Instructions: First you must render the fat from the smoked ham hocks. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and place the ham hocks in a deep pan. Cover pan with foil and bake for 4 to 5 hours or until 1/4 cup of fat has rendered from the hocks.

Combine 1/4 cup pork fat with one 15-ounce can red beans plus liquid in a medium saucepan. Add 1/2 cup water, brown sugar, 1/8 teaspoon salt, garlic powder, and onion powder. Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Use a potato masher to smash beans into a paste-like consistency. Add entire contents of remaining can of beans to the mixture and cook for an additional 10 minutes.

Prepare rice for 4 servings. For Uncle Bens converted rice you bring 2 1/4 cups water to a boil. Add 1/4 cup butter and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Add 1 cup of rice, reduce heat to low and simmer rice for 20 minutes or until tender.

To prepare each serving scoop 1 cup of beans into a bowl. Add 1 cup of rice on top of the beans and serve.

This recipe yields 2 large servings.

Comments: I first created the clone for this recipe back in 1994 for the second TSR book, "More Top Secret Recipes" but Ive never been absolutely pleased with the end result, and vowed to one day rework it.

After recently convincing a Popeyes manager to show me the ingredients written on the box of red bean mixture, I determined the only way to clone this one accurately is to include an important ingredient omitted from the first version: pork fat. Emeril screams "pork fat rules" on his cooking show all the time, and now we get to play with the stuff here at TSR.

After some work, I found a good way to get the best flavor from the right type of fat is to render it from smoked ham hocks. Ham hocks, which are pretty cheap at most markets, are placed in the oven for several hours so that the fat drains out. Theres your rendering. As for the beans, find red beans (theyre smaller than kidney beans) in two 15-ounce cans. If youre having trouble tracking down red beans, red kidney beans will substitute splendidly.

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