Cajun Red Beans & Rice

Ingredients

• ½ lb small red beans
• ½ lb ham hocks or smoked ham
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped
• 3 stalk celery, chopped
• 1 tbsp chopped parsley
• ½ green pepper, chopped
• 1½ 1 to 2 bay leaves
• 2 large cloves garlic, crushed
• ⅛ lb margarine
• pepper to taste
• salt to taste
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• Tabasco sauce
• 3 cup cooked white rice

Method

1. Soak the beans overnight in ample water. The next day, drain the water from the beans and place in a heavy kettle. Add the ham, onion, celery, parsley, bay leaves and garlic and add water to the pot barely to cover the contents.
2. Bring to a boil then down to a simmer, uncovered, for 2 hours, being careful that the beans do not stick or become too dry. You may have to add a little water.
3. After 2 hours of cooking, add the margarine, pepper, Worcestershire and Tabasco to the pot. Continue cooking 1 more hour with the lid on the pot and the heat quite low.
4. Correct the seasonings. Correct the salt at this point because of the salt in the ham. Serve over white rice with a nice green salad and good white wine or beer.

Notes

From the PBS Frugal Gourmet series (Jeff Smith). Serves 4-6.

Original card

The recipe above was transcribed from this scan of Vera’s original card.

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