Cajun White Beans Food

CAJUN RED BEANS

Steps:

• Place the pinto beans into a large container and cover with several inches of cool water. Soak beans 15 minutes; drain and rinse.
• Heat bacon grease in a large pot over medium-high heat. Cook and stir salt pork in hot grease for 1 minute. Add onion, celery, bell pepper, black pepper, and chipotle powder to salt pork; cook and stir until the vegetables are soft, about 4 minutes.
• Stir smoked sausage, bay leaves, parsley, and thyme into salt pork mixture; cook and stir until sausage is browned, about 4 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute more.
• Stir beans into sausage mixture and add enough water to cover the beans. Bring to a boil, remove from heat, and transfer beans mixture to a slow cooker.
• Cook on High for 1 hour. Reduce to Low and cook until beans are tender, adding water as necessary, about 6 hours more.
• Mash about 1/4 the beans against the side of the slow cooker crock with the back of a heavy spoon. Continue cooking on Low until beans are tender and creamy, 15 to 20 minutes more. Remove bay leaves.

AUTHENTIC CAJUN RED BEANS

Steps:

• Sort and rinse the red beans. Cover the beans with cold water about 2 inches above the red beans. Let the beans soak overnight. Drain and rinse the beans under cold water before cooking them. (This does not include water listed in the recipe)
• Place the ham hocks, 9 cups of water, celery, yellow onions, green bell peppers, bay leaves, and seasonings in a 6-quart sizeable Dutch oven; stir the mixture well. Cover the Dutch Oven with a tight-fitting lid and bring to a full boil over high heat. Remove the cover, reduce the heat, and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
• Remove the ham hocks from the Dutch Oven and set them to the side. (Shred the ham hocks while waiting) Do not discard the water in the Dutch Oven
• Add the drained and rinsed beans and about 4 more cups of the water to the Dutch Oven; bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Next, add two more cups of water and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring often. Add the sliced andouille sausage and continue simmering for about 25-35 minutes, Stirring the bottom of the Dutch oven to ensure the beans do not stick.
• Add the shredded ham hocks to the Dutch Oven and cook and stir for 10 minutes more.
• Serve over long-grain rice and add hot sauce and green scallions for a little more kick.

BAKED BEANS - CAJUN STYLE

Steps:

• Fry the bacon in a large frying pan until crisp. Let cool, then crumble the bacon, then mix all the ingredients together well except for the beans, then add beans and mix gently, so as not to mash up the beans. Precooked, crumbled bacon bits can be substituted for the freshly cooked bacon.
• An alternative to bacon is to use smoked ham. Slice ham into 1/8 inch cubes and place in a mixing bowl. Sprinkle the ham with a mixture of one-quarter cup brown sugar and one-quarter cup white sugar, mix until the ham is well coated, then brown ham in a frying pan until the sugars caramelize and begin to turn brown/black. Then mix all ingredients except the beans together, then add beans and mix gently, so as to not mash up the beans.
• Pour bean mixture into a 10 x 10 inch baking dish, cover with tin foil and bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes or longer, until bubbling well around the edges of the baking dish, then remove tin foil, and broil at 400 degrees 5 to 10 minutes, until top browns/blackens slightly. This browning/blackening adds a very good caramelized flavor to the dish, and does not taste burned at all.
• This makes a mild to medium spicy recipe, to make a very mild recipe, use only 1/4 teaspoon each of the three peppers.

WHITE BEANS WITH SHRIMP

Steps:

• Soak the beans. See Notes
• Peel, clean and rinse shrimp. Pat dry with a paper towel and combine with some creole seasoning and set aside. Chop and measure all other ingredients and set aside until needed.
• Starting in a cold dutch oven, saute the bacon until most of the fat is rendered.
• Leaving bacon in the dutch oven, turn down the heat and add the onions, bell peppers and celery. Saute slowly until starting to brown and caramelize, about 6 minutes.
• Turn up the heat and add the garlic and about ⅔ of the Herb and Seasoning Blend. Stir for 2 to 3 minutes until aromatic.
• Add the beans (after draining) and stir well to coat all the beans with the bacon grease, trinity and spices. Saute about 4 or 5 minutes.
• Add a little stock to deglaze the dutch oven (if needed), scraping up all the browned goodness on the bottom.
• Add the remaining stock and the liquid crab boil (see Notes); bring to a full boil, reduce heat to a heavy simmer and continue uncovered for about 5 minutes while all the flavors begin to come together.
• Lower heat to a simmer, cover pot and cook for about 2 to 3 hours, stirring occasionally so it does not stick.
• At about the 2-hour mark, start testing the beans to see if they are getting tender. Remove the cover intermittently if the beans need to thicken once they are soft.
• Once the beans are soft, taste for seasoning. Add the remaining Herb and Spice Blend and about 2 teaspoons of salt. The shrimp will absorb some salt so it's OK to be a little salty at this point.
• Add the shrimp by hand, a few at a time, and mix in thoroughly.
• Keeping the beans on a slow simmer, cover the pot and simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes.
• Remove from heat and let sit covered for about 5 minutes. Taste again for salt and add more if desired.
• Remove the bay leaves and serve over long grain rice.

CAJUN-STYLE BEANS AND SAUSAGE

Steps:

• In a large skillet coated with cooking spray, brown sausage. Transfer to a 5-qt. slow cooker. Stir in beans, tomatoes, vegetables, garlic and seasonings., Cook, covered, on low until vegetables are tender, 6-8 hours. Serve with rice.

CAJUN STYLE WHITE BEAN SOUP

Steps:

• Put rinsed beans, in a 4 quart dutch oven and cover beans with water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, simmer beans, uncovered for 2 minutes. Remove from heat, cover and let stand for 1 - 2 hours. Drain beans and re-rinse.
• Place the beans, water, undrained tomatoes, ham bone, onion, green peppers, celery, garlic and pepper back into same dutch oven. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 3 hours or until beans are tender.
• Remove ham bone, when cool, cut meat from bone and return to soup and heat through. Stir in the hot pepper sauce, taste and season with salt.