Welcome to my site!

Welcome to my site!
I'm Cindy, and I love to cook! And, I love to eat... hence the size of my rear end! I come from a long line of cooks. My great great Grandmother was a cook in the original Harvey Houses. My grandmother Julia was an awesome cook, and my mom was incredible. I owe my skills to these great women. Especially my Mom who said this to me about making gravy... "Cindy Lynn, wallpaper paste is wallpaper paste & gravy is gravy. Never the two shall meet!" Shall we say my first experience at making gravy left a little bit to be desired! Thank the high heavens my cooking skills have improved since then! Enjoy!

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Red Beans and Rice

Traditionally Red Beans and Rice were served in New Orleans on Monday. This is because Monday was wash day, and the women could place the pot of red beans on the stove in the morning and let them cook all day while they did the laundry.
As far as I'm concerned, any day is a good day for this dish! Nothing better than a flavorful pot of Red Beans with Andouille Sausage served over rice.

Ingredients

1 pkg of Red Beans
1 Tbls olive oil
1 white onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, seeded and chopped
Chopped fresh parsley, about 1 handful
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbls Tony Chachere’s seasoning
14 – 16 oz Andouille Sausage, sliced into rounds (If you cannot get andouille, you could use a kielbasa)
1 ham hock
1 quart of chicken broth
1 ½ cup water
Cooked long grain white rice

Directions

Prepare the red beans. Soak overnight in water. Or, you can use the fast prep method described on the package. Do not use canned red beans. This recipe requires the long cooking time.
Whichever method of preparing the beans you choose, make sure to drain the soaking water completely and rinse the beans. It is said that disposing of this water will help reduce the amount of flatulence you get when eating beans.
Prepare the bell pepper, parsley, onion and garlic.

Heat the oil in a soup pot. (Make sure that you use a large enough pot so that there is room for the beans to boil for a prolonged period of time. The blue pot in my picture below was not large enough. I ended up having to transfer the mixture to a larger pot.)

Add the garlic to the oil and cook until it starts to sizzle. Be careful not to let it burn. Add onions to the pot and cook until translucent.

Add the bell pepper and parsley to the pot. Cook until the vegetables wilt.

Add the beans, chicken broth and water to the pot. Add the ham hock.
Bring to a boil. Add the Andouille sausage and the Tony's to the pan. Lower heat to a simmer. Cook until the beans are tender and then mixture has thickened. This will take about 3 - 4 hours.
Serve the Red Beans over hot white rice. You can adjust the amount of Tony's up or down depending upon your taste. I actually added a bit more to my recipe - but I like my red beans spicy.
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6 comments:

Jill said...

This looks so good. I need to try this on one of these chilly autumn days.

irish daisies said...

looks so yummy!

Laura said...

Great photos!! Looks delicious!!

Columbo said...

I loved your Red Beans and Rice, Honey. Reminds me of New Orleans.

Jill said...

Hi Cindy -- I choose you as a recipient of the "Blogging Friends Forever" award. See my latest post and pick it up to play along (or not, whatever you'd like).

nolablossom said...

Looks good! I made Black-eyed peas on Sunday. As you know, M and I don't eat meat... I add "liquid smoke" for my meat flavouring and it does very well as a substitute.

In a pinch I'll open a can of Blue Runner Cajun Red Beans which tastes very good and without hours of cooking! Blue Runner, most likely NOT found in the PNW.

Thanks for the Bloggers Award! It's nice someone loves me! :)

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