A spicy meal of red beans cooked with tasso and andouille sausage then served over rice.
The prep and cook time indicated below is preceded with a 4 hours brine of the red beans.
"*" See Kitchen Notes for more information or links to special ingredients.
Transfer the beans and liquid from the pressure cooker to the Dutch oven. Add the bay leaves, tasso, tomatoes, and more liquid if needed.
Continue to cook for 30 minutes to an hour until the beans are tender, stirring occasionally.
Add salt and pepper and more cayenne if needed, and you if want, add 1 or 2 andouille sausage*.
Tasso – As previously mentioned, tasso can be extremely spicy and smokey; therefore, taste or at least smell the tasso before adding. Tasso should be smoked, so there shouldn’t be any danger in tasting it. After doing a taste test on the Bergeron tasso, we decided to put 1/2 pound in the beans which, along with the cayenne, yielded a very spicy dish with plenty of meat. If you find the tasso too smokey or spicy, then cut back to 1/4 pound of tasso and add 2 andouille sausages.
Substitution for tasso – If you don’t have tasso, then use an 8 to 10 ounces ham hock. Cook the beans with the ham hock, then remove any meat and return to the beans along with 2 to 3 andouille sausages.
Andouille – Andouille adds a complementary flavor to the tasso and the ham hock. So whether to add andouille and how much is a personal preference. We like it both ways. Also, since andouille is already smoked, we like adding it toward the end of the cooking process to prevent it from drying out and becoming tough. Even in 30 minutes, it does a great job in adding flavor to the beans and stays tender.
Pressure cooking the beans – When using dried beans, I always brine and then pressure cook for 10 minutes. Most of the time, the beans are undercooked on purpose, because this allows me to add the remaining ingredients and finish cooking the beans. If one were to cooked the beans on the stovetop or in the oven without pressure cooking, it would add at least an hour to the total cooking time. I don’t like to use the pressure cooker for the total cooking time, because I want more control over the texture of the beans. I don’t like mushy beans.
Allowing a resting time – As with most soups and stews, you need time for the flavors to meld; therefore, if you have time, let the beans come to room temperature before reheating. For the best results, let cool, refrigerate and have for the supper the next day.
Recipe author: MJ of MJ's Kitchen