Louis Armstrong’s red beans and rice (Virginia edition*)

Active time: 30 minutes (at most—I really have no idea); total time: couple hours-ish. Leisurely. Serves … multitudes. (And freezes well.)

1 onion, diced small

2 tablespoons bacon grease (vegetable oil is fine if you don't have any on hand) (I seem to remember something from Jenny’s recipe about a ham hock, which I never had around)

2 40.5-ounce cans red-skinned kidney beans

water

1 6-ounce can tomato paste

1 cup ketchup

1 cup dry red wine

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon dried basil (or 1 tablespoon fresh, chopped)

1 teaspoon ground marjoram

2 bay leaves

fresh-ground pepper to taste

1 pound kielbasa (precooked), diced small

In a large, heavy-bottomed pot, sautee the onion until translucent, nearly caramelized. Add the drained, rinsed beans to the pot, and add enough water to nearly cover the beans. Add all other ingredients except for the kielbasa (and the basil, if using fresh). Bring to a boil, then simmer, uncovered, for a couple hours, giving it a stir every few minutes—until it’s thick enough that you can eat it with a fork rather than a spoon (you can cheat and raise the heat a little, but be sure to push things around in the pot now and then to keep it from burning). In the last half hour, add the kielbasa; if using fresh basil, stir in just before serving. Remove bay leaves. Serve over (or alongside) (or, if you have kids who don’t like the components of their meal touching, in a separate bowl from) sticky rice. Or not.

*This is the only "Louis Armstrong" red beans and rice I knew of until recently, but I now know, thanks to the Internet, that this recipe diverges quite a lot from the New Orleans classic, such as the variation found here. Still, I love it, and I hope you do, too.