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Uh oh....I bought the book. I haven't even seen the movie but just reading about it made me buy the only cookbook I don't own. I swear I have every other one out there. I don't know why I never bought it. Maybe I considered it years ago when I only wanted cookbooks with pictures. I went through that phase for years. Now I prefer them without pictures. Maybe Julia intimidated me. Maybe it was considered during a time when I wasn't into French food, but then Patricia Wells changed that. All I know is this a match made in heaven. I am seriously diggin' this book.
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Since I have giant cabbages sitting around staring at me, I decided to start with the cabbage soup. I went with the bean version so I boiled some beans with some rosemary and bay leaves.
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I boiled 4 quartered potatoes with a 1 1/2 pound piece of salt pork in in 3 1/2 quarts of water.
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Julia calls for a number of aromatics so I used parsley, bay leaves, marjoram, rosemary, thyme and peppercorns.
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Tied it with cheesecloth.
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Studded an onion with cloves,
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Then chopped up about 6 carrots and threw it all into the boiling water.
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Then I roughly chopped about 3 quarts of cabbage and added it to the pot. This cooks for about 2 hours or just until the cabbage is tender with a bit of a crunch.
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The beans were soaked from the night before so they needed to cook about as long as the soup. Don't overcook the beans.
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I bought a house smoked ham steak from a local butcher.
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And cut it into quarter inch cubes.
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After almost two hours of simmering over medium low heat the soup is ready. I removed the salt pork, the aromatics and the onion.
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Then added two cups of the cooked beans.
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Then stirred in the cubed ham. You don't want to add the ham too soon or it will give off all it's flavor. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
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This is a hearty soup. With good crusty bread, it is a meal in itself.
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It has an outstanding clean cabbage flavor.
Comments
I had never heard of Julia Child before this movie came (I haven´t seen it yet), but what I´ve heard about he she seemes to have been a great woman.
Have a nice day now!
Christer.
blessings
~*~