More of a soup recipe (or do it thick if you wish). Beans and ham hocks used to be a favorite in the south before the ------- diet police showed up, and before ham hocks moved into gourmet cuisine. Still popular in rural areas. This one doesn't have the sophistication of New Orleans black beans and rice, but is almost as satisfying.

Brenda's Black Bean Soup

3 cups of dried black beans
2 ham hocks
1 chopped bell pepper
1 chopped onion
1 sour orange
1 stick oleo
2 tablespoons flour
Salt and pepper to taste

In a soup pot, cover beans with water. Boil, take off the fire and let sit til cool. Cook onion and bell pepper in 1/2 the oleo until limp. Add them, orange and the ham hocks to the cooled beans; cover with water. Simmer until the beans is soft (1-2 hours). Fish out the orange before it gets tore up. With the rest of the oleo, brown the flour in a frying pan, then stir it into the beans.
Ernest Matthew Mickler, 1986 and many reprints, "White Trash Cooking." (New York Times in their review called this classic cookbook "one of the few unvarnished regional cookbooks around").

Ham hocks, also necessary for true New Orleans black beans and rice, have gone into gourmet recipes, hence have become expensive; a piece of good smoked ham is a fair substitute.
If oleo turns you off, use olive oil and butter. We like a touch of Lee & Perrins Worcester, rather than the orange.
Simplify by using organic black beans from the can. We simmer until the meat is loose on the hock bones.
Biscuits, corn bread or etc. and a salad make it a fine meal. We often use french or sourdough bread.