Red Beans and Rice

OK I admit I believe Red Beans & Rice is a staple of life. We should all eat at least once a week (with leftovers for at least one more day), traditionally on Monday (Wash Day). Really try to find andouille sausage, it's soooo much better. Manda brand is the best. I recently spent a couple of months in Peru and cooked a 5 gallon pot of these beans and sausage. I took several packs of my red bean spice blend (cajun seasoning), however Peruvians eat very little sausage, they do have a pretty good chorizo sausage. So, I used Peruvian Chorizo sausage, surprisingly it was great. I have used several types of sausage, enjoyed them all, I just prefer andouille.

Printable Recipe

{{{RED BEANS AND RICE}}}

INGREDIENTS

These beans will be New Orleans Hot, if you do not like hot reduce cayenne pepper to one tablespoon in spice blend and reduce hot sauce to one tablespoon in rececipe. If you're a hot wimp reduce more, you can always keep a bottle of hot sauce on the table. I like hot and spicy.

4 heaping TBL cajun spice blend (see recipe below)
4 cups red beans
1 1/4 pound andouille sausage (or your favorite sausage, cut into 1/2 inch pieces)
1 small to medium onion, chopped
1 small to medium green bell pepper, chopped
2 bay leaf
2 TBL hot sauce

HOT COOKED RICE

DIRECTIONS

SORT and wash red beans, place in 5 quart pot, cover with water (2 qts or so) and cook for 45 minutes to one hour. Do not boil. Simmer. Cover and let sit for one hour, pour into colander and rinse with cold water. This will wash most of the enzymes off and de-gas your beans.

Using same 5 qt pot, bring andouille sausage to a boil in one quart water, reduce heat to high simmer, cook until andouille begins to curl.
Add spice blend, hot sauce, bay leaf, red beans, one quart of water, do not mix (cover beans with vented lid). Bring to a boil and simmer, stir as beans begin to soften, cook till tender, (about two hours on high simmer) You can always cook low and slow, personal preference.
Add onions and bell pepper and cook till desired gravy. Cooking beans is forgiving, it's hard to screw up if you have your spices right. Maybe I shouldn't have made that statement, I know a few people that can't boil water.
Serve over rice. ENJOY!

Cooking this recipe

I normally cook 5 gallons of red beans and divide in quart bags to freeze. It's been a long time since I used this smaller recipe. So, I'm cooking today. I put my beans on to pre-cook. I have cooked hundreds, thousands of 5 gallon batches of red beans in my restaurant career, I never, ever soaked beans over night, I used the boiling method as described in directions. I used pinto beans in this batch, what I had in the pantry, never met a bean I didn't like. You probably want to use red kidney beans or small red beans, if you like a bigger bean use kidney, small bean use red beans. Keep them red unless you have none in the pantry then use what you have. I have even used white beans.

Now I have time to make my Spice Blend. I didn't have any garlic powder, so I used garlic granules (I like garlic, so I didn't reduce amount). I didn't have dried thyme, so, I used ground thyme (I cut amount in half). I added the basil and sage, I don't always do this but I wanted a little more background flavor today. If you don't like hot reduce the cayenne pepper. Mix well in bowl or but in plastic bag and blend.  

While the beans are cooking and soaking, I do sous-chef work; I cut the andouille in half lengthwise, then at a slight angle I cut into pieces about 1/2" to 1", I like a few big chunks in my beans. My favorite andouille is Manda brand, it's made in Baton Rouge, La and you can find in most grocery stores, at least here in the South. Manda brand andouille comes in 12oz. packs, so two packs gives you a pound and half, perfect for this recipe. Next I chop my onion and bell pepper. The rest of the story is in the Directions.

After 1st cook, put in colander, rinse beans, rinse pot to cook andouille

Prepare spice blend

Cut Andouille

After cooking andouille, add spice blend, bay leaf and beans, cook until beans are tender and a little gravy (thickening) forming

Cut onion and bell pepper, add to beans when tender, cook to desired gravy. I like my gravy thick, the beans are softer and flavor deeper.

Red Beans Ready! Nice thick gravy.

The taste test: Great aroma, my whole house smelled like a Cajun kitchen. I cooked some rice, toasted a little cuban bread I made a couple of days ago (French bread is traditional, cornbread is great), got out the hot sauce and prepared my plate, Couple spoons rice and a helping, heaping serving of red beans on top with lots of sausage. As I sit down the aroma excites my taste buds, first bite, ahhhh, Red Beans and Rice, excellent flavor, I like the added  basil and sage to the spice blend.They are not as hot as I remember, keep in mind I like hot, everything is relative (I cooked as recipe).

)))SPICE BLEND--CAJUN SEASONING(((

• 1/2 tablespoon smoked paprika or sweet paprika-1 1/2 tsp
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 2 tablespoons garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
• 1 tablespoon dried leaf oregano
• 1 tablespoon dried thyme
• 1 tablespoon basil (optional)
• 1 teaspoon sage (optional)

Mix well, I put in a baggie and shake or use spoon to mix well. If this is your first time to make cajun seasoning it would be better to leave out the basil and sage. You can add a shake of each to your bowl of red beans and rice to check out the flavor profile. Central and South American basil is a little sweet, it's fragrant and a little peppery. Sage is in the mint family, it has a fragrant, earthy...smell and taste think dressing.