Red Beans & Rice (not authentic)

This is a recipe I have been tweaking for ages.  I started out with a version that fed about 25 it would end with me days later trying to separate the chunks of sausage from the rice.  Throwing away perfectly good rice is wasteful, throwing away sausage?  That’s sacrilege. Since then I have been working it down to a manageable size for one person.  In the process I discovered I like my vegetables chopped fine, and the sausage chopped small so I can get one or two pieces in each bite.  I also decided I liked the rice cooked in with the red beans ala Zatarains boxed red beans and rice. 

Here is the recipe for one:

½ med yellow onion diced

1 celery stalk chopped small
½ green bell pepper diced
1 jalepeno diced
1 garlic clove chopped
15.5 oz can red beans
2.5 cups stock

½ cup white rice

Bay leaf
Hot sauce, I like Crystal for this
½ lb andouille sausage diced into small pieces about the size of your thumbnail

1. Saute onion, celery and peppers over med heat until soft, about 10 minutes. 

2. Add garlic sauté for another minute or 30 seconds until garlic is fragrant.

3. Add drained beans, broth, rice, bay leaf and hot sauce.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

4. Add sausage in last ten minutes.

5. After 20 minutes test rice.  If it’s done, remove from heat and enjoy with some more dashes of hot sauce.

This is still a work in progress; so far the rice cooked in with the beans works for me.  The negative is that the beans can end up overcooked.  The next time I make it I will try adding the beans and the sausage in the last ten minutes.