So, I love beans and rice. I have a pretty simple recipe that I use.

Been thinking about cooking up a batch this week. Have decided that I'd like to try a new recipe.

SO... post your family secret recipe. Tell me why it is the best ever.

Thanks, Owl.

Not an old family secret but here's the one I like.

I use red beans instead of kidney but other than that I see no need to change anything.

It may not be hot enough for some depending on the Andouille but you can always add a little hot sauce.

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/58211/authentic-louisiana-red-beans-and-rice/

Please don't get out the pitchforks.



I bought a box mix at Sav-a-lot, just thought of a simple quick side.


Ticked me off how good it was, considering the time it take to
make them properly.

tag

Could we get back to briskets?

My wife took this one from Willy Robertson's book and it has been good when she made it.


1 pound dry kidney Pinto beans
1/3 cup olive oil
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 large onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 tablespoons minced garlic
6 cups water
a couple of slices of bacon, cut up
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper (less if you are feeding kids)
2 bay leaves (if you don’t have it in your cabinet don’t worry about it)
a pinch of brown sugar
1 teaspoon Phil Robertson’s Cajun Style Seasoning
1 tablespoon parsley flakes (again, don’t sweat it if you don’t have it)
1 pound Andouille sausage, sliced (Add more if you like sausage, or a different kind if this is too spicy.)
Ham bone with as much ham left on it as you want (I buy one that is honey glazed, take the ham off for sandwiches, then use what’s left for beans)
4 cups water
2 cups long grain white rice
Louisiana Hot Sauce
Directions:

Rinse beans and transfer to a large pot with ham bone six cups of water. Make sure the water is covers all the beans.
In a skillet, heat olive oil and cut up bacon over medium heat. Sauté onion, garlic, bell pepper, and celery for three to four minutes.
Stir cooked vegetables into beans.
Season with bay leaves, cayenne pepper, parsley, and Cajun Style Seasoning.
Bring mixture to a boil and then reduce heat to medium and cook 4 to 6 hours, or until beans are soft and done. Simmer for 2 1/2 hours.
Cut sausage into slices and brown in skillet on medium heat with a teaspoon of olive oil.
Stir sausage into beans towards the end of cooking time and continue to simmer for thirty minutes.
Add a pinch of brown sugar to taste.
In a saucepan, bring water and rice to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for twenty minutes. Serve beans over steamed white rice and add plenty of Louisiana Hot Sauce.

My wife makes the best but in a pinch ya can’t beat Popeyes.

Tag

Thanks guys.

Bought a few smoked ham hocks today, and some fresh pink kidney beans. Think I'm going to try a slow cooker method. I work on Saturdays. I start at 4am.
Thinking that if I soak the beans Friday night, and cut up all of the ingredients and stick them in zip lock bags, then all I will need to do on Saturday morning is to
dump them into the slow cooker on load, and by lunch time they will be ready. Think that I'll take some hot links, Polish or Andouille and add it to the pot about
an hour before I'm ready to eat. Maybe garnish with some chopped green onions and a few dashes of Louisiana hot sauce. Have red beans and rice at work, HA !

Ingredients

1 pound dried red kidney beans rinsed
1 ham Hock
1 lb pound smoked sausage thinly sliced (andouille or smoked)
3 celery ribs chopped
1 green bell pepper chopped
1 medium onion chopped
2 garlic cloves minced
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon chili powder
7 cups water
4 cups uncooked long grain rice
green onions chopped, for garnish
fresh parsley chopped, for garnish

Instructions

Add red kidney beans, smoked sausage, celery, bell pepper, onion, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, salt, chili powder, and water to a 6-quart slow cooker. Set on high setting and cook for 6 hours.
Cook rice according to package directions.

Serve red beans over top of the cooked rice. Top with fresh green onions and parsley

+1

I have found the small dry "Red Chili Beans" work best for me

I use dry small red beans soaked overnight. Sliced Andouille rendered a bit then toss in 1 diced sweet onion, 1 cup diced celery and 1 large diced green bell pepper. Cook that down a bit until the trinity is soft. Toss in the beans and stir to mix and cover the beans in the mixture. After about three minutes I deglaze the pot with chicken stock or water. I then cover in chicken stock or water one inch over the beans. I add whatever cajun seasoning Im using that week and two bay leaves. Bring to boil then reduce heat to simmer. I let it simmer until the beans are creamy and soft. Sometimes I hit it for a few seconds with my emersion blender or just take a cup of the beans and smash them to help thicken up the beans. Sometimes I eat them over rice as a meal and sometimes I eat them as a side without rice like any other beans. If I have leftovers sometimes I add chicken stock and hit it with the emersion blender and create a soup. You can eat the soup with some corn bread or crusty french bread. Im off bread right now.
If you cant find good andouille sausage smoke polish or keiobasa sausage or smoked pork sausage can be substituted. I will sometimes use smoked ham hocks and chopped up smoked ham along with the sausage if I have them. Sorry I dont measure out things much so my recipes lack exact measurements. It in the end the beans need a little more kick I serve with tabasco or whatever hot sauce is around so people can season them to their own taste or lack of. To me variety is important so I use different things in my stews and beans. I like red beans about ten different ways.

