Keeping with the Louisiana theme here is my version of red beans and rice. It took a while to get it down.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 stick unsalted butter
1/2 cup of unbleached flour
1 yellow onion diced
2 red bell pepper diced - you can use green I just like red
4 stalks of celery diced
6 cloves of garlic minced
3 bay leaves, fresh
6 springs of fresh thyme
1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, you can use more if like more of a kick
1 quart of water
1 quart plus one cup of chicken stock, low salt
1 pound of red kidney beans, soaked overnight and rinsed
6 links of Andouille sausage, cut into 1/4 inch slices
Salt and pepper taste
For Rice
1 1/2 cups of long-grain rice
1 teaspoon of salt
1 1/2 tablespoons of butter
3 cups of water
Directions
In a large skillet over medium-high heat place olive oil, onions, celery, and peppers, cook until soft, about 6 minutes. Add garlic stir for a minute then remove from heat, place in a bowl, and set aside.
In the same skillet brown the sausage, once done remove from heat and set aside.
In a 6 quart dutch oven over medium heat place butter, once butter is melted add flour and keep whisking until Roux is a brick color, about 5 minutes or so. Again do not leave this or it could burn and you will need to start over. Once to the Roux is the desired color, fold in the holy trinity. Once combined, whisk in the water and chicken stock until smooth.
Now add the cayenne pepper, thyme and bay leaves (tie the thyme and bay leaves together with twine), and the red beans. Raise heat to high until boiling, keep whisking until the mixture comes to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for about 1 1/2 hours.
Give a stir every 20 minutes or so. After the covered time cooking, raise heat to medium-low, add sausage, uncover, and cook for an additional 45 minutes or until the sauce has thickened and beans are tender. The thickness of the sauce depends on your taste, we prefer not too thick, more of a cross between a stew and a soup but I have had it where it is like a pudding. This additional uncover stage of the cooking process to thicken the sauce and get the beans to their desired tenderness, so this could be shorter than 45 minutes or longer.
During the last, 30 minutes or so start the rice. Bring water to a boil, add butter and salt stir until butter is melted. Add rice, reduce heat to low, cover and cook rice for about 20 minutes or until rice is tender but not mushy. Most kinds of rice have directions on the package, follow them but remember to include the butter.
Once beans and sauce are at the desire thickness and tenderness, remove the thyme bundle and remove it from the heat.
Spoon rice into a bowl and cover with the red beans and serve
You can also make this with pork shoulder. I make a pulled pork with the shoulder reserve some of the pork to add to other dishes, like red beans and rice.
As for my pulled pork recipe, that is reserved for the cookbook, sorry.
Enjoy cooking