Bajan Black Bean Soup

Servings: 6
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

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.