The "Country" ham hock isn't as innocent as its less salty cousin, the smoked ham hock.

First off, let me say, there are ham hocks and there are ham hocks, and knowing which is which is really important.

Normally I get my ham hocks from the Giant supermarket down the street, and they’re just smoked ham hocks. A bit salty, but nothing to knock you over. This week I picked them up at the Shoppers Food Warehouse I often get soup stuff from, and they wern’t just smoked…they were cured country style.

If you’ve ever had a Smithfield Ham you know what I”m talking about. These things are soaked in brine until no microbe could come within ten feet of them and live. As a result, they’ll keep through the long winters before refrigeration was available. If you tossed one into the ocean, it’s the briny deep that would get saltier.

So, how do you tell which you’ve got? Most of the hams you’ll find in supermarkets are actually cured, but the one’s you’ve got to look our for are cured “country” or “VA style.”

My grandfather used to buy a Smithfield ham every Christmas and relate tales of how he kept one in his locker at college (University of Vermont) and how he’d cut off a slice between classes. The student food program was evidently a lot leaner in those days. The first time you have the stuff, you’re inclined to think someone is playing a joke on you…but like prosciutto, thin slices of it can become addictive.

On the other hand, if you want to use it to make soup with, boil it in at least two quarts of water for an hour before adding it to the soup.

White Bean Soup with Ham Hock and Turnip Greens

• 4 15.5 oz cans of White (navy or northern beans)
• 3 tbs olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 large onion
• 1 jalepeno
• 1 lb frozen turnip greens
• 12-16 oz ham hock (if country ham, boil in 2 qts water for an hour before using)
• 1 qt water

Mince the garlic and chop the onion, then saute them in the olive oil for about ten minutes, or until they’re getting soft and begining to be translucent. Remove the ribs (the white fleshy part) and seed from the jalepeno, dice it up and add it to the onions and garlic about halfway through the saute.

While the onion and its friends are sauteing, rinse the turnip greens in warm water until thwaed, then strain the water out them. Add them at the end of the onion’s saute and cook them for about three minutes as well.

Combine the sauted vegetables and the canned beans, including their liquor, with the quart of water and the ham hock (if it’s a “country” ham, be sure to boil it for an hour in a few quarts of water to leech some salt out).

Cover it up and let it simmer for an hour.

Remove the ham hock, strip the meat off it, chop it up and return it to the soup.

Use an immersion blender to partially blend the soup, or take off a quart of soup and blend it completey before returning it to the pot.

That’s all. This soup really doesn’t need much in the way of garnish, but a piece of cornbread on the side and a glass of sweet tea wouldn’t hurt it any either.

About the salt in the country style hock: If you google “how to get salt out of soup” you’ll find posts from others who have used a country style hock in their soup without realizing it…until too late. Food researchers tell us that the only thing you can do is add more of everything else, so the salt concentration goes down, and that the traditional practice of adding raw potoato slices to the soup doesn’t actually help.

Personally, I tried it anuyway, figuring that it can’t hurt. I sliced and added two medium-large golden potatoes and let them sit for two hours, after which they did get noticably salty, so that’s got to be good for something.

Despite being a bit over the top salt wise, this turned out to be a terrific soup, and using the canned beans made it quick and easy to make as well.

Links / Sources

Wikipedia Country Ham – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Country_ham

• 1Tbsp. butter or margarine
• ½ c. chopped onion
• 2 c. peeled and diced potatoes
• 1 c. water
• ½ tsp. dried whole basil
• 2 c. milk (can substitute half-and-half for part of this)
• 2 (17-oz). cans cream-style corn
• 1 (14-1/2 oz.) can whole tomatoes, drained and chopped
• 1 (4 0z.) can green chilies, chopped, undrained
• ½ c. diced sweet red pepper
• ½ tsp. salt
• 1/8 tsp. pepper
• 1 c. shredded sharp Cheddar cheese

Put butter in deep 3-qt. casserole; microwave uncovered at HIGH for 35 sec. Or till melted. Stir in onion; microwave, uncovered at HIGH for 3-4 minutes or till onion is tender. Add potatoes, water and basil; cover with heavy-duty plastic wrap and microwave at HIGH for 12-15 minutes or till potatoes are tender, stirring every 5 minutes.

