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Pork and Black Bean & Barley Soup
I was about to start writing about this newest soup recipe but had to jump up and eat a bowl first—it is that compelling a soup! After having fallen in love with the veal shoulder bean and barley soup a few weeks ago I started thinking about bones that have the most gelatin, and pig’s feet have them all beat, though calves' feet trot in as a close second.
PIG'S FEET SIMMERING
THE CHILLED GELLED STOCK
THE GRAND FINALE
After simmering the feet for 3 1/2 hours the meat, grizzle, and ligaments were easy to separate from the bones. And there were an astonishing number of little bones. It made me think of a story my mother told me many years ago about her experience in dental school. She recounted that the only difference between premed and predent(al) was when it came to autopsy. The predent students stopped short at the hands and feet. She never understood why but now I do—at least partially. There are more little bones in the feet than in any other part of the body. And I suppose they don’t relate to what is happening in the mouth (except for the metaphor of putting one’s foot in it!).
When I was growing up, my grandmother often made calf's foot jelly, called pitcha (which I wouldn’t eat). My Uncle B would walk over for a bowl of it at the shortest notice, he loved it so much. He would eat it still hot and then take back some to eat cold and jelled the next day. Grandma always added vinegar to the boiling feet and after researching pig’s feet I discovered that it wasn’t so much for flavor but rather for health. I wonder if she knew that vinegar leaches the valuable calcium out of the bones and into the stock! My husband suggested I call my version of this dish “Pig Pitcha”! By the way, the secret to keeping the beans (my addition) jet black is to add the water in which they were soaked along with the beans.
Actually this soup is surely exceptionally healthful. The pig’s feet have so little fat there was nothing to skim off after chilling. I love the idea of using every part of the animal we eat. This dish is so economical I felt justified in pairing it with a disproportionately expensive pinot or cabernet.
Note: If you aren’t home during the day you can either opt to make the soup during the weekend or if you have a crock pot, use it for the long simmering of the bones and do the rest in stages. You can also use the crock pot for the entire soup, keeping in mind that high setting is equal to a simmer on the cook top and low is about half the heat so takes about double the time.
Note: 2 pounds of pigs feet will yield about 14 ounces of edible substance.
Serves: 4 Cooking time for pig feet: 3 1/2 to 4 hours, beans: 1 hour before salted ingredients get added
black beans: 200 grams/7 ounces/about 1 cup, soaked for at least 8 hours, NOT drained
pearl barley: 50 grams/1.7 ounces/1/4 cup, soaked for at least 2 hours, drained
Night Before or minimum 8 hours ahead: Soak the beans and barley in water to cover by 2 inches
water (about 2 quarts)
4 pigs feet (about 2 pounds)—smoked or use smoky bacon below
4 teaspoons cider vinegar
1 bay leaf
1 small onion stuck with 2 cloves
3 black peppercorns
2 cloves garlic
1 large carrot, washed (no need to scrape) and cut into chunks
In a heavy deep pot, copper or enameled cast iron, add the 1 quart/4 cups of the water and measure the depth with a metal ruler (that way you’ll know how much to reduce the liquid before adding the beans). Then add the pigs feet and above ingredients.
Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes, skimming out any debris.
Cover and simmer for 3 1/2 to 4 hours or until falling off the bone. If necessary open the cover a little to keep the liquid from boiling to fast. If necessary, add more boiling water to keep all the ingredients well covered in liquid.
Remove the pigs feet and allow them to cool until no longer hot. Meantime strain the stock and discard any solids. At this point you can continue with the recipe or cool the stock by setting the bowl in a larger bowl of ice water and refrigerating it overnight. It will jell completely.
When the meat is cool enough to handle, cut the meat, skin, and cartilage from the bone, and return the bones to the stock to continue cooking for as long as possible until ready to finish soup (Anywhere from 5 to 12 hours). Cut the meat and cartilage into small pieces and sprinkle with salt. Refrigerate until shortly before serving.
Optional: A few dried porcini mushrooms
2 slices smoky bacon or 1 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
carrots, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
a few branches of thyme
Optional: Fregola (toasted pasta balls): 42 grams/1.5 ounces/1/4 cup
salt and pepper to taste
a touch of balsamic vinegar to taste
fresh parsley, chopped
When ready to finish the soup, about 1 1/2 hours before serving, fish out and discard the bones and reduce the broth to 1 quart.
Add the beans with their soaking water to the simmering quart of stock (UNsalted) and a few porcini if desired, and simmer for 20 minutes, partially covered. Add the drained barley and simmer 20 minutes. Add the fregola and simmer another 20 minutes.
