New Orleans Cuisine's Red Beans & Rice Recipe
I had yet another enjoyable time cooking, and eating Red Beans and Rice yesterday! I put my Beans on the stove and went out to mow the lawn, when I came back in, the aroma was so intense I felt I was walkin through the streets of New Orleans. The smoky Andouille steals the show, simmering and bubblin' away with Holy Trinity, Garlic, and the Beans; swellin' and puffin' and almost do. Jelly Roll Morton was lazily tinkling the Piano and wailing in the background:
Don't choo leave me here,
Don't choo Leeeave Me Heeere,
If you juss muss go, sweet babe
Leave a diiiime fo beeer
Talk about sensory overload, My Oh My! The smells of fresh cut grass and Red Beans, all with Jelly Roll as a backdrop. One of those nice little moments.
As I've said before, I make Red Beans and Rice just a little different everytime. This is the one I made yesterday. I always try to use some kind of bone marrow, the beans just seem to come out so much creamier, yesterday I used Pork Necks. You could use Ham Hocks, Smoked Turkey leg, Ham Bone, it really doesn't matter too much, as long as there is some marrow in the pot. The Recipe:
New Orleans Cuisine's Red Beans & Rice Recipe (Number One)
1 Tbsp Unsalted Butter
2 Tbsp Creole Seasoning
1 Cup Onion, chopped
1/2 Cup Bell Pepper, chopped
1/4 Cup Celery, Chopped
1 Cup Andouille, Cubed
1/2 lb. Small Red Kidney Beans (soaked overnight or for at least a few hours)
1 Tbsp Fresh Garlic, Minced
3 1/2 Cups Chicken Stock (You could certainly use water)
A few Pork Neck Bones (be careful of any small bones that could fall off and get lost in the pot)
3 Fresh Bay Leaves
1 tsp Red Wine Vinegar (When I don't use Pickle Meat, I add a little vinegar because I like the flavor it gives)
1/2 Cup Tomato Sauce (I learned this from Louis Armstrong's Recipe)
1 Tbsp Italian Parsley, Finely Chopped
1/4 Cup Green Onions, thinly sliced on the bias
1/2 Recipe Creole Boiled Rice
Mix together the Holy Trinity (Onions, Celery, Bell Pepper). Drain the beans.
Melt the butter over medium heat.
Add 1/2 of the Holy Trinity, 1 Tbsp of the Creole Seasoning, and the Andouille, turn the heat to medium high. Cook this for about 7-10 minutes, stirring occasionally until the vegetables start to get some color.
Add the beans and cook stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes.
Add the Chicken Stock or Water, Garlic, Pork Necks, Bay Leaves, the remaining Trinity and Creole Seasoning. Bring this to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Let this simmer for 2- 2 1/2 Hours. The first hour is low maintenance; an occasional stir and making sure the beans are covered with liquid. The second hour, you want to check back a little more often, the beans will really start to absorb some liquid and you don't want them to stick.
After the beans have cooked for two hours, add the Tomato Sauce, the Parsley and 1/2 of the Green Onions. Make your Rice. Cook the beans for another half hour.
To Serve:
Remove the Pork Necks (get as much meat off of these as possible, and add it to the pot; it's wonderful), and Bay Leaves. Mound a half cup of Rice each, onto two serving plates, Cover with a generous helping of the Red Beans, Garnish with the remaining Green Onions. Make sure their is a bottle of hot sauce on the table. Perfect compliments to this meal are a simple vinaigrette salad, Good Quality French Bread, and your favorite Ice Cold Beer.
Serves 2-3
More posts on Red Beans & Rice:
Red Beans and Rice and Comfort Foods
Red Beans and Rice Recipe links
Red Beans and Rice
Don't choo leave me here,
Don't choo Leeeave Me Heeere,
If you juss muss go, sweet babe
Leave a diiiime fo beeer
Talk about sensory overload, My Oh My! The smells of fresh cut grass and Red Beans, all with Jelly Roll as a backdrop. One of those nice little moments.
