Red beans and rice

[Anonymous No.10571111]

I posted my first cookalong last night in the form of sauerkraut and kielbasa. I had pretty good reception, so I thought I'd share tonight's dinner as well.

If anybody wants the recipe, let me know and I can post it at the end.

We start by getting some rice ready. A lot of the time I'll season my rice or use stock or something else to give it some body, but this time I want it deliberately plain. I washed and rinsed a couple of times, and only added some salt.

[Anonymous No.10571116]

>>10571111
As the rice gets started, we'll slice up just under a pound of andouille sausage and brown it in a little olive oil and cajun seasoning.

[Anonymous No.10571121]

>>10571116
Once the sausage is browned, add a little more olive oil and add some diced onion. I scrape up all the cajun seasoning and browning from the sausage, hence it takes on a nice dark color along with some additional caramelization. After they're translucent and colorful, add some diced garlic and cook briefly on medium heat.

[Anonymous No.10571128]

>>10571121
Next, I add some diced green bell pepper and some diced celery in roughly equal amounts. Today I used 1 large green pepper and 3 stalks of celery. Cook for a few minutes until beginning to soften.

[Anonymous No.10571136]

>>10571128
Now it's time to bring some things together. First, we add the beans. I'm using 2 14oz cans of red beans, rinsed and drained. In a lot of cases I'll use the juice from canned beans, but I feel like this recipe is better without.

If you're going to use dry beans, soak them overnight and increase your cooking liquid later (as well as the simmering time to ensure they're cooked until soft).

[Anonymous No.10571145]

>>10571136
Let's add that yummy browned sausage back in (minus the few crispy pieces I snitched while everything else was cooking)...

[Anonymous No.10571148]

>>10571145
Now it's time for cooking liquid. Some say water, some say stock (and traditionally it's used by making a stock from Sunday dinner's ham bone). Here, I'm using a little over 3 cups of low sodium chicken broth.

[Anonymous No.10571155]

>>10571148
Then it's time to add your seasoning. Here I'm using 3 bay leaves, lots of fresh black pepper, a few shakes of cayenne, about 2 tsp of basil leaves, just under a tsp of ground sage, and a little file powder. The last is more often used in gumbos and jambalaya but I like the earthiness and it's slight thickening power.

Since I'm using canned beans, this only needs to simmer 20-30 minutes.

[Anonymous No.10571159]

>>10571111
nice quads. keep going OP there are anons monitoring. pic related is my unrefined last attempt.

halp

[Anonymous No.10571161]

>>10571155
Once it's done to your liking, it's time for a few finishing touches. How thick do you like your gravy? That's what depends the next few steps. I like quite a bit of sauce (hence why I added more cooking liquid than I needed), but also like it thick, so I'll be taking more steps to thicken. Some like it as is, but I take a masher to it a few times to break up some beans, and also make a few teaspoons of a cornstarch slurry and cook on med-high an extra minute to get it nice and thick.

Here's the final result.

[Anonymous No.10571167]

>>10571159
Cheers. Doesn't look that unrefined to me, in fact it's pretty similar to my final dish.

>>10571161
I serve by adding a good mound of white rice to a bowl...

[Anonymous No.10571172]

>>10571167
Covering with a couple of generous ladles of beans, as well as some extra gravy over the top. (Some places do beans on the bottom, a bowl of rice on the top, others mix it up.)

[Anonymous No.10571184]

>>10571167
What do you think about subbing jalapenos for bells? No ham hock? cook time?

[Anonymous No.10571185]

>>10571172
Time for some optional garnish. It's definitely not necessary, but I like the spicy crunch of green onion and the herbal freshness of parsley. It's a LOT, but I have deep bowls and it gets mixed in so it isn't at all overpowering.

So this is it, anons, my take on red beans and rice. I got the seasoning almost perfectly on this one, but I felt it needed a little more spicy so I added in a few shakes of Tabasco to the final pot.

What do you guys think? How does your recipe differ? Who wants a bowl?

[Anonymous No.10571201]

>>10571184
I'd say it's up to you. Personally I don't like it quite that spicy, but I use quite a bit of black pepper and cayenne already. I'd say you could get a good balance if you did less of those and some jalapeno (but then again, maybe you like it super hot).

I'd absolutely use ham hock if I cooked much with ham. It makes a small difference but it is noticeable.

