Recipe: Red Beans and Rice

NEW ORLEANS — For 60 years, Channel 4 has been privileged to celebrate and share many of those recipes with viewers across south Louisiana and Mississippi. Throughout the cookbook series, The Southern Food and Beverage Museum, which keeps the region’s delicious culinary history and heritage alive, provides historical context to the foods we cook and eat today. Each cookbook partner has also contributed their own recipes for you to enjoy and share.

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Recipe: Quarantine Cuisine

With everything going on, now is the time to be cooking big batches and checking on grandparents and family, neighbors and the elderly.  This is why Kev decided on this and because it's a traditional dish.  

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup celery, chopped
• 6 cloves garlic
• 2 Tbsp. Creole seasoning
• 1 tsp. hot sauce
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 1/2 qt. chicken, or vegetable stock
• 1 lb. red beans, sorted and soaked overnight
• 2 tsp. kosher salt
• 1 tsp. pepper
• 1/2 cup parsley, chopped
• 3 cups cooked rice (I cook rice in chicken, or vegetable stock)
• 1/2 cup green onions, chopped
• Meat options: Smoke or hot sausage, pork chops, chicken

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Add onion and celery. Sauté until onion is translucent and celery is soft, about 8 minutes. Add garlic and sauté 1 minute.
2. Add Creole seasoning, and hot sauce. Mix and continue to cook for 1 minute. Add bay leaves and sauté for 1 minute.
3. Add stock and beans and stir until it boils, about 8 minutes. Add salt and pepper and reduce heat to simmer, cover and cook for 1 1/2 hours. Check pot every 20 minutes and stir to incorporate flavors.
4. Uncover and continue to simmer for another 30 minutes. Stir in parsley. If you need to thicken up the pot, use a potato masher to mash some of the beans. Serve over rice and garnish with green onions.

NOTE:

For the meat I prefer to cut sausage in pieces, cube the pork and chicken then with a bit of Creole seasoning on them roast them in a 350 degrees oven for 15-20 minutes, serving any or all of them on a separate plate.

More Recipes by Chef Kevin Belton:

• Cheesy Sausage Mushrooms
• Frozen Hot Chocolate Pie

Watch Chef Kevin Belton every Tuesday morning on Eyewitness Morning News on WWL-TV and WUPL.

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