As I've said before, I make Red Beans and Rice just a little different everytime. This is the one I made yesterday. I always try to use some kind of bone marrow, the beans just seem to come out so much creamier, yesterday I used Pork Necks. You could use Ham Hocks, Smoked Turkey leg, Ham Bone, it really doesn't matter too much, as long as there is some marrow in the pot. The Recipe:
New Orleans Cuisine's Red Beans & Rice Recipe (Number One)
1 Tbsp Unsalted Butter
2 Tbsp Creole Seasoning
1 Cup Onion, chopped
1/2 Cup Bell Pepper, chopped
1/4 Cup Celery, Chopped
1 Cup Andouille, Cubed
1/2 lb. Small Red Kidney Beans (soaked overnight or for at least a few hours)
1 Tbsp Fresh Garlic, Minced
3 1/2 Cups Chicken Stock (You could certainly use water)
A few Pork Neck Bones (be careful of any small bones that could fall off and get lost in the pot)
3 Fresh Bay Leaves
1 tsp Red Wine Vinegar (When I don't use Pickle Meat, I add a little vinegar because I like the flavor it gives)
1/2 Cup Tomato Sauce (I learned this from Louis Armstrong's Recipe)
1 Tbsp Italian Parsley, Finely Chopped
1/4 Cup Green Onions, thinly sliced on the bias
1/2 Recipe Creole Boiled Rice
Mix together the Holy Trinity (Onions, Celery, Bell Pepper). Drain the beans.
Melt the butter over medium heat.
Add 1/2 of the Holy Trinity, 1 Tbsp of the Creole Seasoning, and the Andouille, turn the heat to medium high. Cook this for about 7-10 minutes, stirring occasionally until the vegetables start to get some color.
Add the beans and cook stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes.
Add the Chicken Stock or Water, Garlic, Pork Necks, Bay Leaves, the remaining Trinity and Creole Seasoning. Bring this to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Let this simmer for 2- 2 1/2 Hours. The first hour is low maintenance; an occasional stir and making sure the beans are covered with liquid. The second hour, you want to check back a little more often, the beans will really start to absorb some liquid and you don't want them to stick.
After the beans have cooked for two hours, add the Tomato Sauce, the Parsley and 1/2 of the Green Onions. Make your Rice. Cook the beans for another half hour.
To Serve:
Remove the Pork Necks (get as much meat off of these as possible, and add it to the pot; it's wonderful), and Bay Leaves. Mound a half cup of Rice each, onto two serving plates, Cover with a generous helping of the Red Beans, Garnish with the remaining Green Onions. Make sure their is a bottle of hot sauce on the table. Perfect compliments to this meal are a simple vinaigrette salad, Good Quality French Bread, and your favorite Ice Cold Beer.
Serves 2-3
More posts on Red Beans & Rice:
Red Beans and Rice and Comfort Foods
Red Beans and Rice Recipe links
Red Beans and Rice
posted by Danno | 4/26/2005 09:35:00 AM
27 Comments:
Wow,
this looks like a great recipe, I cant get the right sausages here in oz though..... would it be criminal to use a really good chorizo instead? If it was the only way you could make it....
The link to Pickle meat is sent to the word about rice link instead
Thanks Clare, and thanks for telling me about the bum link!
Chorizo would work great here, the Mexican or Spanish, the only things that you may be missing are the heat, and the smoky flavor. The cured Spanish kind would be best. Andouille and Chaurice are actually very similar to Chorizo, and Chaurice is a direct decendant, even the name!
This is not the redbeans we eat in New Orleans. The only time people use andouille is in tourist trap restaurants or outside of New Orleans. Andouille is too fine a sausage for stew, and too expensive. Most people in New Orleans use Italian sausage OR pork necks, and never both. Red beans are meant to be simple and cheap - thats the point. Red beans should just be beans, creole seasoning (cayenne, thyme, black and white pepper) salt, a couple bay leaves and a big ass onion. The MOST important thing in cooking red beans is cooking it for at LEAST a whole day (start in the afternoon cook until the next afternoon) at a very, very low heat. The beans should start to become almost like gravy. I HAVE had redbeans with a bit of tomato paste, but thats not my thing. These are the ingredients, but there is definitely an art to letting them simmer - red beans are my religion! Let me tell you - slow cooking is the key - not extra ingredients.
oh yeah... and garlic! I'm actually up late with a pot simmering now for Monday evening.
