Need a really good red beans and rice recipe

This is my favorite, courtesy of Chef Michael Gulotta.

LINK

If you follow this...you will not be disappointed.

I’ve never found anything wrong with the recipe right on the Camellia bag.

Here is an old controversial recipe, where I called them Natchitoches style and saw a pages long argument start right away.

I'll just paste my post here.

Everyone has their favorite. Here is how I do them. I have been told that creamy red beans are Natchitoches style. Regardless of the truth in that I like mine creamy. Some people do not soak their beans before cooking, but I like to soak mine. As far as I am concerned, there is only one brand of beans and it is Camellia. The nice thing is that you can get them pretty much anywhere there is a Walmart. I always thought it was nice that Sam’s sells them in 4 pound bags. Saw a guy buying 20 four pound bags at Sam’s one day. My estimation is 80 pounds would make maybe 480 servings and would require the bean cook to have a big-big pot. Maybe he was buying supplies for a long weekend of bean cooking.

To make them, (3 servings) you need:

1/2 pound Camellia Red kidney beans.
1 Smallish onion, chopped
1 1/2 stalks celery, chopped
1/2 Green Pepper, chopped
2 ounces andouille sausage - regular or hot, your preference
2 ounces Country ham or tasso
1 1/2 teaspoons Lawrey’s Garlic Salt
4 Tablespoons butter
1 can chicken broth
1 Bay leaf
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon thyme
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 Tablespoon liquid smoke

Inspect the beans for stones and other stuff that shouldn’t be there and rinse them well. Cover the beans in tap water to about two inches over the top of the beans in your pot and soak them overnight. This is a not a must do requirement (Some cook them straight from the bag dry), but I have always soaked my Red Beans, my Navy and Great Northern beans and my black eyed peas overnight. At my age, I see no reason to stop this cooking habit now.

The next day, about 5 hours before you expect to eat, prep your onion, green pepper and celery and sauté them in 2 Tablespoons of butter (in the pan you will use to cook them). I like to sweat mine with a lid until they get tender and the onions are clear. Toward the end of sweating them, add the andouille and ham (cut into smallish pieces of your preference). Cook a few minutes to help start rendering the oil from the sausage then add the cayenne, thyme, Lawry’s Garlic Salt. Stir things up and then add the soaked beans, the can of chicken broth, salt and sugar, liquid smoke and bay leaf. Add enough water to this to make the liquid level two inches above the contents. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat and cook your beans with a lid at a low boil.

It takes a while to cook the beans and they need to be stirred every so often to make sure they are not sticking. You can pretty well judge the stage of cooking by the color of the beans. They will go from red to tan as they cook. After an hour I begin tasting them every 30 minutes or so to see how they are going. I am checking for how tender they are and how cooked the vegetables are. As much as the beans, I am concerned how soft the vegetables are. I expect my fully cooked beans to be tender to the point of mushy and the vegetables to be cooked to the point where they just about disappear.

When the beans are fully cooked (very tender), I remove the lid and reduce the liquid if needed to the point where there is not more than a half inch above the top of the beans, then I mash the beans with a potato masher and add the other two Tablespoons of butter to tighten up the beans.

I like to serve my beans with a scoop of rice and Hoe Cake Cornbread (skillet fried cornbread). To make the Cornbread Hoe Cakes, I use 1 cup of white self rising corn meal, 3/4 cup of self rising flour and enough buttermilk to make a batter, then skillet fry them in a little oil, like you would cook a pancake. Hoe Cakes should be crispy crunchy flat bread cakes.

the secret ingredient is butter.

Hot Tails makes a solid red beans topped with the pickled peppers, shown here with their fried rabbit

I agree with the pickled pork.

I also like to use some kind of stock/broth instead of tap water.

sometimes I'll add just a bit of yellow mustard, or even a roux.

if no roux, then I'll add a little butter.