Sidetrack’s Red Beans & Rice (via TDK)

[Todd]

Sidetrack’s Red Beans & Rice

Ingredients:
- 4-5 cloves garlic
- 2 stalks celery, chopped
- 1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
- 1 baseball sized onion, chopped
- 2 Bay leaves
- Green onions for garnish
- MEAT: Ham hock, tasso and/or breakfast sausage in any combination that flips your skirt up. Yes, sometimes
I’ll do all three.
- SAUSAGE: About 2 pounds of pork sausage. For Christ’s sake, nothing made in the Midwest. Andouille and/or
pork sausage. Cut into discs or half-moons.
- 1 pound of red beans, either pre-soaked or from cans. One regular bag of Camellia dry beans is a pound. Or 4 cans.
- 1 can refried beans.
- Cayenne pepper
- Salt and pepper
- Chicken Stock. Keep a buttload of it warm near your big pot.
- Worcestershire Sauce

Directions:
1. Never go above medium heat until you add the stock.
2. Brown off the MEAT in olive oil and then pull it out.
3. Render your sausage a little bit and pull it out. Some people add it when there’s liquid. Can do either.
4. Should have some nice gradou in the bottom at this point.
5. Sautee onion, celery, and bell pepper until onions are translucent. Once or twice, I have doubled the veggies and
cooked half at this time, and then add half later on so you have crunchy veggies in the final product. Usually just
cook everything at once.
6. Sautee the garlic and bay leaves for 1-2 minutes.
7. S&P and Cayenne
8. Cook the refrieds until soft/bubbling. You are stirring constantly, mind you.
9. Teaspoon Worstershire Sauce, and add all your meat back and the beans.
10. Cover with stock by one inch.
11. Bring to a boil on high, then reduce to med/low.
12. Reduce the liquid. As it dries out, re-add more stock. You can do this as many times as you like. Paul Prudhomme
has a recipe where you keep adding stock for like 8 hours. That’s pretty freaking long. I usually cook it for 2-4
hours.
13. Serve over rice. Green onions on top.

* This makes enough for 10 people or like 3-4 dinners for any non-Mormon or traditional, strict-Catholic family.