Try-ed this recipe wile I was in the Navy Submarines and I could never make enough of it... Started with a small pan (about 10 qt. pan) and ended up cooking a (60 Qt gun boat) very large soup pan of this and still ran OUT!!!
Hey Ralph,
Can you give me an exact run down of your Red beans and rice recipe? I am using the ingredients you have suggest and just improvising at the moment.
A trick: If you don't feel like cooking your RB&R forever and a day 'til they get to the right consistency, which is so important, simply put the beans on a high (rolling) boil for the first 45 min. to an hour, covered. Stir the pot now and then so the beans don't scorch. I learned this trick from a neighbor of mine who was from New Orleans. Three or four hours later, cooked on med-low, the beans will be ready to eat.
Something a little different... I added about 2 tablespoons of CRAB BOIL.. I know, I know but believe me,, it added a tremendous taste to these beans....
PLH: That's how my grammy always made them. My family has lived in New Orleans for generations (going back to the 1800's) and NONE of them cook beans for 24 hours, now or ever.
you forgot the salt pork and the bacon.
I am on board with Ralph,
Red beans and Rice is a poor mans dish. The more you add, the more you take away from its simple beauty.
The pickled meats/adding an acid in the cooking process is confusing to me. I lived and married into a long time New Orleans family and their recipe does not call for pickled meats, also where is the ham hock? Ham hocks are the best parts for thickening up the dish.
Cajuns will use tasso, some use andouille, but not often, I use from time to time kielbasa, and the adding of tomato is not cajun...this is more of a creol feel.
Cajun and Creol are not the same!! Creols add tomato to their gumbo not cajuns, I know we are talking about red beans and rice, but there is a correlation here.
I had to get that off my chest
I do love your recipe for brabant potatoes. It is the perfect foil for baked whole fish.
Thanks
SF
Ralph & Anonymous - Thanks for your comments. The beauty of Red Beans & Rice is that you can make it however you like, as a matter of fact, I make it differently every time I make it, all a matter of personal taste. Thanks for sharing your personal tastes.
Ralph, I don't think either of us can speak for the whole city of New Orleans on how to make or eat Red Beans, this site is just a collection of my personal recipes.
Red Beans are a lot of peoples religion, some just pray to a different god and have a different set of commandments, or like me, no commandments, just some loose guidelines.
I love you method though, slow and low is The best, absolutely, I just don't agree that it's the only way.
...and Anonymous who called this a Cajun recipe? I sure didn't.
I sure love that we can get stirred up over Red Beans though, it just shows the love we take in their preparation.
I cook my beans for 24 hours, the slower the better with any stew (from ANY part of the world).... and actually I let them sit in the fridge overnight before serving.
But 12 hours is the absolute norm for Laundry day beans. The tradition is to start cooking them early in the morning, so they are done by dinner time.
Hi. I googled a recipe for red beans and rice and yours was the best. I made a modified version of it but would like some advice on it. I wanted to add my rice to the beans, however, it seems some of them were overcooked while I had to wait for the others to cook through. I added 2 cups rice and it seemed there was about 3 cups of liquid in the pot, so I added another cup of liquid.
Any tips?
Thank you for posting all these recipes, I like how you also have the one for the spice mix (which I made and stored as well).
My father is a huge fan of red beans & rice recipe and I always try to make it for him whenever we see my parents. He has yet to be fully blown away by any of the recipes i've tried. Simplicity is key, and yours looks perfect! Can't wait to try it. thank you for shearing your post.
What a great recipe. I made a huge batch and fed many happy people.
Oh wow!! Lovely!!! Beans always attract me and that too red bean just yummy!!! You know I always search for easy cooking dishes and this one suits my criteria. I am sure you have some other flavors in your stock.. Please share with us. Sometimes I don’t like the taste of garlic. Do you have any suggestion what can I use instead of that?
Hi Clare --- we cooked a double batch of this over the weekend for eating on top of hot dogs. Made for a great feast ! Thanks for the recipe.
I bet your beans came out real good, even with the tomato, Dahlin'. But all that trouble for 1/2 lb. Why not 2 lb. and freeze 3 extra meals?