While the beans are simmering, in a large sauté pan, cook the bacon until crisp. Remove, and crumble into medium pieces. Set it aside. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the bacon fat (or add olive oil) and sauté the carrots, onion, and celery, sprinkled with a little salt, for about 10 minutes, stirring often, or until the onions are translucent and beginning to brown. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat and add the bacon and thyme leaves (strip them from the branches discarding any tough branches). Add this mixture together with the pig’s feet meat after the beans have coked for a total of 1 hour or when they are tender, and simmer 10 minutes.
If further thickness is desired leave the cover off. Alternatively, if too thick, add some boiling water. Taste and adjust the seasonings (salt and pepper). Add balsamic vinegar and Tabasco to taste, starting with just a few dashes.
Ladle into bowls and sprinkle a little parsley on top. Inhale deeply, forget about everything else, and settle into the comfort of a nourishing soul satisfying moment.
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Comments
Looks like an extremely delicious traditional dish! And, BTW, I like your kitchen equipment, especially that wonderful brass stockpot! :)
Reply to this Posted by: Cooking Gal | April 13, 2007 6:39 PM #
david-ive been meaning to investigate induction but my apt. and house look like warehouses and i've been too busy. still...i keep thinking about it....
Reply to this Posted by: Rose Levy Beranbaum | March 30, 2007 1:27 AM #
janet, i love knowing that! what a small world it really is.
Reply to this Posted by: Rose Levy Beranbaum | March 6, 2007 7:59 PM #
yoshiko, it is very kind of you but you get a good part of the credit, not just the flour! i don't know which "country bread you're referring to but there are lots of great breads in the bread bible i'm sure you and your husband will enjoy.
Reply to this Posted by: Rose Levy Beranbaum | March 6, 2007 7:59 PM #
My mother used to make this soup and now I make it from time to time (ok, twice I've made it but most recently for foodie friends of my sister's and they loved it). It's called Patcha in greek and is often made around Easter. My father especially loved it and would have walked many blocks for it like your uncle.
Reply to this Posted by: janet | March 6, 2007 7:03 PM #
The Harvest King bread flour that I spotted in a market yesterday and baked my favorite Hallah the first time in months. I used to buy only Bob's Mill flour. I shall use your flour from now on! It is so easy to kneed, smooth as a sild and the bread comes out perfectly!
Congulatulations for the super flour! Could you give me a recipe for the country bread for my French husband?
Thank you very much.
Sincerely, Bread makng lover, Yoshiko
Reply to this Posted by: yoshiko santell | March 6, 2007 6:57 PM #
Consider an induction heater for overflow from the stove. They're now about $500 at restaurant supply houses (I think you have a couple of links here on the site). They will run on standard 120 volt circuits, and don't heat up the kitchen. They would be particularly good for things like stocks, pasta, and other things for which you can use cast iron or stainless steel. They would be worthless with pure aluminum, and with copper. (Possibly OK with stainless-lined copper, but I think there wouldn't be enough steel. Anyhow, all my copper is 35 or more years old and tinned.)
Reply to this Posted by: David Chessler | March 6, 2007 1:15 AM #
thank you laurel but all this is explained in detail in the cake bible and is well-worth reading. for ex. the cocoa needs to be dissovled in boiling water to break the cell membrane to liberate the flavors!
Reply to this Posted by: Rose Levy Beranbaum | March 4, 2007 7:46 PM #
Hi, Rose. I wish I were coming to your house for dinner! That soup looks wonderful.
I have a couple of questions about the "Perfect All-American Chocolate Butter Cake" in the Cake Bible. First, why does the water that you mix the cocoa powder with have to be boiling? Can it just be hot?
Second, in this recipe and many of the other cake recipes in TCB, your method is different from any method we used in pastry school. Do you have a name for this method? And why do this, rather than cream the butter?
Thank you in advance and I'm sorry if I've overwhelmed you with questions. I have always loved your books because they tell me "why," not just "how!"
Reply to this Posted by: Laurel | March 4, 2007 6:50 PM #
if it's dirty i use detergent first. after polishing i use hot water.
so glad about the pig's feet!
Reply to this Posted by: Rose Levy Beranbaum | March 2, 2007 5:29 PM #
Gotcha!!! commercial pastes, but make sure to rinse and dry immediatelly. I noticed if I leave it on my drain board after washing, then water spots equal to more oxidation!!! ONE MORE QUESTION: when you rise, do you use hot or cold water, and do you use dish detergent too? I only have one copper pot (Ruffoni for fondue), and I want my next one to be the Ruffoni for Polenta (which it says it is good to do sugar burns, too). By the way, my family is reading this pig feet posting, now we know that there is no superstition or foe about having it, specially to replenish protein and calcium for new mothers!!!
