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Title: Bajan Black Bean Soup
Yield: 6 Servings

Ingredients

  2 1/2 c  dried black beans, soaked
           -overnight
      1 lg or 2 small ham hocks
      3    to 3.5 quarts water
      3 tb olive oil
      2    to 3 large onions
      4    cloves garlic
      3 sm fresh green peppers
           -(jalapeanos if; preferred)
      8    berries allspice coarsely
           -crushed
      2 ts brown sugar (or 1 t of
           -molasses)
      3 tb tomato paste
    3/4 c  creme fraiche or sour cream

Instructions

Salt Grated rind and juice from one lemon

Put the drained beans and hock in a very large pan, cover with the
cold water and bring gradually to a boil. Leave to simmer while you
prepare the other ingredients.

In a frying pan heat the olive oil, then gently fry the onion, garlic
and chili with the allspice and lemon rind, stirring occasionally,
until the onions are translucent. Add this mixture to the beans and
go on simmering for 2 hours, by which time the beans should be
tender. At this point add the sugar, lemon juice, and tomato puree.
Cook for another 30 minutes. Add salt if necessary.

Remove the hock, and pick off any meat. If you would like a smooth
soup, as mine (the author) was, process the mixture in batches and
return with the meat to the pan. Otherwise, for a rougher texture
crush with a potato masher. If the mixture seems too thick at this
stage, add more water and bring back to the boil for a minute or two.

Ladle the soup into bowls, with a spoonful or two of cream stirred
in, and serve with a crusty bread.

If you are feeling lavish, a couple of spoons of dark rum added
towards the end give a Bajan fillip.

INFO TEXT: Arriving stiff and crumpled inside and out after an eleven
hour flight, this was my first taste of Bajan Cooking, and I ate it
late at night trying to imagine the sea beyond a dark frieze of
langourous palms. Dense but smooth, with a snap of chili, the soup
was both homely and exotic, and very restoring.

Barbados produces splendid ham and bacon, and a ham stock is what
makes this different from other Carribean variants. Or, as here, use
a hock, soaked first to remove some salt.

From a book called FOOD MAGIC by Jocasta Innes.

Posted by Troy Wade. Courtesy of Fred Peters.

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