Beans, Bones, and Greens.

As I have a few times previously, I found myself confronted with a backlog of greens. There was also the residual humerus from the stuffed pork shoulder to be addressed. Touring the pantry, however, I found few options for dried beans...until I stumbled upon a bag of lima beans. But, these were purchased from Winn Dixie perhaps 5-6 years ago.

Would they still be good?

They smelled fine and were uniformly firm. I decided to quick soak them and see. Finding no issues, I proceeded with the soup.

The Method

1. Place the dried beans (any type) in several cups of water. Bring to a boil. Cook for two minutes, then remove from the heat and allow to sit for 1 hour. Drain.
2. Soak a handful of dried forest mushrooms in very hot water for 20-30 minutes.
3. While the beans and mushrooms soak, brown pork bones in a deep pot. (You could have done this in the oven for an even deeper roasted flavor.)
4. Scrounge three leftover Italian sausages from the freezer. (Why did I have three, single sausages in ziplocs? Why not just cook the extra link each time?)
5. Brown the sausages along with the bones.
6. Add six cloves of whole garlic, the mushrooms, 1 tsp dried thyme, a bay leaf, and enough water to cover the bones.
7. Bring to a boil.
8. Add the soaked beans.
9. Add 6-8 cups of roughly chopped greens (bok choy and mabuna).
10. Season with salt and pepper.
11. Simmer for at least 1/2 hour. (I cooked this for 2+ hours.)
12. Remove the bones - picking and adding any meat to the soup.

The Result

Mellow. The sharpness of the greens and roasted pork bones were discernible and the beans created a thick, creamy base. It was the perfect dish, served with a salad and slices of Anadama bread (freshly thawed and heated in the oven), for a cool fall evening. The Junior Chefs added hot sauce to their bowls partway through and reported it was delicious (my bowl was already empty).

Other things to try. I would certainly make this with other types of stock bones. It would also be worth adding tomatoes or tomato paste midway through cooking. Different varieties of beans would work well, too.

Three for Three

With family in town, who like to eat, today has been a frenzy of cooking. Three dishes in three hours.

• Leek and Potato Soup
• Boeuf Bourguinon (ala Julia Child)
• Stuffed pork shoulder (ala moi)

We'll deal with the second and third dishes in later posts.

The Method (Leek and Potato Soup)

With an hour's notice, I was asked to make soup for lunch. This is a simple recipe for that yields a creamy, fresh soup.

1. Chop four slices of bacon into 1# pieces.
2. In a soup pot, brown the bacon in 2 TBs of butter.
3. To the pot, chop and add:
   • 3 large leeks
   • 1 large onion
   • 2 stalks celery
4. Saute the vegetables - without browning - until tender.
5. Add 2 quarts chicken stock.
6. Add 5-6 potatoes, roughly chopped. (I used yellow potatoes, which resulted in a light green color to the soup.)
7. Bring soup to a boil then simmer until the potatoes are tender (about 15-20 minutes).
8. Blend or mash the veggies to create a smooth soup. (I used a potato masher, leaving the pot on the stove.)
9. Optional: add 1-2 C heavy cream at the end. If you do, however, the soup will not freeze well.

The Result

Everyone enjoyed this light (we omitted cream), flavorful soup. I like mine with a heavy grind of black pepper. There's plenty for another meal.

Soup in Seven

I enjoy a complicated food challenge. The longer, more involved the recipe, the more likely I will try it. A few years back, I made cassoulet for Christmas. It required nearly a week of prep cooking (i.e., making sausages from scratch). I have made Turducken a couple of times, which requires a similar amount of sustained effort.

But there is much to be said for simple preparations.

Sunday lunch was a reprisal of radish sandwiches. I realize we were aiming for new uses of repeat OPO veggies, but this just sounded perfect. Again, the method is simple: thinly sliced radishes and their leaves on good bread slathered with butter and a sprinkling of salt. What bread did you use, you might be asking? My resilient whole grain friend, of course!

