"Laundry Day" Red Beans & Rice

It's customary in Louisiana to make Red Beans & Rice on Mondays. Traditionally on Mondays, laundry was done, and the slow-cooking easy-going meal was the choice preparation as it requires little attention and turns out yummy every time. Often, leftovers are better on the second day when the beans have time to "sleep" and the starches and flavors meld.

In our house, laundry day is Sunday, so that makes it Red Beans & Rice day as well.

Here is my recipe:

Ingredients:

1     White Onion (large)
6     Stalks of celery
1     Large Green Bell Pepper
4     Cloves Garlic
2     Bay Leaves
1lb  Red Kidney Beans (dried)
1qt  Beef Stock
2c  Water
1lb  Cooked Smoked Sausage (Andouille preferred)
3tbsp  Butter
3tbsp  Rendered Duck Fat (Olive Oil may be substituted)
Salt
Pepper
Hot Sauce
Soy Sauce
Worcestershire Sauce
Green Onions

Method:
Dice onion, celery, and bell-pepper into 1/4in squares. Mince garlic. In a sturdy pot or dutch oven, melt 3tbsp butter and rendered duck fat. I love using duck fat as it imparts wonderful flavor and also raises the smoke-point of butter. Saute the diced veggies and two bay leaves with salt and pepper in fats until onions are translucent.

Add 1lb red kidney beans (dried). Yep, you read that right. I don't pre-soak my beans overnight. Here's why-- we prefer a starchier or thicker sauce with our beans. After soaking beans overnight, you water-log and leech the starches out, making your "gravy" runnier. See the next step for my Alton Brown-esque madness/method:

After adding the dried beans, stir and saute until the beans begin to wrinkle (about 5 minutes on medium heat). This actually "malts" the beans and polymerizes the starches, making it easy for the beans to cook and for the starch to enter the sauce. This also stops the whole "wet sock" phenomenon that happens with some beans, where the skin and flesh of the bean cook differently and the skin slips off the interior of the bean when you're trying to eat them. Ok, too much science? Stay with me!

After the beans are nice and wrinkly, add 1qt Beef Stock, two cups water, and salt & pepper. This should be enough to cover all the beans and veggies in liquid. To this mixture, I add dashes of soy sauce, hot sauce, and Worcestershire sauce. If I'm out of Worcestershire, I'll sometimes add liquid smoke (yay bottled carcinogens!) In this case, I'm using this awesome hot sauce my good friend Becki got for us.

Stir, stir, stir, and leave the heat on medium or medium-high until the mixture begins to boil (about 10 minutes). Once boiling, place the lid on the pot, and turn down heat to low. Then, you wait...

Stir every thirty minutes or so and wait...

And stir... and wait...

Until you've been waiting about 2 hours and 30 minutes. At this point, go ahead and make your white rice for your beans. I use Louisiana Long Grain from Cajun Country, but feel free to use whatever suits you best. At this point, I also slice the smoked sausage along the bias (diagonally) and add that to the beans and stir one more time.

When you've reached 3 hours elapsed time of "stir and wait" cycles from the initial boil, cut the heat. If your sauce is still too watery, use the spatula to smash some cooked beans along the side of the pot and incorporate that into the sauce. It will thicken for sure.

After everything is cooled and ready, plate your rice, ladle the beans on top, and garnish with some sliced green onion.

Pour yourself some wine (if you haven't already), sit back, and enjoy!