As a typical week starts in Louisiana, this blog will start with a dinnertime post about cooking red beans and rice. I spent the entire past weekend making sausage. Sausage making is a fairly large endeavour. Butchering, grinding, mixing, stuffing, curing, and smoking (depending on the type) takes a lot of time and requires a fairly large investment in some special equipment, but that’s a story for a separate post.
The tedious, laborious, and time-consuming sausage making process resulted in a large batch of andouille, a type of cajun smoked sausage that lends itself to nearly every dish in the cajun world–especially the big three: gumbo, jambalaya, and the subject of this post, red beans and rice (even though I personally prefer white beans, but the wife doesn’t see eye to eye with me on that one).
The only other ingredient that needs introduction is tasso. Tasso is sort of like a spiced heavily smoked ham. If you don’t live in or around Louisiana, good luck finding it. Normally you would use either andouille or tasso–not both. Being that I’m definitely a belt-and-suspenders kind of guy when it comes to adding meats to my beans, I use both. White beans only require tasso, andouille need not apply. One pound of beans requires about one of each of the other ingredients. I’m not giving you a list. It’s not hard, read this article and you can do it. I promise.
Sunday night, look through your dry beans to make sure there are no rocks or other garbage in there. If you have a can of beans, they will work well as a paperweight. Unless you want your dinner to underperform, stick to the dried beans. Once the beans have passed inspection, put them in a bowl and cover them with water by about 2″. They will swell overnight.
Monday morning, dump that water and add more. Let the beans continue to soak while you suffer through the workday.
That evening when you get home, get your chefs apron. Cut the tasso into cubes that will fit on a spoon with some beans. They don’t all have to be the same size. Likewise, cut the andouille into pieces that will fit on a spoon with some beans. No one likes giant chunks of meat in their beans that they have to eat solo.
Get a dutch oven. Brown the sausage and the tasso in some oil, or if you’re trying to impress people cook some sacrificial bacon and use the grease. Chop one onion, one stalk of celery, and one bell pepper or just use one or two cups of the frozen seasoning mix (that’s what I do during the week because I’m lazy). Add to the pot and saute until browned. Get a one quart container of chicken broth/stock. Brand doesn’t matter; buy it on sale in bulk.
Deglaze the bottom of the pot with a splash of the stock. Drain the beans and add to the pot. Cover with the remainder of the stock. It should be just enough cover the beans. Season with black pepper, granulated garlic, white pepper, and cayenne pepper. You will not need any salt as long as you use regular stock. How much seasoning does it need? Taste the broth. The beans will absorb the excess salt and some seasonings will leach out of the sausage and tasso. Add bay leaves if you deem it necessary (I don’t. I suspect that a blind taste test would reveal that no one can tell they were even used.) Cover the pot.
Let them simmer with just enough heat to cause bubbling. Around two hours, stirring every 15 minutes or so. Take the top off for the final 20 minutes to boil down the excess liquid until the beans reach the desired consistency.
Cook Rice, specifically Louisiana grown Jasmine rice. It’s just better than regular long grain rice. Try it, you will see. Pro-tip on the rice cooking: while you cannot lift the lid to stir, you can pick up the whole pot and swirl it to keep the rice from sticking.
My family traditionally has chopped raw onions and chopped pickles as a garnish.
Enjoy the fruits of your labor. You earned it.
The Louisianian 