Red Beans & Rice, Creole Style

courtesy of Kevin Lacassin

www.NolaFoodie.com

There aren’t many food traditions that characterize New Orleans better than Red Beans & Rice on Monday nights.  The tradition began in the days before refrigeration, when fisherman took the day off on Sundays and fresh seafood was not available. Creole women did laundry on Mondays and had plenty of time to let a pot of Red Beans simmer all day while they worked.  It eventually became a tradition for New Orleanians, not only at dinner tables across the city, but at lunch joints and at local taverns as lagniappe with cold beer and football.   You can also make this the easy way, using canned Creole-Style kidney beans made by Blue Runner.  By easy, I mean you can cook the dish in as little as an hour or two.  However, if you are so inclined, cook the full version on Sunday and warm it up for your family on Monday evening.  Serve it with cold Abita beer and hot sauce on the side and your friends or family will thank you.  Don’t forget the warm French bread!

Serves 6-8

Cooking Time: 4 to 5 hours, but the longer the better

INGREDIENTS

• 1 pound smoked SAUSAGE or ANDOUILLE, sliced at a bias
• 1 pound smoked HAM hocks, on the bone, preferably in 2 or 3 small chunks (*see notes)
• 1 pound red kidney BEANS, soaked overnight in cold water
• 2 medium white ONIONS, diced
• 1 green BELL PEPPER, diced
• 4 ribs CELERY, minced
• ½ bunch GREEN ONIONS, chopped
• 2 BAY LEAVES
• Seasonings, to taste: SALT, black PEPPER, CAYENNE PEPPER, THYME, BASIL, OREGANO
• Cayenne HOT SAUCE (Crystal or Louisiana brand), to taste
• 3-5 qts. WATER
• 3 cups (uncooked) white RICE, prepared according to directions

METHOD

1.     Begin by preparing your trinity of white onion, green bell pepper and celery, all chopped fine.  Also chop your green onions and slice your smoked sausage at a bias.

2.     In a large stockpot, sauté the smoked sausage to render the grease.  Remove the sausage from the pot and set aside, it will be added near the end of the cooking process.

3.     Add a ½ stick of butter to the sausage grease and use it to sauté the trinity for about ten minutes, until all vegetables are soft.

4.     To the pot, add ham (on the bone) and beans then pour in enough water to cover the beans, plus another inch.  Season with salt (*see notes), pepper, cayenne, oregano, thyme, basil and add the bay leaf.

5.     Let the beans simmer, uncovered for at least three hours, stirring about every twenty minutes.   Make sure to cook on a low heat to avoid beans on the bottom of the pot from burning.  If the beans look to be getting dry, add more water.

6.     About an hour before you are ready to serve, add the sausage and chopped green onions to the pot and stir thoroughly; taste and season as desired.  Remove the ham bones and pull off the meat, then put it all back in the pot, discard the bones.

7.     If beans are not creamy enough, use a large spoon to smash some of the beans against the side of the pot.  Mix those in until you get your desired consistency. 

8.     Serve beans on a plate or in a bowl with a small scoop of rice.  By nature, the beans and rice will be seasoned well, but not spicy, so make available several different hot sauces for your guests to try.  My favorites are Crystal and Louisiana Brand hot sauces, but I also enjoy Cajun Power Garlic Hot sauce and the many varieties of Tabasco.

NOTES

ü      For the easy version, use three 17 oz. cans of Blue Runner Creole Style Red Beans in the place of the uncooked kidney beans.  This will let you skip the “soaking” step and speed up the entire process.  You can make pretty good red beans and rice in about an hour by using the canned beans.

ü      RE: Adding salt.  Ham hocks are salted then smoked and can add a considerable amount of salt to the dish, and may not require any further salt to be added.  Be VERY careful not to oversalt; you may already have enough.