♪ -These are amazing.

So the thing is, is that when I eat these, they taste, like, decadent and, like, luxurious.

But it's, like, beans with this gravy like this is about one of the healthiest things you can eat.

-Mm-hmm.

-That's why I like them.

So they're just creamy to me, almost.

-Mm-hmm.

-Yes.

It's like a lot of people say, and you mentioned this, the trick to getting them creamy like this is to lower the heat and let them cook slowly.

-Right.

Yeah.

-I've never heard the baking soda before and I will try that.

-Not a lot because you'll taste it if you put too much.

Just a pinch.

You take a pinch and you'll see it, it'll foam up almost like the head on a beer.

-Interesting.

Well, I'll let you know tonight if I've got any gas.

[ Laughter ] Believe it or not, the first time I had beans over rice was from a drive thru.

-Hey, how are you doing today?

-Hi.

Good.

How are you?

-Oh, great.

I have those rice and pintos for you.

-Perfect.

-Thank you.

You have an awesome day, and come back.

See you soon.

-Thank you.

The first time I ever had dirty rice was at Bojangles.

Very tasty.

It's healthy, too.

This is my complete proteins.

♪♪ You know, because everybody doesn't have a Bojangles in their backyard, I wanted to show you how I make a pinto bean and dirty rice gratin.

So we're going to start by browning some sausage.

So this is what we call here country sausage.

But you also know it as loose breakfast sausage.

If you can't find loose breakfast sausage you can always cut the little sausages out of their casing.

So I'm going to add my sausage to my skillet.

And I just want to make sure that my skillet is not crowded.

There's as much surface area of sausage on the skillet as possible.

So I'm going to spread it out here because what we're looking for is caramelization.

You know we want brown crispy sausage, not gray flabby sausage.

I'm looking for some caramelization on this side.

I don't quite have it yet, but what we're building in this skillet here is what's going to make the rice dirty.

This is inspired by Cajun cooking.

So dirty rice would often have some kind of ground meat product, and often a liver of some kind.

And we are going to do that, so don't worry.

Alright.

That is nice sausage caramelization right there.

So I'm going to turn this over.

♪♪ And I'm gonna add onions, celery, and green bell pepper, also known as the holy trinity of Cajun cooking.

And I'm going to season that with a little bit of salt just so those vegetables start to give off a little liquid and sweat.

We're going to let that work for just a minute.

I want the bell pepper and the onion to kind of get a little soft.

And just after that I'm going to add these livers.

Now these are chopped chicken livers.

And I know for a lot of you, when I mentioned that you're just kind of turned off by it, but there's not enough liver in here that anyone's really going to know.

You're not going to be able to see it.

It kind of dissolves, like anchovy, into sauces, if they're chopped kind of fine.

And what it's going to do is just give this a deep, earthy, rich flavor that the sausage alone can't even do.

Alright, so now I'm going to add my chicken livers.

See, I chopped them up.

You can put them in a food processor if you wanted.

Kind of stir that around, and you see, like, the livers disappear pretty quickly into the mixture.

I'm going to add a little bit of garlic.

I like to add that toward the end, just because it has the tendency to burn.

And people love to burn garlic I've noticed.

And then the final thing to make it dirty is going to be some cumin or "cu-min."

We've been having a conversation, so I'm going to say it both ways.

Just so I'm right.

I add that because I feel like cumin makes anything with ground meat, it makes it taste meatier, and I love the way it kind of also looks on the rice.

It kind of coats the rice.

Not only going to have dirty rice, I'm going to have a dirty counter.

And so now I'm going to add this mixture to my bowl so I can really mix everything up properly.

♪♪ Okay, so I'm going to come back to my bowl here and add white rice, cooked white rice.

And then I'm going to add my canned pinto beans, rinsed and drained.

I have a pantry with a lot of canned beans in it.

They're great to have around.

You know, I do love to cook beans from dry, but if I'm trying to make something quickly, you just can't beat a canned bean.

Alright, so I'm mixing this all together.

I'm going to add some black pepper.

I'm going to add a little extra salt.

And then I've got a big wallop of chopped parsley, because I like the kind of freshness that it adds and the way that it looks, it flecks the rice.

Stir that in.

And then I'm just going to add a little chicken stock, or also known as bouillon and water.

You know, I have a lot of feelings around chicken broth and chicken stock.

I never buy stock in the cardboard container or in the plastic jug.

I-I can't get behind that.

Um, and I find that this is also, like canned beans, a great thing to have around -- little bouillon cubes.

♪♪ And then I'm gonna dot the top with butter, and then put this in a 350-degree oven for about 40 minutes, or until, you know, the top has kind of caramelized brown.

You know, oftentimes I would add cheese to the top of something like this to create texture or a crust.

But we're going to let the butter and the grains of rice do that.

So I just realized that I talked so much about my chicken broth that I forgot to put it in.

You know, it's not the first time, but that's not a problem.

I'm just looking for some moisture in my gratin so all the flavors kind of come together as it bakes, so I'm just going to pour it over top.

You're not going to make me start over.

Alright.

Even better.

350 for about 40 minutes.

♪♪ So this is, like, nice and crunchy on top.

Some of the rice has, you know, browned and it's going to provide, like, a really nice crust.

♪♪ Oh, wow.

That is so satisfying but also so light.

You know, it's nice that it doesn't have cheese or cream, that it's just brought together by broth.

And then these little crispy bits of bean and rice on top.

Mmm.

I don't know I think a complete protein never tasted so good.

♪♪ -Major funding for "Kitchen Curious with Vivian Howard" is provided by... the ETV Endowment of South Carolina, the proud partner of South Carolina ETV and South Carolina Public Radio.

With the generosity of individuals, corporations, and foundations, the ETV Endowment of South Carolina is committed to sharing entertaining and uplifting stories and series like "Kitchen Curious."

And by Penny Kay Cooper.

Additional funding provided by the Bea and Ray Norwood Foundation, building community in Florence, South Carolina.

And First Citizens Bank.