FoodB

Soup and more soup.

The latest batch of soup is a popular post-Christmas soup because most families have a leftover ham hock lying around and what better way to use it than to throw it in a pot and boil the crap out of it. Since we didn't make a ham in recent weeks, we ended up buying ours pre-smoked. BTW, this is one big pot of soup so you better have some extra Tupperware lying around for leftovers.

Navy Bean Soup

1 pound navy beans, picked over, rinsed and drained
10 sprigs parsley
2 sprigs fresh thyme or rosemary
1 bay leaf
2 large smoked ham hocks, about 1 1/2 pounds
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1 clove garlic, coarsely chopped
8 cups of cold water
1 medium carrot, coarsely chopped
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Butter for garnish

1. Place the beans in a large saucepan and cover with cold water by about 2 inches. Bring to a boil and lower the heat to a simmer. Cook for 5 minutes; remove from the heat, cover, and let sit for one hour. Drain and reserve. Tie the parsley, thyme, and bay leaf together with kitchen twine.
2. In a large soup pot or Dutch oven combine the beans, herb bundle, hocks, onions, and garlic with the water. Bring to a boil, cover, and adjust the heat so the soup cooks at a gentle simmer. Cook until the beans and hock are completely tender, about 1-1/2 hours.
3. Turn off the heat and remove the hocks. Cool slightly. Remove the meat from the hocks, discarding the bones, fat, and skin. Cut the meat into small cubes. Remove the herb bundle and discard.
4. Puree about 3 cups of the beans with a some of the liquid in a blender. (For a smoother soup puree all the beans.) Stir the puree and diced meat into the soup. Heat the soup and adjust the seasoning as needed with salt and pepper.

Good soup. I thought the ham hocks that we bought were probably a lot better than if we had used a post meal ham hock. The smoky flavor coming off of them to just made the soup smell amazing. I don't imagine you can smoke soup but if you could it would have smelled like what we were eating. The only complaint I have was that I wish that I had bought some bread before hand because this was a perfect soup to dip bread in. Next time for sure.

Site note: I added a soup category since we have been rocking the soup bells a lot lately. Hopefully I will get around to updating all of the previous soup recipes to make it easier to find.