Day: November 27, 2018

Slow cookers are perfect for beans. Like Ron Popeil used to tell us in his Ronco ads “Set it and forget it.” It’s a little easier to do that with red beans than white beans as you can start the red beans at breakfast and they will be ready when you get home from work, but white beans are more of a five or six hour haul and will overcook. I like to keep it really, really simple since the onion and beef broth and smoked ham hocks bring all the flavor you need to the beans. If you can find a good lean sausage to cook with the red beans that will stand up to eight hours cook time, go ahead and throw that in the pot as well. I get mine from the Cutrer booth at the Red Stick Farmers Market at Fifth and Main on Saturdays. Otherwise, cook the sausage separately on grill or stovetop when the beans are done. Richard’s Pork and Beef is a good one, but I’m sure you are already sold on a favorite. Here’s the plan for red beans:

½ lb Camelia red beans

1 quart Swanson’s Beef Broth

1 baseball sized yellow onion diced

1 baseball sized smoked ham hock

1 lb smoked sausage sliced

That’s it (I know you can handle the rice and corn bread and green onions advice free)

Almost the exact same plan for white beans and ham:

½ lb Camelia Great Northern beans

1 quart Swanson’s Chicken Broth

1 baseball sized yellow onion diced

1 baseball sized smoked ham hock

1 lb package of diced smoked or cooking ham

The white beans will be ready a couple of slow cooker hours ahead of the red beans. Now I’ve heard a lot about Insta-pot pressure cookers,but it’s a toy I’ve not played with or feel much of a need to. Like the “airfryer” convection ovens for broasting, I really don’t see the advantages myself. I could be wrong, I often am, but being in a hurry for beans just seems like poor planning to me. And if you want fried food without oil—Shake’N Bake.

So let’s start with these. Country style pork ribs, bone in or boneless, whatever you can get your hands on at a good price, thick cut bacon, and a sweet apple. I’m really fond of honeycrisp, but granny smiths or even red delicious will do. The real trick to these sticks is to prep the apple and pop it in the nuke for a minute just to take the edge off so it doesn’t snap when you go to skewer it. That works for onion and bellpepper as well if you decide to dress these up a bit. I like the simple, straightforward style of bacon apple pig, but I confess, I am also somewhat taken by the name. I like to use the seven inch bamboo skewers pictured because one makes a good app, and two or more can serve as a main.

Once you have them on the stick, I apply my basic meat seasoning. Roasted garlic olive oil, Lea & Perrins, Tony’s, black pepper. Toss them on the grill. If you can generate a little pecan smoke, all the better. I do a grill finish with Tiger sauce, and by that I mean before I flip the stick, I hit it with the sauce so it has a chance to cook into the meat. You can try a plate finish if you want (wait until it is off the fire to paint it), or even play around with both, hit it on and off the grill. Once you fire it up, it is your baby to do with as you please. These are just ideas that have worked really well for me.

Now I always think of these as a party food. Easy to prep ahead and bring with you—seasoned sticks in a zip lock in a cooler with a few bottles of Tiger sauce—if you are going to a friend’s house. A good start on a mixed grill at your house. Maybe some shrimp and steak and veggie sticks to go with. As straight barbecue they do pair well with potato salad, baked beans, green salad or coleslaw and garlic bread, Lots and lots of garlic bread. But you can always take it upscale or sideways with the addition of rice. Jambo, rice pilaf, dirty rice and grilled or steamed or stewed veggies. The uber-popular brussel sprout would not be a bad call, and the stick is light and lean enough that you could dress the sprouts with a creamy tasso gouda sauce without really over doing it. Food for thought

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