More Red Beans & Rice

[Saucier]

I kind of developed this one as a means to get rid of rib trimmings. I keep buying untrimmed ribs, and making St Louis out of them, I vacuum pack and freeze the trimmings and was looking for a good way to use them. Here is how it went!

Red Beans & Rice 2

6 lbs or so pork trimmings

water to cover

1 head garlic

1 hand full of carrots

1/2 bunch of celery or so

6 bay leaves

2 T black peppercorns

2 onions quartered

Other veggies from veggie drawer, mushrooms, leeks, parsley what have you.

This should end up yielding about 6 litres of stock.

Round 2!

6 litres of stock made previous day.

2 lbs soaked red beans

4 andouille sausage

3 lbs or so pork meat from stock pot trimmings

1 lb smoked bacon or hamhock

2 onions

2 green bell peppers

1 head garlic

3/4 cup creole seasoning

1 cup Franks Hot sauce

For stock take first batch of ingredients in large stock pot and simmer 5 or 6 hours. Strain and discard veggies and bay leaves. Strip pork meat from trimmings, should yield about 3 lbs.

Refrigerate stock overnight. In the morning skim the fat off & discard.

Return to stock pot and add second batch of ingredients, reserving the sausage. Bring to a slow boil and cook 4-5 hours to desired consistancy. If beans need thickening towards the end, remove a cup of beans and mash them, returning to the pot to thicken. Repeat as necessary.

Add salt to taste (should take quite a bit if you don't use salt in your Creole seasoning). Adjust other seasoning as needed.

In the last five minutes add the sausage, sliced thin on the diagonal.

Its best to let cool & referigerate overnight to let it all meld together, but you can serve it right up if you choose.

Make a pot of rice to your liking (I used gaba brown) and ladle bean mixture over it, enjoy with cold beer! (DJ trap)

This makes a big pot, about 25 8 oz servings! Adjust it how you like! I usually vacuum pack & freeze servings along with 1/2 cup of rice for service later.

Here is the Creole seasoning. This one is not mine, I stole it from the web.

Creole Seasoning

2 tablespoons onion powder

2 tablespoons garlic powder

2 tablespoons dried oregano leaves

2 tablespoons dried sweet basil

1 tablespoon dried thyme leaves

1 tablespoon black pepper

1 tablespoon white pepper

1 tablespoon cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon celery seed

5 tablespoons sweet paprika

A very versatile seasoning blend. Use this as a base seasoning, and build upon it in your dish.

Some versions of Creole seasoning blend contain salt -- I don't do that, because I like to control salt content separately. If you insist on this blend being salty, á la Tony Chachere's "when it's salty enough, it's perfectly seasoned!" rationale, start with 2 tablespoons salt in the blend, increasing up to 4 tablespoons depending on your sodium tolerance level.

Combine in food processor and pulse until well-blended, or mix thoroughly in a large bowl. I like the old mortar & pestlel.

The recipe doubles or triples well. Give lots of it away as gifts to your family and friends.