Stir in milk, corn, chopped tomatoes, green chilies, red pepper, salt and pepper. Cover and microwave at HIGH for 5-6 minutes or till thoroughly heated. Stir in cheese and reduce to MEDIUM-LOW (30% power); cover and microwave 5-6 minutes or till cheese melts, stirring after 3 minutes. Serve immediately.

(This is given with microwave directions, but could be adapted, I’m sure…)

Garden Pea Soup

Though Summer isn’t officially over for a few weeks yet, the last week before Labor Day feels like the end of the season. This week’s soup works either hot or cold, so it’s a perfect choice. I’m calling it “Garden Pea Soup” to make sure it’s not confused with its “Split Pea” relation, which I’m also fond of, and will no doubt appear later in the fall. Made with either fresh or frozen peas, this soup both brighter taste and color, and it’s quick and easy to make. This is a simple soup, but it would be at home in either lunchbox or luncheon.

Garden Pea Soup

• 3 tbp olive oil
• 1 medium onion (1pb) – chopped coarsely
• 1 Larger green pepper  – ribs and seeds removed and coarsely chopped.
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 3 lbs fresh (shelled) or frozen (my preference) peas
• 2 qts chicken stock (my preference), vegetable stock, or water
• Salt (as required)

Pretty basic, non?

If you’re using frozen peas, and unless you’re doing this after the zombie/robot/eco-apocalypse and don’t have a freezer, you’d be crazy not to, start by thawing the peas in some warm water while you get the other ingredients ready. I don’t really care if they’re thawed or not, but it is a good idea to rinse them before adding to the soup, and you can’t rinse frozen peas.

Bring the olive oil up to heat (a slice of onion sizzles when dropped in) in a saute pan big enough to hold the onions, peppers, and celery without making them much more than a layer deep. Add them to the oil and saute until the onion get’s translucent…about ten minutes. Watch the heat and stir often enough to keep them from browning.

Combine the rinsed peas and sauteed ingredients in a soup pot with the stock and bring it all up to a moderate simmer. Cook for 20 minutes and remove from heat.

Puree the soup with your immersion blender, which is really a lot safer and easier than transferring it to a counter top blender, though not quite as effective. After you’ve got it well pureed, use a mesh strainer to separate out the solids. I find the back of a soup ladle makes a great pestle for mushing the soup around in the strainer. All told, I got about 1 and 1/4 of a cup of solids out of this, which is quite a bit, but they’re really too chewy to be left in. Discard the solids and season the soup with a little salt.

Serve hot or cold, with a  garnish of Creme Fresh, sour cream, or even a swirl of heavy cream…along with a few crunchy croutons or a slice of toasted baguette would add nicely to this soup.

The flavor is interesting. it’s sweeter than Split Pea soup, and tastes almost like it has corn in it. I’ve never tried this before, but will definitely keep it on my summer soup menu.

My gal and I went out to dinner at a newly opened Seasons 52 in Rockville, MD with friends this Saturday, and we were moderately impressed with this chain’s efforts in the upscale use of seasonal ingredients, but in the end it came off as just another chain restaurant with interchangeable staff rather than a serious restaurant. The calorie, and even sodium,  counts on the menus, and the thought that has gone into making it possible to enjoy restaurant dining without binging are good points, but the experience lacked focus. I may have rolled my eyes when our server included her business card with the bill so that we could request her whenever we dined with them.

Actually, we do have a personal server in a restaurant, even though we don’t eat out that often. Bar none, the best server we’ve ever met was Daniel at the Capital Grille, and his attention is probably what pushes them over the four stars for us.

Of course, I had to have the soup of the day, which was a fresh corn chowder. The flavor was ok, but they’d added in whole corn kernels at the end to give it texture, and they were actually a bit tough. My assessment: I can do better than that.

Hence this week’s Corn Soup.

Links / Sources

• Seasons 52: http://www.seasons52.com/
• Gwyneth Paltro’s Corn Vichysoisse: http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2011/06/corn-vichyssoise
• Hot or Cold Corn Soup: http://localfoods.about.com/od/summer/r/SweetCornSoup.htm