Sunday Sup: Red Beans

For quite some time now various friends have been after me to write a cook book. I always reply I’d have to call it Other People’s Recipes I Play Around With. LOL. So not happening. So instead I’ll give you this, the Sunday Sup. Once a week I will post a recipe, explanation, and pics of something I made recently. Maybe it will entertain you. Maybe it might even feed you.

Red Beans

This is a bastardization of my mom’s creole red beans and rice recipe. I rarely talk about my mom on here but it has nothing to do with her cooking.

If you have the time, throw a pound of dried kidney beans into a pot of water and let them soak over night. The next day before you start the actual cooking, scoop out the floaters (they’re bad) and dump the water. If your husband demands this recipe at the last minute, you can substitute four cans of kidney beans, rinsed instead.

TO the beans add: 

-3 large onions (2 giant or 4 medium work just as well) diced. What do I mean by diced. Cut it in half, make 6 slices per half, then 6 slices the other way.

-one green bell pepper, diced

-3 celery stalks, diced

-1 lb andouille sausage, chopped

-2 fat meaty ham hocks (depending on where you live they might be called pork hocks.)

-2 quarts of water.

Bring the mess to a boil, then cover and simmer for 3 hours, stir every 30 minutes. Two hours if you used canned beans.

Mash 1/4-1/3 of the beans against the side of the pot. Cook 45 more minutes.

Add hot sauce to taste. Traditionally this should be Tabasco. Use what you have on hand and to your family’s taste preference. Cook 30 minutes more. 

When it’s all thick and gooey try to pull the ham hock bones. Mine is less thick because canned beans don’t go starchy enough, still tastes good. Oh, and warn your family it’s impossible to get all the bones so chew carefully.

Serve over rice, traditionally.

But since I ain’t in Lu-si-anna, I serve mine over corn bread.