• Heat olive oil in large stock pot over medium high heat until just smoking.
• Turn down to medium and add all the sausage, both diced and rounds and brown about 5 minutes. Remove from pot, but leave any brown small brown bits.
• Add ham hock (if you have one), all vegetables, garlic and bay leaves to pot and cook 5 minutes, stirring often so onions do not burn.
• Rice and drain beans and add to pot.
• Return cooked sausage to the pot and add enough broth to cover the beans by about ½ inch.
• Bring to boil then cover and bring heat down to a simmer, cover, and cook until beans are soft (about 2-4 hours). Stir occasionally and make sure beans are not sticking to the bottom of the pot. If beans soak up broth, add more broth to barely cover them.
• Once beans are soft use a fork to smash about a dozen beans against the side of the pot and then stir. This will thicken the mixture. You can do this with more beans until you get a desired thickness. Instead of smashing beans, you can choose to make a roux (see optional steps below) and add it to the pot to thicken the beans. Regardless, I like to go with a near gravylike thickness.
• Add the file powder to mixture and stir, as this also will thicken it a little.
• Taste and season with cayenne pepper, black pepper, and salt to taste. Remove bay leaves.
• Once complete, give it another good stir. In a bowl, add a cup of beans then a half-cup scoop of cooked rice on top. Garnish with parsley if you wish and serve with some bread. Yum!

Optional

• Create a roux by adding 2-3 tbsp of butter to a small saucepan on medium heat until it stops foaming. Add 2-3 tbsp of flour and whisk continuously until the flour cooks to a milk chocolate color (or darker if you dare). If it burns, toss it and start over.
• When the roux reaches a color you like, add about a half cup of liquid from the beans above and whisk until smooth.
• Pour the roux mixture into the pot. Thank me later!