Red Beans and Rice is a Monday staple here in New Orleans. It is a basic meal that many not from here try to over load. This is a long time N.O. family recipe
1LB of Camilia Red kidney beans
1/4 cup of bacon grease
1lb Pickle Pork
1 med onion sliced in half
salt and pepper to taste
wash beans and soak for one hour.
Bring beans to hard boil for 20 minutes
Turn down fire to where they are just turning over and cook for two hours. Add water and still occasionally as needed.
Garnish with Louisiana hot sauce when served.
Fried pork chops or fried catfish
go well with this.

Well that's for dinner tonight, I'll let you know how it turns out!

Sounds great... We will have to try it...

I wasn't real impressed! And leftovers for lunch, if was better then. For the time spent, I'd rather have Zaterands!

Denny

Used to be a real good recipe right on the bag of Camilia red beans.

I have found the "Small Red Chili Beans" to work really well.
Starting from "dry beans" of course

Years ago the wife and I were in a crafts type store in Joplin, Missouri and I was staring around all slack-jawed, bored out of my skull. My eyes fixed on some t-shirt and it had this recipe on it. Not quite. I modified the recipe and came up with this one and we've ate it for years.

Couple of pounds of sausage. I like Owens the best, but it's not always available. RB Rice is about as good.

Two cans of Red Beans. Substitute Pintos for one or both, just as good. Walmart's Great Value are okay but Bush's are the best.

Goodly bit of chili powder. Couple of shakes of Red Pepper or Cayenne. Few shakes of garlic. Minced onion. Add all this in as you're browning the sausage. Drain the grease off. Add in the beans. Make up about two cups or so of Rice (as measured after it's cooked.) I like Uncle Ben's Brown Rice the best. Add in the rice. Let all this simmer for awhile and then turn off the burner and let it stand. It just gets better as it stands, just don't let the bottom stuff burn whilst simmering or standing.

This can be made on an electric or gas stove. It is best though, cooked outside over an open flame in a dutch oven or high sided iron skillet. You can add ketchup to taste if you like it sweeter and/or Tabasco if you like it hotter/spicier.

This recipe can be a Depression Era cheapie if you are low on cash or a bit higher dollar with the better grade of ingredients. Either way it is not expensive.

u r always tagging everything...LOL

I should like to join this conversation and will offer the last word on things RED BEANS.

Regarding the many variations and vicissitudes on things beans and what’s best for them, a clarifying issue is that we are all in agreement that pork was made for a pot of red beans, which is as certain as no man steps into the same bayou twice – sort of.
To begin soaking the dry red beans is important and an overnight soak with cold water is easy enough. The seasoning meat is the main issue. Many suggest and argue that pickle pork is the essence, or that smoked ham hocks are the bomb, these are merely training sessions up to the gastronomic big boy stage. The last word on seasoning meats is a smoked ham shank. Done.

A particular detail is also to be heeded. Volume matters. Simmering two pounds of beans vs. a single pound results in a discernible chemistry difference in things texture, character and something let’s say rustic or not. Go with two pounds, 8 quart sized pot and a slow cook time.

To begin, soaked beans of course, are reserved while the base is still prepped. Saute a compliment of onions, celery, garlic and bell peppers in combination. Actual proportions are not exactly critical here, you must regard that there are variances in the entropy of the kitchen and that recipes cannot always be controlled for. These many options also constitute as opportunities for happenstance, chance and talking points for the Gods to enjoy and add some favor still to be determined. Beans are complex, non-linear and still with some component of things alchemy.
The one sure thing is that smoked ham shank, where to find in the far reaches of the empire is not my concern, but here in Louisiana we are happily well supplied and logistically tight, the next Katrina come what may. The base saute will also accept things such as oregano, bay leaf, thyme and chili. To detail chili we should have to open another vein of discussion, but dried chilies are your good friend, use red pepper flakes if all else is unavailable. The general guide and mantra is that simple is better.

Once the onions are becoming clear add in the shank and allow to begin a good thermal transformation, only 15 minutes or so. This is to render the better qualities “into the pot” and begin the breaking down process.

Add in the beans and cover with good water and some stock. The shank is a powerful tool and will protest too much added flavours over what it was designed to do, therefore a simple approach is best. Bring the works to a proper boil and then reduce the flame to a simmer. Allow to simmer with only occasional stirring and checking of liquid levels. Expect about 45 min- 1 hour cooking time per pound of dry beans. Plan ahead and monitor beans carefully. Do not rush the process.

The shank will begin to render, then bloat, then it will begin to separate from the bone. Finally the meat will then shred and break up. This is the near finish stage. Careful stirring to “pickup” the resting beans from the bottom is important to avoid scorching. Some further manual breaking up of the meat is OK, but the shredding is a natural process that is an indicator of the doneness. Ideally the beans will have expended all their creamy goodness to the pot, also the shank will have exhausted all it has to offer and the bones can be fished out. The viscosity will now easily coat the back of a serving spoon.

Adjust seasoning with preferably white pepper and salt, to taste as they say. The last word in things beans is not due to the contribution of the shank, but rather the resting. You will enjoy the beans once served with white steamed rice, OK enjoy, but regard that the next twenty four hours of resting in the refrigerator, usually overnight, is the actual alchemy secret.

Normally, SE Louisiana brethren may get upset at the reveal of this time secret, but we have evolved. We regard that this note is only as important as so many other elements and phases to the whole process. Actually the secret is in what happens chemically during the rest period and nothing anyone could or should want to control. There, now you have the all the stuff and the last word on beans.


Mapmaker


...and sometimes red bean man.