{"id":241,"date":"2013-11-22T17:46:00","date_gmt":"2013-11-22T17:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elitemporaryblog.wordpress.com\/2013\/11\/22\/please-consider"},"modified":"2015-12-16T17:39:03","modified_gmt":"2015-12-16T22:39:03","slug":"please-consider","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orangette.net\/2013\/11\/please-consider\/","title":{"rendered":"Please consider"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, how bored will you be if we talk about soup again? Ham Bone, Greens, and Bean Soup? I didn\u2019t set out to write about this one – I made it mostly as a vehicle for a ham bone that I put in our freezer last April, forgot, and then triumphantly unearthed the week before last – but June liked it so much that she did her special high chair “dance,” swaying from side to side and grunting, so\u00a0I changed my mind. Swaying and grunting: strong praise from young June E. A. Pettit! (Also, Swaying and Grunting<\/i>: what I will call my debut album when I launch my third career as a down-and-out country singer.)<\/p>\n

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I know that it\u2019s almost Thanksgiving, and that I\u2019m supposed to be talking about cranberries or what to eat with your turkey, and that you and I both have planes to catch and grocery lists to write, but please consider filing away this recipe for the future, a future after the holidays, when you may find yourself with a couple of free hours and a defrosted ham bone that was once lost beneath some frozen bananas. This soup is for a day like that, a cold day when soup is what a person wants to eat, a nice ordinary day. June and I shared a bowl of it one Sunday night, and I ate another bowl while I did payroll on Monday afternoon, and it was so good, so right for right now, that I considered hoarding the rest of the batch. But because no expense is too great for the opportunity to watch June “dance,” I let her have it.<\/p>\n

The recipe for this soup comes from Melissa Clark<\/a> and her wonderful book\u00a0Cook This Now<\/a><\/i>. I was flipping through it recently, and I don\u2019t know what it is, but every recipe she writes sounds fantastic. She\u2019s… bewitching. That\u2019s the word for it. \u00a0I read one of her recipe titles, any one of her recipe titles, and I come to a few minutes later, standing in front of the refrigerator. Buckwheat Pancakes with Sliced Peaches and Cardamom Cream Syrup! I don\u2019t like\u00a0anything but maple syrup on my pancakes – the truth, revealed – but because of Melissa, I will make that damned cardamom cream syrup. And Seared Wild Salmon with Brown Butter Cucumbers! \u00a0 Fragrant Lentil Rice Soup with Spinach and Crispy Onions! \u00a0Ham Bone, Greens, and Bean Soup!!!!!! \u00a0My tea this morning might have been stronger than I thought.<\/p>\n

This soup is one of those full-meal-in-one-bowl numbers, thick with beans, carrots, celery, onion, cabbage, and kale, with big flavor from the ham bone and some bacon fat. \u00a0(You start the recipe by cooking chopped bacon, which you then scoop out and reserve for a garnish while you cook the vegetables in the fat. \u00a0As you can imagine, the bacon fat contributes a nice, meaty richness. But if you\u2019d rather skip the bacon step for some reason, I\u2019ll bet you could use olive oil or butter. I should also mention that I forgot to use the bacon garnish and didn\u2019t miss it, possibly because the bacon fat and ham bone were so flavorful.) \u00a0The beans wind up tender and creamy, and the broth is sweet and smoky and deeply hammy, but the best part might be the cabbage, which softens until it nearly melts. \u00a0I ate mine with a dash of hot sauce, because pork likes a little vinegary heat. If you find yourself with a ham bone, you know what to do.<\/p>\n

P.S. Yesterday, Brandon and I shared a bunch of tips for making mashed potatoes<\/a> over at Food52. Hop to it! And while you\u2019re there, check out the other Thanksgiving tips<\/a>, too, from Rose Levy Beranbaum, Adam Rapoport, and Andrew Knowlton. Pretty great.
\nP.P.S. If you need a Thanksgiving cocktail idea, how about, ahem, a Nardini Spritz<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n

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Recipe<\/div>\n

Ham Bone, Greens, and Bean Soup<\/h2>\n

Adapted very slightly from Melissa Clark\u2019s Cook This Now<\/a><\/i><\/h3> \n \n <\/header>\n\n
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