What with one thing and another, it’s been a fairly rough few weeks recently, and the Year of Soup part of my blog has suffered as a result. That doesn’t mean I haven’t been making soup though, as a matter of fact I’ve made several…I just haven’t written them up.

Let’s see. Sunday before last I made a Roasted red pepper soup with chicken and corn. The other day I made a white bean and chicken chili on the spur of the moment, and a couple of times, including today, I made chicken noodle soup. Chicken soup, whether it’s a chowder, chili, noodle or (as s the case in tomorrow’s planned soup) barley, is a special kind of comfort food, and if lfe has thrown you a few curves lately, making chicken soup is a good response. Especially if you share it with friends.

Here’s the chicken noodle soup I made for lunch today for me and my gal in between running errands. Total prep time was probably about fifteen minutes. Then I left it on a low simmer for half an hour while we ran another errand and it was perfect when we got back.

Chicken Noodle Soup in a hurry

yield: four 10 oz servings

• 1 quart chicken stock
• 1 cup noodles (I used a mix of bowties and rotelle today, but often I like thin strands)
• 1 carrot – cut into quarters the long way and choped into one third inch slices)
• 2 stalks of celery (sliced the long way into thirds and cross sliced like the carrots)
• 1 baby bella mushroom, halved and sliced
• 1 skinned chicken thigh (diced)
• 1/4 tsp thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 tsp flour (I use Wondra here because it’s desgned not to clump)
• Salt as needed

I put the stock into a saucepan and turned up the heat, then added each ingredeant as it got cut up. No saute, no special ceremony, just chop and add. The last things to go in were the spices and the flour, after which it all got stirred up to mix them in and the temperature lowered to a slow simmer. Then I covered it and walked away. Actualy, I drove, since we were taking my wagon in to have a noise looked at before I take it on a road trip next week.

When we got back from dropping off the car half an hour later, the place smelled great, which is where a lot of the psychological benefit of chicken soup comes from, thanks to some linkages between smell and the older parts of our brain, the ones that decide whether we should fight for our lives or put our feet up on a log and kick back.

We sat down and each had a bowl, leaving just enough for two bowl sized servings to be put up in the fidge. It was excellent and just what a dreary fall day after a hard weekd needed. I could have used white meat in the soup, but it wouldn’t have been as tender, so in general I really prefer using thighs over breast.

Can a good bowl of soup change the world? I wouldn’t bet against it, but I’m certain that it can make the world easier to take. Chicken soup for the soul doesn’t have to be a metaphor…the real thing does a fine job on its own.

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