Red Beans

Today decided to make a real authentic scratch red beans and sausage. Soaked 2 lbs of beans last night. Strained and rinsed. drop beans into boiling water--let them cook 1 hour like that.

Everything else:
3 onions
2 heads garlic
3 ribs celery
1 bell pepper
2 dried chile peppers
4 cans chicken stock
2 lbs andouille
2-3 smoked ham hocks

First I browned the andouille in the dutch oven, removed and added 2/3 vegetables to simmer in fat from sausage (chopped onions, peppers, celery and crushed half the garlic). I think I added a little bacon fat here too (though not much, because the hocks have tons of fat). After vegetables softened, I threw back in sausage. Threw in ham hocks and let cook a little while until the vegetables released more liquid. Then I sprinkled on liberal amounts of creole spice (always Konriko and my own blend), and fresh ground pepper--added 4 bay leaves here. Then 4 cans chicken stock. This should cover everything. I brought this to boil and simmered on low for 30-45 minutes while beans were finishing. Then add beans to pot and enough bean liquid to make sure the beans are covered completely. A few dashes Worcestershire and Tabasco (to taste).

Let her cook for 1.5 hours. Add in remaining vegetables. Adjust seasonings.

After 3 hours, some of the beans did not cream--I think this was an old bag of beans--so I smashed some, mixed, let her go a little longer and turned off. Now let it sit overnight and Mondays are Red Beans and Rice day.

Gumbo Pages suggests to add pickled onion next day to each dish--sounds great. (By the way--Gumbo Pages is by far the best online source for Louisiana/New Orleans recipes. And as soon as I sell enough of this red beans, I'll send them a donation--you should too.)