Thursdays Are For Cooking
This is Hondo’s very own recipe for mothers & beans. Found it in an old file drawer, and revived it, gave it a whiff of bacon grease, and everything was fine. It is simple to fix, and only requires a bit of patience on your part. (Put the lid back and get your nose out of my bean pot!)
Hondo Says: C’mon, folks – if you’re gonna send an Islamic radical off with a proper last meal, it has to be homemade “Mothers and Beans”.
Ingredients:
- 2-3 lbs smoked pork neckbones or pork hocks (choose ones with plenty of meat – I find neckbones work better on that score)
1 to 1 1/2 lb dried lima beans
1-2 tsp crushed garlic
1 medium or large onion, coarse chopped
1/4 to 1/2 tsp black pepper
Directions:
- Rinse/sort beans. Cover with 1” of water and soak overnight in fridge.
- Place hamhocks or neckbones in large pot. Cover with water. Bring to boil; reduce heat and simmer 1 1/2 hrs or until meat flakes off bones easily.
- Remove pork from water and bone meat from hamhocks/neckbones. Separate meat into smallish pieces. Save broth; discard bones.
- Drain beans, rinse, and drain again. Add beans and boned pork to broth. Add additional water until beans are covered with approx 1/2 in of broth. Add onions, black pepper, and garlic.
- Bring beans/pork/onions/garlic/pepper/broth mixture to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for approx 1 1/2 hrs or until beans are tender and liquid is reduced to desired consistency. Stir as often as required to avoid sticking/scorching. Add water as necessary during cooking.
- Serve over rice. You can either force-feed this to the terrorist, or you can eat it yourself and discard the terrorist. (smile)
Ain’t touched a lima bean since about 1974. Just seeing the name on a package of them make me flashback to a green can of congealed fat, gristle, and mush. I wouldn’t even force them to a terrorist for fear of upsetting the tummies of buzzards, maggots, or worms. Only thing good about that recipe is the part about “…discard the terrorist.”
Now if you wanna substitute Baby Butter Beans, or Butter Peas simmering in and amongst a smoked hamhock, bacon, or several dollops of bacon drippings, then I’m your Huckleberry. Made a crockett pot of them this weekend past, getting ready for the Birthday Buffet. They percurlated lowly for a good little while, soaking up them bacon drippings. The FIRST (ht 2 API) bowl got scarfed up with a slab of the outside slice of buttered milk cornbread, buttered with real butter, that had been cast iron skillet baked. Round two (2) was next to the smashed taters, cubed beef beast steak, swimming in brown gravy, and a heaping helping of the yard bird infused, cast iron skillet baked dressing. Oh, and deviled eggs with Key Lime Pie for dessert. It was a Food Orgy fit for a King (of Battle). Have re-filled that trough several times this week. And hurt myself each time.
Pro tip…you can substitute just about any legume for the muthers in this recipe.
Thanks Ex…I think?
Sadly, Hondo forgot the kielbasa whacked into discs tossed into the mix.
Thanks, Ex!
Kielbasa’s great, AW1Ed – but if you’ve got decent smoked pork, you don’t need it for this meal.
One additional caution if using neckbones: when boning the neckbones, use care and look carefully for small fragments of bone mixed in with the meat. You sometimes get those in smoked pork neckbones.
Discovered gigantes during a trip to Greece and loved them. My version uses canned limas for quicker preparation..
Sea Dragon’s Gigantes Plaki
1 Tbs olive oil
1 cup diced onion
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 can diced tomatoes
2 tsp dried oregano or Greek seasoning
Salt and pepper to taste
1 can butter beans, rinsed
2 Tbs chopped fresh parsley
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
In a heavy sauce pan, heat oil and sauté onion until translucent. Add garlic and cook one minute. Add tomatoes, seasoning, salt, pepper and simmer 20 minutes, or until sauce starts to thicken. Remove from heat and stir in parsley and butter beans.
Pour mixture into a lightly greased casserole dish and bake for 40 minutes.