Mmmm. Soup.

This is the first time I have made this particular soup and it is wicked good.  Seriously.  I got 'yums' from my picky eaters (and don't tell them this, but it has lots of veggies in it).  It is called 'U.S. Senate Bean Soup' and I got it from "Joy of Cooking".  It said something about how it has been on the menu at the Senate since dinosaurs roamed the earth.  There is a reason for that.  Gooooooood.  It called for a small ham hock, but there was nothing small about our pig and I have shanks which include the hock.  Another good reason to have an inventory - I was convinced that I had a hock in the freezer and without an inventory I would have been out in the freezing garage cursing and searching through the freezer.

So, I used the pork shank that I had, and after boiling it for a couple of hours I picked off the meat and only added a cup and a half of shredded meat back again.  This left me plenty of meat to work with for future recipes, one of the bones went to my dog with the rest in the freezer for to distract him when we really don't want him around.  Yay!  I also saved the fat off the shank.  I will use it instead of butter (cheaper too!) when I need to saute something and want the ham flavor - potatoes for example.  Keep tuned!

Here is the recipe for the U.S. Senate Bean Soup (slightly adapted from "Joy of Cooking"):

Bring the following to a boil and then reduce to a simmer.  Simmer together for a couple of hours or until meat is very tender and falling off the bone:

7 cups water (I needed 14 cups of water to cover my pork shank -so when the meat and bones were ready to come out I just took out 7 cups of water and then froze it to use when I want to make this soup again - without the hock/shank)

1 small ham hock 

1 1/4 cup white beans (I used navy beans - and they were too pretty not to take a picture of)

Remove ham hock and pick off the meat.  Add back to the pot. Add:

1 large baking potato, peeled and finely diced (I actually used the inside of a baked potato leftover from last night - reserving the skins for potato skins of course!) 

1 large onion (or 2 small ones!), diced

3 medium stalks of celery with leaves, chopped

2 (or more!) cloves of garlic, minced (this means cut up really fine)

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground pepper

Whenever I have more than one thing that needs to be chopped/minced I use my food chopper (as seen in the picture) or my food processor.  It makes it worth washing if I am going to chop a few things with it and it makes the food prep go so much faster.  I have come to the conclusion that I am never going to be one of those people who can slice and dice and make it look effortless - plus they always seem to be able to do it evenly! I have a relation who can and I am always jealous when I see him smoothly cutting up veggies in the kitchen.  He is pretty handy with teeth too - he just opened up his own dentistry practice in Madison.  I, however, have grown to be content with my food chopper and processor along with my mediocre slicing abilities.   

Cook until potato is soft (about 20-30 minutes), then mash with a potato masher to make soup slightly creamy.   Stir in 2 TBL chopped fresh parsley.  I didn't do this, b/c I didn't have any fresh parsley.  Serve with bread.  Yummy!

This would be an easy one to do in the crock pot too.  I would put the beans and hock/shank in the crock pot all day on low, and then add the other ingredients 20-30 minutes before I wanted to eat.  Happy cooking!