Red Beans & Ricely Yours

It was a sweltering day, made even hotter by the boiling pot of beans on the stove. But red beans & rice is a Monday meal, and I had determined to be as authentic as possible when I chose to make this popular New Orleans dish. Satchmo loved it so much he signed his letters, “Red Beans & Ricely Yours,” and wouldn’t propose to his wife until she cooked it for him.

Satchmo statue at Algiers dock

Why Monday? A couple of reasons. Sunday supper was usually ham, because you could throw it in the oven before church and it would be ready when church ended. Then the leftover ham bones were used in red beans & rice the next day. Monday was laundry day, so a bean dish that doesn’t need much tending fit perfectly with the weekly routine.

My journey started with the search for the perfect recipe. Some things I learned during my research are that Camellia beans are the favored brand, you should never add salt until the very end (it will toughen the beans), and Louis Armstrong is pretty much the only person who liked tomato sauce in his red beans & rice. Even though I fell off the vegetarian wagon years ago, the amount of meat required for this recipe was eye popping—bacon grease, Tasso, Andouille sausage, and smoked ham hock.

Looks like a prop from a bad horror film, doesn't it?

The first few steps were easy—wash the beans, cover with water, and leave overnight. But as I progressed through the rest of the steps, I had so many questions. Was I supposed to rinse the beans after soaking them overnight? The recipe didn’t specify. After adding salt to the Holy Trinity, I panicked when I remembered all the dire warnings about salting too early. And the ham hock—the instructions said to brown it. But why brown something that’s already cooked. And was I really just supposed to throw it in whole? It was so big! Who would want that to end up in their bowl?

The last step was certainly as easy as promised. Turn on low and ignore for a few hours. Not being experts on red beans and rice, it tasted fine to me and J—definitely a step up from the Zatarain’s mix and Popeye’s.

Tastes better than it looks, honest!

Red Beans & Ricely Yours,

California Creole