September and October we fill the deep freeze with  meat. By the end of garden season, we have a good idea of how much room is left in the freezer and we fill that space with meat. We are fortunate to have an excellent butcher shop and several organic meat farms in the area. 

Our largest meat purchases are from Herman's Meat Market in Topeka and Flory Farms in Overbrook. We pre-order our meat from Flory Farms and pick up at the Lawrence Farmers Market the last Saturday in October. One of the items we order from them are ham hocks. We buy a dozen each year. They are a bit more expensive than hocks from the grocery. 

Flory Farm ham hock on the left and grocery store ham hocks on the right. 

However, the farm raised hocks have a lot of meat on them in addition to being organic. Both serve a purpose. 

We like the farm hocks in Red Beans and Rice as well as Pinto Beans and Ham recipes. Our red beans and rice recipe is pretty basic and cheap to make. A one pound bag of red beans is inexpensive. Just make sure to get dried red beans and not kidney beans. 

Red Beans

Kidney Beans on the top, red beans on the bottom. Red beans are smaller and roundish.

Kidney beans are light or dark red in color depending on the variety. Red beans are smaller and more round in shape. 

While the recipe takes 3 to 4 hours to cook, the preparation time is less than 10 minutes. The red beans do not need to be soaked the night before in this recipe. I use a large pot to allow for enough water movement around all the beans to ensure consistency while they cook. Bring to a boil, then lower the temperature to a gentle bubble for 3 to 4 hours. Have a pitcher of water handy to add to the pot through the cooking period. Stir frequently. The beans will absorb the bulk of the water in the pan in the first hour to hour and a half of cooking. Add enough water to keep the beans well covered. If you put in too much water, stay near the pot and bring the temperature up to a rolling boil to reduce the liquid. Turn the heat back down to the simmering, bubbly stage once enough of the water is gone. 

The dish is supposed to be spicy, but not New Orleans dirty rice spicy. About two hours after the beans have been cooking, add a table spoon of black pepper, 2 to 3 bay leaves, one large chopped onion, and one tablespoon each of parsley and basil, 2 teaspoons of salt, 1/3 a cup of brown sugar and 2 dashes of hot sauce. Be sure to remove the bay leaves before serving. We like to serve this dish over white jasmine rice and top with either shake cheese (Parmesan cheese) or fresh grated Parmesan cheese. We've also served the beans over wild rice, brown rice, and gnocchi, but our favorite is the long grain white rice. We've used both dried rice that we cook from scratch or a packet of rice that cooks in the microwave in 90 seconds. 

Personally, I add extra black pepper and double the oregano for a bolder flavor. This is already an inexpensive meal. You can purchase the grocery ham hocks, use dried rice and a smaller container of store brand Parmesan shake cheese to lower the cost even more. There are two of us in the house and this recipe makes 8 servings or 4 meals for us. We can stretch that to 10 meals with smaller portions (no seconds!) and adding a half sandwich each with the last two portions. Beans are a bit high in carbohydrates, but they are also high in protein. You can also lower the carb load by replacing white rice with a brown or wild rice.