Attributed to: Bobbie and Taylor Riché
2 Green bell peppers.
2 Medium sized onions.
4 Stalks celery
1 bunch of scallions (green onions)
2 lbs andouille
1 lb ham chunks (can substitue salt meat as well)
1 lb red kidneys dry (I like Camelia brand, if you can find them)
Worcestershire sauce
Tony's
Onion powder
Garlic powder
Put the beans in a large stock pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and let boil until the beans fill out their skins. Usually about 30 mins. The skins will expand first, and just keep lettting it boil until they don't looked wrinkled. After they fill out, turn off the heat and let them soak for as long as you would like. At least 30 mins or so. After they finish soaking, drain off all of the water.
While the beans are boiling/soaking, chop up all the veggies finely. Also, I like to brown/bake my sausage a little bit before I put it in to try and get some of the fat out. Andouille is particularly fatty, if you can't find andouille, this may not be necessary, as the sausage may be leaner.
Once you drain off the bean water, take the beans out of the pot. Throw the veggies in the pot with some olive oil and sauté until the onions are translucent and the celery and peppers are somewhat soft.
When the veggies are sautéed, put the beans and the meat in. Add water until everything is covered. Bring it to a boil, and then turn it to a little bit above low.
Add healthy amounts of onion and garlic powder. I usually put some worcestershire sauce in there as well, also, a good portion of Tony's. If you used salt meat instead of ham, you probably don't have to add salt, but if you used ham, throw some salt in there. Also, shake a good amount of parsley flakes in. Stir all of this stuff in until well mixed.
Every fifteen minutes or so make sure to stir. When stirring, try to smush some beans against the wall of the pot, this will get the starch into the water and help to give it that creamy consistency. It needs to cook for around 3 hours. At some point it will stop being a clear soup and be a marroon, creamy substance. This is a good thing. Make sure you continue to stir for the entire duration.