The Soup Loop

I'm cutting it pretty close here with the title, it being Daylight Savings Time now and a warm-ish Sunday morning in Arkansas, but I know we're still in for some coldness... That being said, I thought I'd share a method for making homemade soup out of little more than a few handfuls of dried beans. I have only two cardinal rules for bean soup: 1. start with dried beans, not canned;* 2. don't add salt until the beans are tender (or they might never become tender!). Here's the "recipe," presented more like a guide, with all kinds of possible omissions, substitutions, and additions. Honestly, I think the simpler you keep a bean soup, the better, so think of a final flavor you'd like to have in the soup, and decide on your seasonings and ingredients before you start making it; otherwise you might end up with a sloggy jumble. The photo soup was made with great northern beans, 1 onion, 2 carrots, 3 stalks celery, 3 cloves garlic, 1 1/2 cups chopped ham, lot...

Yesterday was, yes, too hot to cook soup for hours. But it didn't matter once we got the new issue of Gourmet . You'll see several of the recipes from their articles on Latin food in the next week or two at Soup Loop. Last night belonged to Pozole Rojo ...and guess what? This morning we were still in love. The truth is, when you set out to make pozole (a Mexican chile-sauced pork and hominy stew), you're in for several hours of cooking. Not working straight for four hours, but being near the kitchen for sure. I'd never made pozole before, so didn't really know how working with the dried chiles would go, or how spicy the finished dish would be, and there are some things I will change the next time I make it. First, I won't completely seed the dried chiles. My finished soup had less heat than I was wanting (my guests and I dressed up our bowls with some minced fresh jalapeno, and problem solved). Second, I will follow the instructions to tie the herbs together......