Black Ham & Bean Soup
The simpler the recipe, the more comfort I derive.
Of this ilk is the lowly cooked bean, requiring nothing more than the lowly dry bean of your choice, a pan, and water. Always carefully sort through your beans to remove foreign debris like the rock I found sorting the black beans I used yesterday.
After sorting, rinse and put the beans in the pan with cold water to soak overnight.
Now the comforting part of this recipe for me is that in all my years of cooking beans, this little circumstance never occurred; that, and it made my roomy throw up a little bit in his mouth.
This time when I started cooking my black beans in water, I had some leftover ham and tossed it in as I would with Navy beans. After an hour or so of simmering I began dishing some soup out into my bowl with a slotted and spoon, and after a few dips I hadn't got any ham. I knew how much I put in, & it didn't jibe with what had already come out & what was still in! Well, low & behold the ham was in the bowl all along and I didn't see it because it had turned black.
Serve in your favorite bowl with your favorite garnish. Use the recipe to prepare black ham for sandwhiches or appetizers, or any recipe calling for ham. Bon appetite!
