Red Beans and Rice

Something tells me we’re not the only ones who get excited over beans and rice. Do you? Rarely a week goes by that we don’t have beans of some sort or another, and my mother’s chili beans with rice are a staple around here.

My father found a recipe in our local grocery store (Raley’s) circular for a Cajun red beans and rice using smoked pork shanks. Given my dad’s love affair with all things pork, he couldn’t wait to make it. Traditional Louisiana red beans and rice also uses Andouille sausage which we did not add, but you could if you wanted. There was plenty of flavor, and plenty of meat, with the smoked shanks.

Red Beans and Rice Recipe

If you have access to ham hocks and not shanks, you may want to make up the difference in meat (hocks have much less meat) with sausage. Just take 1/2 pound of Andouille sausage, slice, brown first before adding to the beans with the ham shanks. If you do not eat pork, you might try making this with smoked turkey sausage, in which case I would replace some of the water with chicken stock.

Ingredients

• 1 lb dry small red beans
• 1 1/2 to 2 lbs meaty ham shanks
• 4 cups water
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 large onion, chopped (about 2 cups)
• 1 1/2 cups chopped celery
• 1 cup chopped green bell pepper
• 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 teaspoons of Cajun or Creole seasoning (Tony Chachere's or Zatarains) or to taste*
• Tabasco sauce**
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Cooked white rice (from about 3 cups raw rice)

*If you don't have access to packaged seasoning, just skip it and add some thyme (fresh or dried), a bay leaf (in with the beans and shanks in step 2), and a little paprika
**We used a combo of Chipotle Tabasco sauce and regular Tabasco, could also use cayenne pepper

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