I AM HE-MAN, meat eating, bone licking…but hot yam!!! This some good eats…I was stuck with some dried beans, rice & some spice, then the light above my head went bam!

It really was BAM! from Emeril’s Essence, 1/2 bottle to be exact, & 2 bay leaves, funny how things workout.

I must confess I’m born & raised in New Orleans, so I’ve got red beans & rice in my blood from all those years of school lunch.

My best pot of beans came from Cook’s Illustrated, before that it was Paul Prudhomme recipe tweaked with fried bacon(Wellshire black forest bacon), key ingredients for good beans=paprika, thyme & bay leaf, of course standard garlic & onions, no need for holy trinity or anything fresh for that matter, dried onions & garlic actually taste better than fresh.

The paprika should be majority of the spices, usually it would come from the tasso…but Emeril’s Essence works out fine because major spice is paprika…finally on to the recipe.
1 pound dried beans
1/2 bottle Emeril’s Essence
2 bay leaves
some cooked rice

Bring to boil beans & water 4 inches above beans, 2 tablespoons of salt, turn off heat, cover 1 hour to soak.

Drain beans, replace with fresh water 4 inches above beans, bring to boil & BAM!BAM!BAM! 1/2 bottle Emeril’s Essence & 2 bay leaves, let simmer uncovered for 2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes to bust up beans for thick gravy. Add more water if necessary, you can always add but hard to take out, but with water in this recipe you could cook it longer to evaporate & soften beans even further, even to gravy stage(better than loose watery stage), hey, it’s all gravy, no worries. Enjoy yall.

Thank you for sharing!