Mama's Red Beans and Rice

I usually don't put recipes on the blog, but I made red beans and rice yesterday and thought about how many times I was supposed to sit down and write out this recipe for someone. I figured it would be a good idea to put it somewhere easily found and easily copied and pasted... The Blog it is!

Now, it is important to note that in Louisiana every family makes their beans and rice differently. Ours is really different because we use canned dark red kidney beans (my mother in law uses the more traditional dried Camilla beans) and we put sugar in ours. But this is my favorite way to eat them... Probably because it's how my Mama always made them for us!

Ingredients:

3 cans dark red kidney beans (drained)
4-5 ribs of celery
1 large onion
1 large bell pepper
2 cloves of garlic
1 package of sausage (I use hillshire farms)
Olive oil (I use virgin)
Salt (I use kosher)
Pepper (I use fresh cracked)
2 big bay leaves (penzys are the best by a long shot)
2-3 heaping spoons full of sugar

Directions:

Heat the oil in a Dutch oven or big pot (I use my enamel coated cast iron) and start chopping. :-) Do the onion first, then bell pepper, then celery adding each to the pot as you finish chopping. Stir till things start to get a little brown. Then add the garlic last and let it cook for a couple of minutes. Once all that is done and your kitchen smells great add in the beans and then some water till it's all just covered. Then put in your spices and sugar (don't forget the sugar... It's the key to success!). Bring it all to a boil and then reduce it to a simmer. Then you've got to "just cook the fire out of it, y'all" as my Mama says.

After you've got the beans part going on one burner start on the sausage. Use a cast iron skillet if you've got one (lodge sells seasoned cast iron that is great for a really reasonable price... Usually you can find it at hardware stores and even in walmart sometimes). Cut the sausage on a diagonal into rounds about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick and put them in your hot skillet to brown. DON'T move them around and peek under to see how brown they are getting. Just let them be. And then let them burn... Not all the way through, but give them a nice char... You are going to have to trust me on this one. Flip them and do the other side the same way. Then drain them for a few minutes on a paper towel and add them to your bean pot.

Continue simmering the whole mix for an hour or two... The longer the better... Adding water when it looks low and stirring occasionally. Then turn off the heat and stir in a good palm full of dried parsley. Let it cool and then let it set in the refrigerator over night. Some things just have to set over night. This is one of those things.

The next evening you can heat it up (slowly... Stirring often) while you make your rice and cornbread! All take about 20 minutes, so although there is a bit of work on the front end the actual day you eat it is not much work at all!

And can I give a hint on the rice too?!? Don't ever peek at that either! You put double the amount of water as rice you are going to cook (we use 2 cups of rice for a batch of beans, so I use 4 cups of water). Bring the water to a boil, add the rice and stir once around. Add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil or butter to the water once the rice settles. Cover and simmer. And do not peek under that lid! Set your timer for 20 minutes and leave it alone. It's ok if it simmers over a bit. Once you have waited patiently for 20 minutes then you may kill the heat and remove the lid, fluff with a fork and serve it all up!

And to serve you put a couple of spoonfuls of rice in the bottom of a bowl and pour the beans over the top! Add some sweet cornbread and butter to your bowl and it's just about one of the best meals ever... Especially with fall coming up!

So there you go! A very yummy, very easy, very cheap, very easily doubled for large crowds, Louisiana dinner!


Would you like more fun facts about red beans and rice?!? I know you would! They are traditionally eaten on Monday in Louisiana because Monday was wash day and your beans could cook down all day while you washed. Then they were ready for eating after a long, hard day of work. Jonathan's mom still makes them every Monday as does his sister. The Milford's aren't so particular about when we eat them... Except that we always have them for dinner on Christmas Eve after the Christmas Eve service at church. Nothing feels more like home to me than a bowl of beans and rice in a Blue Danube bowl at my Mama's kitchen table... And a Christmas cookie for dessert isn't too bad either... Perhaps I'll give you that recipe closer to the holidays!

Enjoy!