Red Beans and Rice with Andouille Sausage

Making red beans is a process, a long process, so it's best made on a day when you have the time to dedicate to it.  This Saturday flirted with rain much of the day and wasn't particularly inviting, making it the perfect day to make red beans.  We started late, and by started I mean at the very beginning, the quick-soak of two hours, around 5 p.m., and ate dinner around 11:30 p.m.  Do yourself a favor and start much earlier than that.

A tasty dish from my trusty Paul Prudhomme' Louisiana Kitchen cookbook!

Ingredients:
1 pound dry red kidney beans                                                                                                            

Water to cover the beans
6 large ham hocks (3 1/2 to 4 pounds)
      **we modified this ingredient, see notes section
16 cups of water, in all
2 1/2 cups finely chopped celery
2 cups finely chopped onions
2 cups finely chopped green bell peppers
5 bay leaves
2 tsp. white pepper
2 tsp. dried thyme leaves
1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 1/2 tsp. dried oregano leaves
1 tsp. ground red pepper (preferably cayenne)
1/2 tsp. black papper
1 Tbsp. Tabasco sauce
1 pound andouille smoked sausage (or other pure smoked pork sausage such as kielbasa), cut into 3/4 inch pieces
4 1/2 cups hot cooked rice

1.  Cover the beans with water 2 inches above the beans.  Let stand overnight.  Drain before using.

2.  Place the ham hocks, 10 cups of water, the celery, onions, bell peppers, bay leaves and seasonings in a 5 1/2 quart saucepan and stir well.  Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer until meat is fork tender, about 1 hour, stirring occasionally.  Remove ham hocks from pain and set aside.

3.  Add the drained beans and 4 cups of the water to the pan; bring to boil, reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add the remaining 2 cups of water and simmer 30 minutes, stirring often.  Stir in the andouille and continue simmering until the beans start breaking up, about 35 minutes, scraping bottom of pan often.  (If they start to scorch, stop stirring and transfer to another pot without scraping any scorched beans into the new pot.)  Add ham hocks and cook and stir 10 minutes more.  Serve immediately.

4.  Serve with rice (or over it if preferred).

Few foods take to beer the way good Cajun food does.  Make sure you have some of your favorite on hand to heighten the New Orleans-away-from-New Orleans experience.

Notes:

- We used the quick soak method for the beans, but I think next time I will use the overnight soaking method.  The beans didn't break up as much or become as thick as they seem to when you soak them overnight.
- We used light red kidney beans and the color just didn't seem quite right.  I will definitely use dark red kidney beans next time.
- We substituted the ham hocks with a very meaty pork bone left over from a picnic roast we seasoned and roasted on the grill a week or so before.  And, I threw chunks of meat in the beans while they cooked for all those hours instead of waiting until the last 10 minutes.
- We did not add all of the water it says to add.  I omitted the last 2 cups the recipe calls for and we still had to cook the beans an extra 30 minutes for them to thicken up.  This may also be a result of using the quick soak method.
- As you can tell from the image above, we did not put the sausage in the beans.  We prefer it grilled and served on top.

Review:

Sandy:  4.5 stars

This is comfort food for me.  I wish the beans had gotten a little thicker and I wish they had been darker red.  Next time I will soak the beans overnight and be sure to get the dark red kidney beans. The flavor was spot on and reminded me of those I had in the French Quarter.  And, we had a good amount of left overs, so it makes for a really good, quick dinner another night.

Tony:  5.0 stars

It doesn't get any better than this.  Red beans and rice is one of my favorite dishes.  The andouille tasted just like that we bought in the streets in New Orleans.

Cost:
onion - 0.48
green bell pepper - 1.20
celery - 1.09
andouille - 3.50 (on sale)
kidney beans - 1.59

All of the other ingredients are staples in my kitchen, so I did not need to purchase them.  Although, now, I'm out of time...er, thyme.