by Eric Hwang
I must have perused several cookbooks before I decided that I just had to come up with my own version of a ham and bean soup that had everything in it that I felt was needed. After I finished making it, I decided it was a little too thick and hearty to be just a soup. So it became a stew. To soften the skins of the beans, I soak them overnight in salted water. The longer they soak, the quicker the beans will cook.
(Serves 6)
1 lb. (about 2 cups) cannellini beans
4 cups water
4 cups low sodium chicken stock
ham hock with 1/2 to 1 lb meat attached
1 medium onion diced
1 celery rib sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 carrot sliced 1/4 inch thick |
6 cloves of garlic, minced
2 medium russet potatoes, boiled and mashed (about 2-1/2 cups)
8 oz. can tomato sauce
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp. italian seasoning
salt and ground black pepper |
Soak the beans overnight in 2 Tbs. salt dissolved in 4 quarts cold water. Drain the beans, discarding the liquid and rinsing well.
Add beans, water, broth, bay leaves, garlic , ham hock and all vegetables except carrots to a 6 quart stockpot. Bring to a boil and simmer on medium heat uncovered for 45 minutes until beans are almost tender but still firm inside. Skim any accumulated fat from the surface. Remove ham bone and meat from pot and allow to cool. While meat is cooling, stir in the mashed potatoes, tomato sauce and carrots. Remove the meat from the bone, trim off any fat, dice the ham into 1/2 inch cubes and return to pot. Simmer on low heat for 15 – 20 minutes.
Salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat and stir in italian seasoning. Cover and let stand for 10 minutes. Serve with a loaf of rustic bread and a nice Chianti.
Here’s a recipe for Pulled Pork that I just tried and it was quite delicious. It was given to me by Ruby Lang at work. She based her recipe from Nancy Walker’s recipe on the Stephen & Walker Trust Winery site. The wasabi slaw recipe is my own creation that I came up with after some experimentation. The wasabi gives it a little kick that I like. You’ll need to start this recipe the day before your event for it to be ready. It takes time but it’s worth it.
I started to write this article several times in the past, but usually ended up deleting it. My sense of propriety told me that it’s not the way to change behaviors. Lately, however, it seems that in order to bring something like this to light, I need to lower my standards of decorum to the level of those I’m addressing.
“I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!” That’s what the character Howard Beale said in the movie, Network. He said that after talking about how bad the state of the world was. That movie was made 34 years ago, and sadly, not much has changed. We still have a depression, people are still losing their jobs, and we have a different kind of oil crisis. And instead of the Russians to blame for our woes, now it’s the Chinese. Something else has changed though, and it has been so gradual that most people have overlooked it or grown accustomed to it. Some people have developed a misplaced sense of entitlement or maybe an over-developed self-esteem. Known in the vernacular simply as assholes or jerks, they somehow believe they are above everyone else and society’s norms and mores don’t apply to them. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s a couple of examples from recent incidents in my life.
