Red Beans and Rice 2

By Thom7747

Monday. Wash Day. Red Beans and Rice day.

Back in the day at least, that was the way that it was, and the tradition of eating red beans & rice on Mondays, either for lunch or dinner, carries on down here in the south, even if nobody’s doin’ laundry.

Ingredients

• 1 pound of dried, Camellia brand red kidney beans
• 1/2 pound of bacon
• 1 large onion
• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 large stalk of celery
• 2 cloves of garlic
• Freshly cracked black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 tablespoon of canola oil
• 1 package
• 2 quarts of water
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
• Kosher salt to taste, if needed – BUT ONLY AT THE END!
• Hot, cooked rice
• Sliced green onion, for garnish, optional
• Hot sauce, for the table

Details

Servings 4
Preparation time 10mins
Cooking time 130mins
Adapted from deepsouthdish.com

Preparation

Step 1

Rinse and sort beans and place into a deep pot, adding water to cover beans plus about an inch or so. Do not add any seasonings or salt! Bring to a boil; boil for 5 minutes uncovered, turn off heat, cover and let soak for one hour. Drain and set aside in a large pot.

In a separate skillet, cook the bacon until lightly cooked and still limp. Add the onion, bell pepper, and celery to the bacon and sauté the veggies until tender. Add the garlic, black and red pepper, basil and bay leaf into the vegetable mixture and let seasoning meld with the veggies for about 3 minutes, stirring. Add the bacon, veggie & seasoning mixture to the pot of beans. Meanwhile slice sausage in half lengthwise and cut into 1/4-inch chunks, or cut into larger chunks. Add oil to skillet you used for the veggies and lightly brown the sausage. Transfer to the bean pot. If you have any leftover ham chunks, cut those up too, brown them and add them in as well as any ham hocks or ham bone you have.

Add 2 quarts of fresh water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cooked uncovered for 1-1/2 to 2 hours, or until beans are tender and slightly thickened. When beans are just about done, slide in a half stick of butter. The butter adds richness to the beans and makes them just super delish, but is totally optional if you want to leave it out. They are good without it. If you need to thicken them up more, just remove about a cup of the beans and mash them with a fork, returning them to the pot. Serve over hot, cooked rice and garnish with sliced green onion, if desired. Pass hot sauce at the table.

Cook's Notes: Do not add any salt until the end, and then only if it needs it. There is some salt present from all the meats involved, so taste and adjust your seasonings toward the end of cooking, adding salt here if needed. I very often find that the pot needs no additional salt at all. Taste, add salt if needed, taste again and adjust seasoning as needed.