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@ awayslice
2025-02-25 21:34:02
Here’s a recipe for some killer red beans and rice.
You have to start the day before you want the beans. Ideally two days.
Day 1:
Dump 2 pounds of red beans into a bowl and cover them with water. they should remain submerged , if they start to poke out of the water as the expend, add more . Kidney beans are traditional, but any red beans are good.
The beans pictured are from a farmer close to me.
Start by making a sort of a broth by simmering two parts onion, one part celery, and one part poblano pepper along with three ham hocks and a pound and a half of bacon. (that’s right.) Throw in some bay leaves and two cloves of very roughly chopped garlic.
JK throw in like 20 cloves actually.
Simmer this whole thing for at least three hours. Maybe five. It should smell smokey and amazing. Shut it off and let it sit for at least overnight. If you live somewhere cold, you can set it outside. If you wanna put it in the fridge wait until it’s cooled off completely. It’ll be OK on the stove top if that’s the only place you can leave it.
Day 2 :
Put the pot of porky goodness over medium high heat, and slowly bring it back to a simmer.
Drain the beans well and rinse them.
Once the pot is at a simmer, pull out all the bacon and the ham hocks set them aside in a bowl.
Add the beans to the pork stock along with a bunch of blackening seasoning. They should be covered by an inch or two of liquid. NOTE THAT WE DO NOT ADD SALT.
Once the beans start to simmer, put them over low heat. It should be a low simmer. Stir them every 20 minutes or so.
This part is important: if you feel a burnt spot on the bottom of the pan when you’re stirring - DO NOT scrape it up. It will add a terrible burnt flavor to the beans for which there is no solution. YOU HAVE TO either move the beans to a different pot or dump them out of this pot, clean it, and then continue cooking.
If you want to avoid this risk altogether, you can cook your beans in a 350° oven.
Regardless, the beans should remain submerged during the entire cooking process. If they start to peek out of the water at a little bit more to cover them.
While, the beans are cooking. Cook yourself a big ass steak and eat it.
Remove the good meat from the hocks and chop up some of the bacon - I use about a quarter of it. Throw this in the pot of beans.
now would be a good time to brown up some andouille sausage and throw it in as well.
With Cajun red beans in particular, you’re looking for beans that are well cooked, but not decimated. Test them by eating a couple of beans at a time. Once you see this level of doneness kill the heat.
You want there to be just barely enough liquid to cover the beans. If there’s much more than that, remove some of the liquid until the beans are just poking out.
Use an immersion blender to buzz the beans just a little bit. NOW is the time to season. Add salt - it takes more than u think - but it’s easy to over do it.
Also a decent splash of white vinegar and fat bunch of thyme.
Taste it, wait, taste it again and adjust.
Pro tip: if there’s a lot of excess liquid, you can put in a separate pot and cook it down until it’s almost gone, then add it back to the beans. I had to do this on this batch.
Serve it over rice with a ton of sliced scallions and good hot sauce.
It’s even better the next day.
Any questions?
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