The presence of good bread makes soup an obvious choice for your next meal. My friend, Dina, sent me a recipe for Portugese Sausage and Kale Soup by John Mitzewich. He has a video cooking blog and a number of other web-outlets for his work. But you're reading my blog, so I feel obliged to tell you how I approached the soup. After watching his preparation once, I headed to Publix and found...why, yes, they do carry linguisa sausage in the lunch meat case. (As a lover of all sausage-styles, I was surprised to be unfamiliar with this variety.)

The Method

1. Slice the sausage into 1/4" thick rounds (on a bias, if you wish to be fancy)
2. Chop two small onions
3. Saute the sausage and onions in some olive oil
4. Season with garlic and cayenne pepper to taste
5. Add 1 quart of good chicken broth (I used defrosted homemade stock)
6. Bring this to a boil, lower to a simmer
7. Add two roughly chopped russet potatoes
8. Simmer until the potatoes are tender (or until you realize that your son mistakenly turned off the stove, and the potatoes have been poaching not simmering)
9. Turn up the heat, and add 8 C. roughly chopped greens (I used OPO kale and arugula. Who knew arugula was this versitile?)
10. Simmer the greens in the soup until they are tender (I let it go about an hour while we played Pictionary.)
11. Serve with good bread.

The Result

Wow. Another keeper. This is a seven (or so) ingredient, single pot dish. Seven is a favorite number, and this is now a favorite dish. 

The linguisa is a mild sausage, as are the greens. The potatoes give extra body to the broth. And the broth itself is the keystone ingredient. (All the more reason to make your own.) Dina, this is a perfect excuse to try kale. 

Monday Night Dinner

Tonight we enjoyed the payoff for earlier cooking. Monday is always a busy day, everyone settling back into work and school. We have an event at the kids' school, so it's a perfect night for leftovers.

The Anadama bread was as good as hoped. Dense, hearty, and flavorful. The molasses gives it a slightly sweet flavor - perfect to pair with a salad of spicy mizuna and lettuce plus homemade caesar dressing (yes, raw egg and all).


The soup was creamy and delicious. I could have doubled or tripled the radish greens. 6-8 cups would have been fine.

Anadama bread and a pepper

Decided to make a "Anadama Bread" today to go with the Radish Top Soup.  This is a molasses and cornmeal based bread with wholewheat and white flour. It was a bear to knead - a good workout for the arms. But that's part of the joy of bread. The finished product looks wonderful. Great crust. Heavy in the hand. 


We'll have slices with the soup and perhaps later with the chicken leftovers. 


No OPO ingredients in the bread. But I did make bratwurst and used hot peppers in the onions - they added just a bit of kick.  Then again, brats need little to make them fabulous!

Radish Top Soup

A good broth is easy to make and worth the effort - what little it requires! Our freezer fills up with various bones and trimmings, which eventually find their way into a simmering pot. (Usually upon the demands of a particular person.) I was intrigued by the Victory Garden Cookbook recipe for radish top soup. This seemed a promising way to use the leaves, which you'll recall were partly responsible for our earlier radish conversion experience. Here, I was left with the chance to use them apart from the root. Personally, I like greens of all sorts - spinach, collards, mustard, even pumpkin leaves ("mnkhwani ndi mtedza" - pumpkin leaves with peanut flour). Radish leaves are also spicy with a slightly "fuzzy" texture. That makes them the perfect addition to a creamy soup like leek and potato.

The Method

1. Simmer quartered potatoes in 6 C. good chicken stock (leftover from poached chicken)
2. Sautee sliced leeks in several TBs of good butter until lightly browned
3. Wilt the roughly chopped radish leaves and stems (washed of course) with the leeks
4. After 5-6 minutes, add the leeks and leaves to the potatoes
5. Bring to a boil, then simmer on low for 10 minutes
6. Puree the veggies and slowly add stock, cream, and a little butter until you have a smooth consistency.
7. Season with S&P and enjoy.

The Result

We have a quart of excellent soup in the fridge for later eating. I guess this is a good excuse to make some whole grain bread today. After a breakfast of zeppoles, a dinner of soup and salad may be in order - but Sundays are made for grilling.