(no subject)

[felicula]

Holy shit! mechanchaos, you should see what came in the mail today. I don't know who the hell Great-Aunt Mathilda is, but she just left us an asston of money. Whee!!! You don't mind if I take a trip to Albuquerque to talk to the executor of the will, do you?

Oh, don't I wish! Happy April Fool's Day everyone. What I am actually excited about today is how my soup turned out yesterday. Yep, my excitement really is that mundane... Well, after my adventures with corned beef and cabbage -- that is, after making them for the first time this St. Patrick's Day -- I reflected about how much cooked cabbage resembled the flavor of cooked daikon. With a salty soup base made from smoked meat, the broth resembled the broth for oden, at least from the recipe I know and work with. This is a flavor I love, so I decided to recreate it again in a pork-and-cabbage soup.

Even my huge pot barely contained this one: I started with smoked pork hocks and enough water to cover. Then I chopped a head of cabbage into bits about a half-inch wide and added it in, adding enough water to almost-cover. (Enough water to cover would have flooded the kitchen.) Not content with my brimming pot, I waited for the water to heat and the cabbage to settle. Then I added three leeks, sliced into cross-sections and rinsed. I seasoned the mess with salt and pepper, and let it simmer awhile. At this point I fished out the pork hocks, peeled what meat they had off to put back in the pot. I cubed up some ham to add in as well, since I like my otherwise veggie-full soups to have the strength of animals in them too. Then I added what looked like a reasonable helping of chopped carrot to the mix. I cooked it until the carrot was tender. At that point I turned the burner off, dished up a bowl for myself, and set it aside to cool enough to eat.

I love it! It is filling and hearty. It is flavorful, and if I am really in the mood for something reminding me of oden, I can garnish it with spicy mustard. Mmmmmm. This is rustic splendor in a pot.

Interested in trying it at home? Here's an ingredient list:

-2-3 pork hocks
-1 head cabbage, chopped into manageable pieces
-3 leeks, sliced into cross-sections and rinsed
-between 1/2 lb. and 1 lb of ham, cubed (up to you really, depending on the protein-per-bowl ratio you prefer
-enough carrots to distribute nicely through the pot, cut in 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch long pieces
-water to cover (or almost-cover) topped up as needed
-salt and pepper to taste
-a pot that is ginormous enough to fit it all in

Seriously, this stuff will last a hungry family a bare minimum of two days (including dinners, lunches for Mom, occasional snack-tastes for Mom... you get the picture). If you don't like leftovers, make it for a party of people who don't mind animal bits in their food.