RED BEANS AND RICE is the Dinner of Kings for Royalty who have reached the Poor House with the best of Southern Attitude....here's the recipe I've garnished over the years with sprigs of flat leaf parsley...eat up, now....

RED BEANS AND RICE

You must soak two cups of red kidney beans in water overnight and drain them. In a saucepan then you saute about 1/2 cup of chopped white onion and 1/2 cup of chopped shallots and a teaspoon or so of minced garlic cloves - in butter until quite tender..add a little over  a half cup of chopped ham, preferably southern roasted with brown sugar syrup and a few cloves of cloves - until nicely browned. add the drained kidney bean and 3 cups of water with about 1/2 cup of coffee and a vege bullion cube, a bit of marjoram, and a bit of cumin and a little pepper flakes in the water...cook slowly over low heat or put into a slow oven, which is around 300 degrees, usually...cook and cook at this simmer for an hour or so, adding hot water if needed, until the beans are cooked through but not fallin' apart...serve over short grained white, hot, fluffy rice. Sometimes I add File' to the water when the beans are about 3/4 done, to thicken the sauce and cajun-cook it more - make sure you've put in enough water that you do have a sauce, that isn't thin and isn't thick, but is tasty and smooth around the beans and over the rice.

Now this is a simple dish that isn't really simple at all. you have to cook it up with love and respect for the old ways and the poverty of money without the poverty of spirit. you have to have pride to make Red Beans and Rice and call that a Meal and not bat an eyelash. You gotta have a Southern Pride that hates the sin but loves the sinner, and sees that the gentlemen get their dinner, ready and waitin' and pipin' hot, whether gentlemen wants to eat it or not, like the old poem says...if you serve this dish with this attitude, then it will always taste like it is the Dinner for Kings. an', you know, it truly is that....