The musical fruit

For my pressure cooking friends, here's a recipe for ham and navy bean soup. Well, actually it's more of a technique-- I never met a soup recipe I didn't tinker with and you can, too. 

Of course a regular pot works if you have hours to hang around the house. But with trial and error, I've found the real beauty of pressure cooking isn't just speed (which is nice, of course) but the way the closed method of cooking pulls intense flavor from whatever you throw in there. Like a pile of nasty-looking leftover bones and rough cut vegetables.

This ham and bean soup is a two-step process, but worth it. And it freezes really well.

Ham and Bean Soup

1 leftover, gnarly-looking, picked-over ham bone. (Set aside a few nice chunks of meat) 
1 onion, skin on, quartered
2 chopped carrots
2 stalks chopped celery
A few grinds of fresh black pepper (no salt) 
Optional:  a teaspoon of dried thyme, dried or fresh parsley

Pile everything in the pressure cooker, add enough water to cover the entire mess (or up to the fill line.) Bring it to high pressure and cook for 45-60 minutes. Remove from heat. After it cools somewhat, strain through a fine colander into a large bowl.  Cover and refrigerate.

Set out 3 cups of dried white beans to soak before you go to bed.

In the morning, there will be a hard layer of fat on the broth. Spoon it off and throw away. 

With the perfect soup base, now you can get creative. This broth would also make a great minestrone. For bean soup, saute about a cup each of chopped onion, carrot and celery, along with a garlic clove in a bit of olive oil in the pressure cooker.  Add the soaked beans, cover with the cold broth and cook on high pressure for about 15 minutes. After the beans are done, add those nice fresh chunks of ham you saved. As pretty as bean soup can be.

More beans?

Today is Cinco de Mayo, so how about homemade re-fried. These are nothing like the kind you pry out of the Rosarita can.

Cook 3 cups of (soaked) pinto beans on high pressure for about 15 minutes.  They need to be soft and mash-able.  But no surprise, the secret of authentic, delicious Mexican beans is fat. Traditionally they are "fried" in a big chunk of melted lard.  But as John will tell you, a bit of pig gets stretched a long way in this house. 

So a couple slices of minced bacon is just right. Once it's crispy, dump the cooked beans on top and get out your potato masher.  Add the saved cooking liquid as you go along until they are nice and creamy.

Happy Cinco de Mayo.