Monday Recipe
Navy Bean Soup
Middle of February, ’nuff said.
You’ll Need:
1 lb dried navy beans
water
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 garlic clove, minced
1 smoked ham hock or 1 leftover ham bone
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
You’ll Do:
1) Wash beans, drain then soak in large pot. For quick soak method combine beans & 6 cups water. Heat to boiling; boil
2 minutes. Remove from heat. Cover, let stand 1 hour, or soak beans overnight.
2) In large frypan melt butter, saute celery, onion and garlic until tender.
3) Drain beans, reserve liquid.
4) Into saucepan add beans, reserved liquid and enough water to make 10 cups, ham bone or hock, salt and pepper plus saute veggies from frypan.
5) Heat to boiling, reduce to low.
6) Cover and simmer 3 hours or until beans are tender and soup thickens.
7) Remove meat from bone and add to soup.
8) Remove a cup or two of beans, mash and return to make a thicker soup if desired.
Done! Crusty bread and a beverage of choice to go with. February? Ffffft.
Hat tip to Food.com
Category: Cooking
Num Num…looking good you Aeronautically Designated Squidly Swabbie. A cast iron skillet of buttered milk cornbread goes real good here. And, no, not that flat pan, sugared up squares shown in the picture. The good crusty bread is a go at this station too.
What? No FOD Walk thru the package of dried beans? Guess that’s an understood step. Chopped up bacon and an overnighter/all dayer in a crockett pot works for this also.
Bean soup is on the menu in the U.S. Senate’s restaurant every day. No one is exactly sure why this tradition started, but since 1903, U.S. Senate bean soup has been served in the Senate dining room every day – the only mandatory recipe on the menu. The only exception, according to Senator Elizabeth Dole, as told to her by her husband, Bob Dole, was in 1943, during World War II rationing. It only happened for one day, and then bean soup was back on the menu. Pressure Cooker Senate Bean Soup Ingredients: 1 pound dried navy beans, sorted and rinsed 2 tablespoons butter 1 large onion, cut into 1/2 inch dice 2 cloves garlic, sliced 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt 1 1/2 pounds smoked ham hocks (or a hambone and some leftover ham) 8 cups water 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper Salt to taste Minced parsley for garnish Instructions Sort and rinse the beans: Sort the navy beans, removing broken beans, stones, or dirt clods. Rinse the beans and set aside. Saute the aromatics: Heat the butter in the pressure cooker pot over medium-high heat until it stops foaming. Add the onion, garlic, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Saute until the onions are softened and browning around the edges, about 8 minutes. Pressure cook the beans: Drain the navy beans, rinse, and add to the pressure cooker. Set the ham hocks on top of the beans, then pour the water over everything. Lock the lid on the pressure cooker, and cook at high pressure for 30 minutes in an electric PC, or 26 minutes in a stovetop PC. Let the pressure release naturally, about 20 minutes. Remove the lid carefully, opening away from you – even when it’s not under pressure, the steam in the cooker is very hot. Shred the ham hock, season, and serve: Remove the ham hock from the pot with a slotted spoon or tongs, and set aside to cool. Ladle 2 cups of beans into a blender and puree the beans, then stir back into the pot. (I use my stick blender for this step.)… Read more »
We do the pressure cooker method, frequently. To avoid scorching or burning the beans, try an expandable steamer rack, a one size fits most sort of thing, that provides about 1/2 inch, maybe 3/4’s between the bottom of the pot and the beans.
FWIW, split pea soup also works well in the pressure cooker, takes about 20 minutes cooking time.
To each as they prefer, I put whole peppercorns in the mix.=, at the start. They are easy enough to pick out for those who care less for them.
To those of you with a taste for Mexican grub, a handful of chopped fresh cilantro is a flavor enhancer for ANY pot of beans.
See, it’s the ham hock that gets to me. Can’t do without that. That flavor….
What part of the piggie does the ham hock come off of?
According to several sources….
A ham hock (or hough) or pork knuckle is the joint between the tibia/fibula and the metatarsals of the foot of a pig, where the foot was attached to the hog ‘s leg. It is the portion of the leg that is neither part of the ham proper nor the ankle or foot (trotter), but rather the extreme shank end of the leg bone.
In other words, just above the foot.
So how come the veg is cooked ahead of time? Honest question here – not yanking anyone’s chain. Seems like they would get cooked plenty well, and keep all their flavor in the pot, if they were thrown in raw and cooked with the beans.
The difference is between sauteing and essentially boiling the veggies.
Sauteing the veggies seals in the flavor of the veggies and for onions, prevents the onions from disappearing as they are mostly water.
The sauteing allows the veggies to keep their shape, keep the flavor and add texture.
Think of the difference between searing a hunk of meat as opposed to boiling it.
That’s the principle at work here with the veggies being sauteed.
Thx. Figured there was a good reason.
Not much of a cook here. Food serves a great purpose, but if I’m making it, most likely it all goes in one pot/pan with no extra dishes used.