Needed: Red Beans and Rice

[hunterdrake]

Anyone have a great recipe?

[BlackHogDown]

This one looks good enough. Only thing I'd add is a bit of tasso (or hamhock) if you've got it when browning the sausage. I'm curious of Blake's input.

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/...beans-and-rice

• 1.5 pound dried red beans (preferably New Orleans Camelia brand)
• 1 pound andouille sausage, sliced ?-inch thick (smoked sausage can also be used)
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 medium onions, finely diced
• 1 large rib celery, finely diced
• 1 medium green bell pepper, chopped
• 1.5 teaspoons black pepper
• ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 3 bay leaves
• 2 teaspoons dried basil
• 3/4 teaspoon rubbed sage
• 1 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1 bunch fresh green onions, chopped
• Cooked white long-grain rice, for serving

1) In a large bowl, cover beans in water and soak for at least 4 hours or overnight. (Water should cover beans by at least an inch.)
2) In a large, heavy pot, brown sausage in 1 tablespoon of oil until slightly crisp. Add remaining oil, then the garlic and onions. Saute over medium heat until onions become transparent and limp. Add celery and bell pepper and saute for 5 minutes.
3) Pour soaked beans and water into the pot and bring to a simmer. Add black pepper, cayenne, salt and all herbs except parsley.
4) Cook until beans are softened, about 1.5 to 2 hours. Taste and adjust seasonings.
5) Fifteen minutes before serving, remove 1 cup of beans to a bowl and, using a fork, mash them and stir back into the pot to enhance the creamy texture of the dish. Add parsley and green onions. Simmer about 15 minutes, taste and adjust seasoning, and add up to 1 cup more water if beans seem too thick. Remove bay leaves. Serve over white long-grain rice.

[Swtexan]

This is the one I use


◦ 2 onions, diced
◦ 1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
◦ 1 stalk celery, diced
◦ 2 tablespoons rendered bacon fat
◦ 1 pound dried red kidney beans
◦ 2 smoked ham hocks
◦ 3 bay leaves
◦ ? teaspoon cayenne pepper
◦ 3 green onions, chopped
◦ Salt
◦ Freshly ground black pepper
◦ Tabasco
◦ 3 cups cooked Basic Louisiana White Rice (recipe follows)
Recipe

• Sweat the onions, bell peppers, and celery in the rendered bacon fat in a heavy soup pot over medium-high heat. Once the onions become translucent, add the kidney beans, ham hocks, bay leaves, and cayenne, then add water to cover by 2 inches.
  
  Increase the heat and bring the water to a boil.
  Cover the pot, reduce the heat to low, and allow the beans to slowly simmer for 2 hours. Periodically stir the beans to make sure that they don't scorch on the bottom of the pot, adding water if necessary, always keeping the beans covered by an inch or more of water.
  
  Continue cooking the beans until they are creamy and beginning to fall apart when they're stirred. Remove the ham hock meat from the bones, roughly chop it, and add it back to the pot of beans. Stir in the green onions and season with salt, black pepper, and Tabasco. Serve with white rice.

[Cajun Blake]

both aforementioned recipes are solid. I drain my water after soaking the beans. Then add new water into pot and cover the beans 1-2 inches.

the Camelia dry red beans come in a 1 pound bag which is what I use.

definitely go with smoked meat: sausage, andouille, tasso, ham hock, etc .... brown the meat and cook down the onions

when the beans are soft from cooking and basically done, I remove around 3/4 of a cup and puree them with a hand immersion blender. That will make the beans creamy when you add the puree'd stuff back into the pot.

inet pic, which looks good to me

[Hunteraudit]

Tagging this, I like that trick Blake mentioned about blending some and adding back.

[BlackHogDown]

Tagging this, I like that trick Blake mentioned about blending some and adding back.

It's a MUST, IMO

[Johnny44]

I noticed nobody is using small red beans, 1 cup dry red wine, 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, or dried mint. Blending the beans back in is for Red Bean Gumbo.

Justin Wilson tricks

[ThisLadyHunts]

I noticed nobody is using small red beans, 1 cup dry red wine, 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, or dried mint. Blending the beans back in is for Red Bean Gumbo.

Justin Wilson tricks

Are the small red beans just a smaller version of kidney beans or are they a different bean altogether? If different, how do they compare in taste.

Interesting idea to use mint in the beans.

[wytex]

Try some Bolita beans, I have bag coming form Adobe Milling.
I just add an onion and garlic clove with a green chile and then add chicken bullion after they cook a while. Supposedly adding salt too early makes the skins tougher.

[Johnny44]

Are the small red beans just a smaller version of kidney beans or are they a different bean altogether? If different, how do they compare in taste.

Interesting idea to use mint in the beans.

If you use kidney beans whether light or dark you get a lot of “skin” compared to small red beans. They taste the same. In the big scheme of things you have to work hard to screw up any beans that you cook with salt, and pork.

[Johnny44]

I’m somewhat of a hardliner on the use of the term “Gumbo”, I give respect and credit where it is due and gumbo is a derivative of the African word for okra. I simply won’t call it a gumbo if it doesn’t have skillet browned okra.

Over the centuries I believe it has forked in its definition to mean a soup or stew made with any kind of “thickening” agent like FILET, SMASHED OR BLENDED BEANS, OKRA, AND/or Roux.

[Johnny44]

I’m pretty sure that small red beans, light and dark kidney are three different beans

For standard red beans and rice I only use a little ham hock and bacon, little meat. I like my sausage grilled and separate.

For a red bean gumbo I put the meat, roux, blended beans, bay leaves, and liquid to it.

I also don’t mix rice with nor pour my gumbo (of any kind) over rice. I use enough ingredients for it to stand alone.

[Johnny44]

On the crushed dried mint, it doesn’t even taste like mint to me. Somewhere a cross of the basil/sage thang mentioned above.

[ThisLadyHunts]

Johnny44, sounds like you’ve done this a lot! Thanks for sharing your wisdom with us.

[Johnny44]

Only because I grew up poor with a pot of beans on the woodstove or propane cooktop every day.

Now all the cheap stuff is high dollar stuff like tomato soup, chicken wings, brisket, crawfish and such.

Unlike Blake, I just rinse the beans good, add water and wine to cover the beans by an inch or so, add all of the other ingredients cept meat, put the pot in the fridge overnight. Next day I add the pork and pork or chicken stock then either throw on the stove or in a crock pot.

Only five ways I’ve seen to ruin a pot of any kinda beans is:

Not rinsing the soap outta da pot when you warsh it

Letting the pot run dry and scorching the beans (and we have eaten plenty of blackened beans !)

Too much salt

Too much hot pepper

No cornbread to go with it