Cook time from browning the sausage to the finished dish was 45-50 minutes. If you like to do all of your prep in advance it might take longer but I can keep up just cutting what I need as I need it.

[Anonymous No.10571234]

>>10571185
Thanks for the OC and recipe, OP. Always nice to see posts like this!

[Anonymous No.10571239]

>>10571201
Can you post an full ingredient list? I want to copy this.

[Anonymous No.10571270]

>>10571239
Sure.

13oz andouille sausage, sliced thin
1.5 sweet onion, diced (I had a half leftover)
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 green bell pepper, diced
3 stalks celery, halved lengthwise and diced
2 14oz cans of red beans
3 cups of chicken broth
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp cajun powder (optional)
3 bay leaves
2 tsp salt
2 tsp dried basil
1.5 tsp black pepper
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp file powder
.75 tsp rubbed sage
1 bunch green onion, diced (optional)
1 bunch parsley, diced (optional)
few dashes Tobasco sauce

>>10571234
Glad you enjoyed it!

[Anonymous No.10571336]

>>10571270
fuckin saved. Why not use a light roux instead of cornstarch?

[Anonymous No.10571365]

>>10571336
I do several Indian and Asian dishes and often thicken those with corn or potato starch rather than roux, so mostly it's because I didn't think of it. I'll have to give more thought to how I thicken different things from now on, thanks for the suggestion!

[Anonymous No.10571506]

How would you change the recipe if you had to use a slow cooker?

[Anonymous No.10571513]

>>10571172
Looks tasty, OP, but I think I'd stop here though. A little too much garnish for my taste and I feel like it would confuse all the other yummy flavors.

[Anonymous No.10571517]

>>10571270
>>10571365
>>10571159

Here's what I currently am using for comparison.

1 lb dry red beans (or kidney beans_
1 lbs andouille sausage
1 large yellow onion
1 red bell pepper
4 jalapenos
3 celery stalks
2 smoked ham shanks
1 T garlic
2 bay leaves
1 heaping T creole seasoning
1 T parsley
1/2 tsp thyme
1 tsp cayenne
1 tsp black pepper
2 bay leaves
Roux to thicken

[Anonymous No.10571536]

>>10571506
If you weren't going to brown or saute any ingredients and wanted to do a one-pot thing, you could add everything at once and cook it on low for 3-4 hours. I don't think you'd get quite the depth of flavor but it should turn out okay.

I'll be honest, I don't know how well it'd turn out if you wanted it to be an all-day cook (start before work, eat when you get home kind of thing). The veggies and beans might both be a little mushy but I really haven't tried it to say for sure.

Any other anons that can weigh in?

[Anonymous No.10571555]

>>10571536
Could just add the ingredients later that have shorter cook times. I do it all the time for recipes that have beans since they take fucking forever to cook even with an overnight soak compared to say peppers.

[Anonymous No.10571561]

>>10571555
That's fair. To get the most flavor I think you'd want to cook onion, sausage, and beans with the broth and most of the seasoning for a longer time and then add the rest of your veggies and adjust your seasoning closer to mealtime.

[Anonymous No.10572516]

Is jambalaya the same thing with the rice cooked in it instead of separately?

[Anonymous No.10572571]

Nice thread OP. Keep up the good work! I'm gonna save your recipe and try it out myself.

[Anonymous No.10572603]

>>10571111
I posted that pork and sauerkraut recipe for you yesterday but never got to answer your question. I've only ever boneless roasts to make it but I can't imagine other types of pork would be bad. You wouldn't want it tooooo fatty and you also wouldn't want it that tough. Only two things that came to mind

[Anonymous No.10572613]

>>10572603
Hey, OP here. Caught me in one last browse before bed. Thanks for the follow-up, my sauerkraut exploration is definitely going to begin soon.

[Anonymous No.10572627]

>>10572613
Nice! It's one of my favorite foods. This has been so much more wholesome than I'm used to here on 4chins

[Anonymous No.10572644]

>>10572627
Agreed. The past couple of days have been the best time I've had on the board, sharing some actual recipes I like and talking with folks who cook them too. I'm thinking I need to find something to use as an identifier when I post some OC.

[Anonymous No.10572702]

>>10572644
You could. Although your cookalong threads have been really well done (photos and descriptions) and you're super friendly so that kinda stands out as a identifier. Also, that video is a fucking classic