Russian Recipe No. 2

"Moldavian White Bean Soup" a.k.a. Supa de Fasole

O.K. so I was kinda in a hurry last night, so I am going to give you my variation on this yummy recipe. I took a few shortcuts, but even with the hasty variations- this was super yummy!

2 cans of Great Northern Bean (the recipe calls for fresh beans, soaked overnight. Totally didn't think about that until last night, so 2 can o' beans it is!)

3 cups chicken stock and 4 cups of water (The recipe calls for 7 cups of water but I thought this would be better)

1 meaty ham bone (I didn't have a meaty ham bone, so I just got some nice chopped ham)

Bouquet Garni (4 sprigs thyme, 4 sprigs dill, 4 bay leaves, 8 black peppercorns, tied in a cheesecloth bag) Ok- I confess: I used dried!

1 rib celery and 1 carrot (the recipe calls for use to these whole and fish them out, but I chopped mine and didn't fish them out, it seemed wasteful to toss a nice carrot and celery stock!)

2 medium boiling potatoes, peeled in cut into 3/4 inch pieces (The first step I actually followed!)

2 Tbsp. butter

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 leek (white part only, chopped)

1 pinch dried thyme

Salt and Pepper

1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar

Sweet Hungarian Paprika (dashed on top for presentation) I don't know if my paprika was sweet or Hungarian, but it worked just fine!

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O.k. now this part is a total deviation from the recipe. It was very labor intensive and I looked like Rachel Ray on crack trying to get this dish made before my 6:30 hair appointment, cookie making for Deetzsie's Treatsies, laundry, packing for our early Christmas (more on that later) wrapping gifts, and searching to find Chad a white dress shirt.



Step One: Drain the beans and rinse them off

Step Two: Dump the beans, stock, ham cubes, celery, carrot, herbs, and potatoes into a stock pot. Boil the heck out of it. (Say 20 minutes.) Take your potato masher thingy and smash up some of the beans. Mix a little cornstarch and broth and add to the soup if you want to make it thicker. (I'm sure if you do all this the right way that won't be a necessary step ;0)

Step Three: Saute onions, leaks, and garlic (the recipe didn't call for that, but a meal isn't a meal without garlic in my house!) Add to pot. Add salt, pepper, and thyme.

Step Four: Go put the laundry in the dryer and start a new load in the washer. Oh wait, wrong task.

Step Four 4 real: Add vinegar and let stand for 5 minutes. Add more to taste. (Since we weren't sure what this actually tastes like we just went for the 1 tbsp. and Chad added some more to his.

Step Five: Sprinkle with a dash of paprika, take a picture for the blog!

Hopefully, Amy (Reining cookoff champion) will post the actual recipe on her blog. I'm sure it was much better than mine since it was done correctly! http://cupcakeandthecaseys.blogspot.com/



But this dish was really tasty~ Very easy (made the Druggie Rachel Ray way) and very hardy and filling, perfect for the cold, wet weather we've been having.