Main Dishes
**A**
1 large (or two small) smoked ham hocks (see note about pickled pork shoulder)
6 C water
**B:** 1 lb red kidney beans, rinsed, & drained
**C - The Holy Trinity:**
1 Tbl oil
1 large onion, chopped
4 ribs celery, chopped
1 green pepper, stemmed, seeded, & chopped
**D:** 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
**E:** ½ lb andouille sausage, chopped
**F**
1 tsp ground sage
½ tsp freshly ground pepper
1 tsp thyme
3 bay leaves
1 Tbl vinegar
ground cayenne pepper (1/2 tsp for very mild up to 1 Tbl for picante)
Day 1 - Morning:
* Place A in a slow cooker (crockpot or some such) and simmer 8-12 hours.
Day 1 – Evening:
* Pour cooking liquid and B (the beans) into a large container (leaving room for beans to expand), and refrigerate ~8 hours (overnight).
* Pull apart ham hock(s): chop and return meat to the crockpot and discard the rest (skin, bones, etc.). No need to wash the crockpot – just let it sit until next morning.
Day 2 – Morning:
* Skim off and discard the fat from the refrigerated cooking liquid, then return the liquid and
beans to the crockpot.
* In a frying pan, sauté C, adding the Holy Trinity in order (1-2 minutes between), until the onions turn golden brown around their edges. Add D (the garlic), turn off the heat, and let the garlic cook a few minutes in residual heat (don’t let it brown – it will become bitter). Pour everything into the crockpot.
* In the same sauté pan, lightly brown E (the sausages) then add them to the crockpot. Scoop 1-2 cups of cooking liquid into the sauté pan to deglaze it, then pour the liquid back into the crockpot.
* Add F (the spices) and stir to mix everything together; cover the crockpot and let simmer on low ~8 hours until beans are tender.
Day 2 – Evening:
* Cook a pot of sticky white rice.
* Taste the beans & correct seasoning (salt, pepper, & hot sauce). Uncover crockpot, turn it to high, and use a potato masher to roughly mash the beans, then let the beans cook/thicken uncovered while the rice is cooking. Stir the pot now and then to encourage evaporation/thickening and to ensure the beans thicken evenly.
SERVE beans alongside a scoop of rice, with extra hot sauce on the side.
OPTIONAL GARNISH: Very thinly sliced onions, freshly caramelized.
1. The recipes I learned from added salt a couple times throughout. No matter how much I cut down on the amount of salt specified, by the time the beans cooked down, they were still too salty for us. I’ve omitted salt from this recipe until the very end, adding it only once, to taste and just before serving.
2. The traditional recipe uses pickled pork shoulder, which is available from Savoie’s (ca. $8/lb these days). That’s not really available in Hawaii, so instead, I use smoked ham hocks and a dash of vinegar. If you can get pickled pork shoulder, you can add it with the andouille sausages, which means you can begin the recipe in the evening of Day 1 by simply soaking the beans – no ham hock mess.