Reply to this Posted by: Hector | March 1, 2007 6:31 PM #
i polish them whenever i use them with a variety of commercial pastes. they need to be rinsed and dried immediately or they discolor again.
Reply to this Posted by: Rose Levy Beranbaum | March 1, 2007 3:23 PM #
How do you keep clean your copper pots? Do you rub with lemon and salt, or do you use a commercial liquid?
Reply to this Posted by: Hector | March 1, 2007 1:27 PM #
of course d.c. is hot and humid in summer so aga is a sheer impossibility!
Reply to this Posted by: Rose Levy Beranbaum | February 28, 2007 2:58 PM #
aren't you tempted to get an aga?!!! it's ideal except if you don't want added heat in your kitchen, i.e. if you don't have central heating!
yes--it's a wolf commercial--about 20 years old. i adore it. i think the newer ones have a simmer option that would be very desirable. i use the pilot light to melt chocolate overnight.
Reply to this Posted by: Rose Levy Beranbaum | February 28, 2007 12:48 PM #
Rose, one of the virtues of the much maligned cuisine of the British Isles is their use of "the whole beast" (to paraphrase Fergus Henderson). I grew up eating calve's head, tripe, lamb kidneys, etc. Offal are still my favorite food.
If you would indulge me, can I ask a quick favor? I am about to drop a LOT of money on a pro-type range (mid-life B-day present), and I think I spy a certain burner on your range (in the photos). It looks like the Wolf burner. Are you happy with the way your stove and oven perform? I am leaning towards that brand, but I have not cooked on it.
thanks very much
R
Reply to this Posted by: Richard | February 28, 2007 11:56 AM #
oh---and how many burners: 6--which i try to keep open but right now my beautiful lodge cast iron pots are sitting on top of one of them and the all-clad fish poacher over two others. i did move off the new little gourmet standard 2 cup stainless steel pot i'm writing about for the book. it's the most exquisite little thing--ideal for making the usual small amount of sugar syrup needed for buttercreams.
Reply to this Posted by: Rose Levy Beranbaum | February 26, 2007 9:45 PM #
hi hector! i've long noticed that the ancient cultures--chinese and jewish have much in common in addition to the respectful use of all parts of the animals body. there is much wisdom in the old natural remedies--after all many of our modern day medicines derive from them.
re my copper, i adore my housekeeper who comes twice a month--so much so that ONCE i entrusted polishing the copper to her. it looked great for a few days and then all turned different hues of green. it is a labor of love and i polish immediately after using the pot as it's so much easier that way. but NOTHING cooks like copper. at last it's not hanging over the stove where it tarnishes much faster.
i'm deeply entrenched inthe book--working on the equipment chapter now and very excited about the meeting with the prospective photographer, book designer, and editor this thursday. of course i'm bringing a cake--my newest favorite--the golden almond cake--but not the version in the cake bible though it evolved from it. sent a sample to my soon to be 93 year old father last week and he was enraptured. next year this time we should have finished the photography--it will be a long production--to be printed in the east--closer to you! and out hopefully fall of 2008.
Reply to this Posted by: Rose Levy Beranbaum | February 26, 2007 9:44 PM #
I second that!!! love the pots and the stove!!!!! How many burners does your gas stove have? Do you have a staff to polish your copper pots? When is your "cookbook" coming? I need something to continue "Rose's Celebrations." Pig feet soup, love it!!! My Chinese grandma always makes it Chinese style, similar preparation with vinegar, done traditionally to feed mothers after giving birth, more science than superstition said "the vinegar extract the calcium from the pig bones," also they boil lots of eggs on its shells with it (more calcium). And, sure thing, there is little fat to skim and lots of gel when left overnight in the fridge. All in all, glad to know that I am not the only one that likes pig feet. /H
Reply to this Posted by: Hector | February 26, 2007 9:33 PM #
haha! i thought the exact same thing as you, melinda. the pot is beautiful.
rose, may i ask: what kind of bacon do you use?
thanks.
Reply to this Posted by: josh | February 25, 2007 9:22 PM #
Rose, love your copper pot and fish kettle! I think I have a touch of pot envy! Soup looks good too.
Reply to this Posted by: Melinda Pickworth | February 23, 2007 4:28 AM #