Where I'm from, New Orleans, any andouille and lots of meat from the ham bone was served as a side meat, not cooked in the beans. Sausage was usually sliced lengthwise and browned a bit.
Me, I like to cook the ham bone or ham hocks first, to make a ham stock --- mostly so that I make sure to get all the bone pieces out. (I like fo' my teeth or fillings not to get cracked.) I simmer the bone about 40 minutes, then remove& reserve any nice ham, so the flavor won't boil out of the meat. Then I cook the bone a couple more hours.
We soaked the beans overnight or 6 hrs daytime. Then POURED THAT WATER OFF and started with fresh water. so that the beans would not give people gas. (-; With the long soak, the beans don't need to cook for all day.
Once the beans were tender, another VITAL step in our extended family's tradition, is to take 1/4 to 1/3 of the beans out of the pot, mash them to a paste and stir them back in. This makes it thick and creamy so it doesn't run all over your plate.
Thanks for posting & the thoughts of New Orleans.
I am by no means a red beans and rice expert. I see where some cook their beans for 24 hours or 12 hours. Mine cooked in two hours and seemed to be done. Wouldn't they be mushy if cooked longer? I'm just trying to learn here. Would they break down a bit and make the broth thicker? Following the recipe what I got was a most awesome dinner!!!!
As a side note, I served them with a side dish of BBQ shrimp.
My father wasn't from New Orleans he was from Athens, Ga. And yes red beans in rice was a poor mans dish that was simply red beans with ham hocks, rice and a side of corn bread.
Remember no salt til the end and add a little baking soda--it reduces cook time by 2/3, just stir gently after doing this because the alkali breaks down fiber. Combine this with a pressure cooker and you have 20 min RB&R. I've been known to change the bell pepper out for jalepeno and use a 1/4 cup of brown sugar BBQ sauce insterad of tomato sauce. I like my beans sweet and spicy (my recipe would be a La-Tex version I guess). Take a cup out at the end and mash them and cool to add back for a thick sauce. It works like roux.
This is the first time I've made red beans and rice so I can't compare this recipe with others but this was a winner for me. Rich, full bodied flavor with just the right amount of kick to it. In addition to the pork bones I added a smoked ham hock to the pot....definately recommended. Also added more andouille sausage. I soaked the beans for about 12 hours first and simmered the dish a bit longer than the 2.5 hours listed in the recipe to get that gravy like texture. The shredded meat from the pork bones was a nice added bonus. Some may argue that this isn't an authentic recipe but I don't care. It works for me. It's a keeper.
I've been a culinary professional since 1974 and always get a kick out of folks like Ralph that their way is THE ONLY WAY. What utter nonsense and arrogance. Following this philosophy takes all the personality out of cooking and produces a homogenized mass of boring dullness. Put your own signature on your food, inject some love and ignore the self proclaimed "experts". If they don't like it, they don't have to eat it.
DGR, CEC
What a fantastic idea! ...Thanks for the wonderful recipe! I am going to try this one
I made this recipe but I doubled the beans to one pound, used 4 cups chicken stock and one large can diced tomatoes, more veggies since recipe was doubled, 6 cloves garlic, one tablespoon balsamic vinegar and one jalapeno pepper for heat. Used also one pound andouie and one or two ham hocks. Incredibly delicious. I'm a New Yorker so not attached to any traditional recipe, meaning of course I can add jalepeno and tomato if I want to. I would make it without jalepeno or andouie but I wouldn't even bother if I couldn't get a ham hock. IMO that adds a lot of flavor.
Great exchange. This northerner has come to realize Red Beans and rice seem to have so many iterations that there really is no RIGHT way, just YOUR way. The last time I made em, I braised 2# of smoked pork neck bones for 3-4 hours in my dutch oven at 225 degrees in chicken stock and white wine, and let them rest overnight in my fridge. In the morning I cleaned out the bones, added my beans, sauteed mirepoix and spices, a diced and browned 1.5# Boston Butt, and put it back in a 200 degree oven for the rest of the day, adding water as necessary. In the last hour I added a pound of sliced andouille sausage, and served it over brown basmati rice with corn bread. Definitely NOT a poor man's red beans, and probably not "authentic" in any way, but LOADED with meat and amazing none the less.
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