Hungarian Bean Soup Jokai Bableves |
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Prep Time: 0 Minutes Cook Time: 240 Minutes |
Ready In: 240 Minutes Servings: 8 |
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I swear it took me about three days to make, with the shopping and the stock-making and the bean-soaking and everything. Read more . It included the fun task of obtaining the incredible amount and variety of meat from a Hungarian butcher as a fairly new Hungarian speaker, an adventure that entailed many belly-laughs. But Jokai bableves (Bean soup in the style of Jokai) is worth the toil, seriously the most flavorful bean soup I have ever tasted, and this recipe yielded an outstanding soup. You may be stunned by how meat-heavy and fat-laden it is. Well, welcome to the wonderful world of Hungarian cuisine. There are lighter Hungarian dishes, but they are rather few and far between. This is hearty fare for cold winters. It's also not necessarily the best food to eat when you'll be spending the rest of the day in polite company. Ahem. Jó étvágyát. Ingredients:
1/4 pound dried beans (almost any type can be used. i like the large speckled brown and white flattish ones you find in the market in budapest, but i don't know that i've seen them in the us) |
2 smoked pig's feet |
1/2 pound smoked pork ribs |
1 celery knob, peeled and diced (for those in the united states who cannot find celery knobs, a few pieces of celery should make a fine substitution) |
1 yellow onion, chopped |
1 tablespoon olive oil |
1 tablespoon italian parsley, chopped |
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour |
1/2 tablespoon hungarian paprika (make sure it's fresh, not the funky stuff that has been sitting at the back of your cupboard for three years. it should be bright red and smell very pungent. in case you didn't know, paprika simply means pepper in hungarian, and the dry paprika powder you use as a spice is actually ground hungarian peppers. like a bell pepper or chile you'd use fresh, paprika just isn't as good when it's been sitting on your shelf for months!) |
1 garlic clove, mashed |
1/2 pound smoked pork sausage (see note) |
salt to taste |
2 tablespoons sour cream |
note: hungarian sausage is a very delicious and special food item, typically made with a great deal of the local spice, paprika, yielding a deep reddish sausage. while you can use other kinds of smoked sausage, the soup is really best with authentic hungarian sausage. if you can't buy it where you live, you can purchase it online here: http://quickshipeurope.com/default.asp |
Directions:
1. Soak your dried beans overnight.
2. Make your meat stock: Cook smoked pig's feet and pork ribs in 2 quarts water till the meat comes of the bones. Bone them and put meat pieces aside. (Should it be more convenient, you can do this step the day before, and refrigerate the meat and the pork stock. This also gives you an opportunity to skim more of the accumulated fat off the surface of the stock. Trust me, there will be a lot. When you are ready to continue, heat the stock up again.)
3. Add the celery and the beans to the meat broth, and cook until the beans are done. (Be patient; this can also take a while.)
4. Meanwhile, fry onion in olive oil over low heat. When onion is wilted, add chopped parsley and flour and make a brown roux over the lowest heat possible. Stir often to prevent burning.
5. When the roux is light brown, mix in paprika and garlic; immediately add 1 cup cold water. Whip until smooth, then pour into the cooked beans.
6. Add smoked sausage and 1/2 tablespoon salt. Simmer for 10 minutes.
7. Cut smoked meats into small pieces, and add to the soup.
8. Adjust salt. Add the sour cream.
9. Serve with Hungarian nokedli/ Little Pinched Dumplings (recipe to come).
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