Good to be home

Since we are home and eating really good, I thought I’d share my favorite red beans and rice recipe with you all. It is the best one that I know of. Stace’s mom got it decades ago from an old man in Louisiana and it quickly became one of their family favorites. When I was first introduced to it, I was actually pissed off that I had spent the first 19 years of my life without knowing the glorious taste. I have since made up for lost time with many many second helpings.

A bonus on this recipe is that it makes an amazing amount of food for very little money when adjusted out per serving. The down-side of this recipe is that it requires the biggest pot you have in your house to cook it. Seriously we once cooked a double batch for a huge family gathering in a pressure cooker and you know how big those are. The great thing about this dish is that the cooked beans freeze really well and you can just pull it out of the freezer, make a quick batch of rice, slice up a loaf of bread and toss a salad and you’ve got an awesome dinner ready to go.

Red Beans and Rice

3 lbs dry red beans (generic is just fine)

couple of big ham hocks (you are going to pull the ham hocks out at about the three hour mark, pull all the meat off them, and toss the meat chunks back into the pot. If you can’t find any good hocks, you can use a cut-up ham steak instead. Or you can leave this out all together as it’s not a crucial ingredient)

1/2 cup “meat drippings” (aka bacon grease — we told you this was Southern cooking so don’t skimp on the bacon grease or it won’t come out right)

18 dashes tobasco (Hedon usually adds a few more if Stace isn’t in the kitchen at the time)

12 big generous dashes of Worchestershire

1 bud fresh garlic minced (You can buy those little jars of pre-minced garlic but you need to use a TON as it’s a BUD of garlic you need not a clove. I usually consider it as ten or twelve cloves when I’m using the jar kind of garlic)

3/4 t Cheyenne pepper (Hedon usually adds a little more while Stace is chopping sausages)

1/2 t ground thyme (you can use the little flake thyme but you need to use more than 1/2 t — I think when I use the little leaf kind I use about one and a half teaspoon or slightly more)

5 or 6 bay leaves (or a few more if they’re those little tiny ones — obviously the bay leaves should be removed before serving… or at least warn people not to eat them for god’s sake… unless you think it would be funny to watch them eat it)

1 large onion chopped

3 lbs polska kielbasa (we have used polish sausage, smoked sausage, and polska kielbasa. They all work but we prefer the kielbasa. This is the place to spend your money on this dish cause everything else can be the cheapest of generics but you want the best sausage you can get your hands on)

Salt to taste at about the two hour mark

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Slice sausages about a quarter of an inch thick. Sometimes I also cut each slice into two pieces — just whatever you think will fit best in your mouth and how fancy-pants you’re feeling at the moment. In the largest pot you can get your hands on combine all the ingredients. Seriously you may want to make a half recipe the first time cause it requires a HUGE pot for a full batch and the beans just keep swelling and swelling as they cook.

After you have all ingredients in pot, fill as full of water as possible — keeping in mind that the beans will seriously swell as they start cooking. As it cooks, you will have to add water occasionally the first couple of hours.

Simmer together for a minimum of 4 hours and it’s better if you can go 6 hours. You will have to stir very often the last couple of hours as this tends to thicken and will burn on the bottom unless you stay after it. The last hour and a half or so we usually end up stirring about every three or four minutes. You want to cook it down until the beans form a very thick soup, but if it gets too thick you may have to add some water about twenty minutes before you serve it. This is one of those dishes that is actually better if you cook it the night before and reheat it the next night, but you will certainly have to add water when you reheat it.

Cook any long grain white rice according to package instructions. Also, if you can find a great crusty loaf of bread you’re rocking. You don’t really want a sweet bread cause the flavors don’t work well together. Oh and you’ve got to find some “Franks Louisiana Hot Sauce” or “Crystal Hot Sauce” for the table. Either sauce is quite strong and blends well with the beans’ flavor.

Spoon your beans over the rice, add a splash of Louisiana Hot Sauce, cut yourself a big old slice of bread and prepare to thank god for Dixie. That’s just good stuff. Man… now I can’t wait for supper.