red beans and rice take two

We enjoy Roger Mooking's Man, Fire, Food quite a bit and recently caught an episode that included red beans and rice and tons of smoked meat. The version of that recipe we tried, while similar to mine, threw in enough new ingredients, and turned out well enough, that I wanted to write down what I did before I forget.

1 package pork belly (we get it from Trader Joe's)
1 link linguica
1 package andouille sausage (we love North Country's)
1 onion
2-3 garlic cloves
12 ounces of water
2 16 ounce cans of dark red kidney beans
cajun seasoning
Worcestershire sauce
Crystal's hot sauce
Cooked rice

Cut up all three meats into bite sized pieces (we did smallish chunks for the pork belly, cubes for the linguica and rounds for the andouille). Place the pork belly in a Dutch oven and heat on high until the pork belly gets crusty and brown. Add the other meats, onion and garlic and cook until onions become translucent. Add the water and kidney beans and stir. Add cajun seasoning to taste, as well as 2 to 3 glugs each of Worcestershire sauce and Crystal's hot sauce. Heat at medium high until the liquid has thickened and reduced, or until the rice is ready.

We also steamed some spinach and vitaminna with just salt and pepper and it complemented the heaviness of the dish nicely.

Adapted from Cooking Channel

quick 4 ham gumbo

While trying to use up a bunch of stuff in our freezer I created a delicious gumbo out of all of the ham products we had.

Ingredients:
homemade ham broth
1 cup of chopped tasso ham
4 links andouille sausage, sliced
1 link linguica, sliced
1 onion, chopped
1 bag of frozen okra

Heat the ham broth in a separate pan until boiling. Put a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of oil in the stew-pot. Sweat the onions and then add the tasso to the pot. Cook until the bottom of the pot begins to brown. (If possible turn off the pan and let the bottom get really brown without burning.) Add the andouille and linguica and cook for 5 minutes. Add the boiling broth. Cook for 5 minutes. Add the okra and heat until cooked through or until it just begins to boil.

Eat deliciousness.