Red beans & rice (mickler)

8 Servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
2 pounds Dried red kidney beans
2 cups Chopped yellow onions
1 bunch Of scallions, chopped
3 Or 4 finely sliced cloves of garlic
1 bunch Parsley (chopped)
3 pounds Smoked sausage *
Salt and pepper to taste
3 quarts Of cold water

Directions

* cut into 2 inch lengths (smoked ham or ham bone works fine) I just made no-fat refried beans last night completely by accident.

I was making this recipe and discovered it in the process.

Soak beans overnight if possible. Drain water and add beans to a large 8- or 10-quart pot. Then add enough of the cold water to cover the beans. Add chopped yellow onions and garlic and bring to a boil.

Cook for one hour and add all the other things and more water if necessary.

Simmer (slight bubbling action) for 2 more hours or until the beans are soft. Then remove 2 cups of cooked beans without juice and mash very good. Then return the mashed up beans to the pot and stir into the mixture. This makes a creamy, thicker gravy. If the beans are too dry, add enough water to make them like you like them. Good over boiled rice.

Serves 8.

If you're in New Orleans on a Monday, this is the only thing you can eat.

From "White Trash Cooking", Ernest Matthew Mickler. Ten Speed Press, 1986. ISBN 0-89815-189-9.

When I got to the point where you take the two cups beans out and mash 'em, I put them in the food processor to puree. They came out smelling and tasting just like refried beans. The texture was a tad thin, but that could be remedied easily. You could probably even "re- fry" them in a non-stick skillet to reduce the water content. I used skin-on ham hocks to make this batch of beans, but you could easily leave that out and still come up with something close to what you want, I think.

Posted by Stephen Ceideberg; August 27 1992.

Related recipes