Hawaiian Portuguese Bean soup - Mainland edition

Here is the almost real Portuguese bean soup. Why almost? It's missing the Portuguese sausage. Actually I deliberately do this, even I can pick up the sausage from United Noodles. This was the way I made it when the ingredient was not readily available in the Upper Midwest. Chorizo has been a great substitution. By adding 1 tsp of 5 spice, you get that Island flavor we so miss. I am using a cured chorizo here, it's a little smokier. You can find fresh  chorizo in the store and they are very similar to Portuguese sausage in texture. If you can get Portuguese sausage, just skip the 5 spice powder!

Another base ingredient here is ham hock, great flavor. However I am not a fan when it gets too smokey. I found a great meaty ham shank at Whole foods, it's not too smokey and without sodium nitrite. There is something magical with beans and ham hock. With such a great "marriage", I can't use canned beans in here. I know it takes a little time to cook with dried beans, this is well worth it. The beans are not going to be mushy and the meat on the ham shank is cooked thoroughly and tender. Worth every minute and energy!

Hawaiian Portuguese Bean Soup, Mainland style
1 package Chorizo - cured or fresh, or 1 Portuguese sausage if available. Sliced into 1" pieces.

1 tsp 5-spice powder - (not necessary is you are using Portuguese sausage)
1 ham shank or hock
3 cup mix dried dark red kidney beans and garbanzo beans (about 50/50)
1 large onion - chopped ( about 1/2" pieces)
2 carrots - cleaned, peeled and chopped (about 1/2" pieces)
2 stalk celery, cleaned and chopped (about 1/2" pieces)
2-3 tbsp chili powder (to taste)
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 can 20 oz diced tomatoes
6 cups chicken stock
1 bunch of cilantro - excess stem removed and chopped.
3 bay leaves
1 cup macaroni
1/2 head cabbage, cleaned, core removed and cut into 1" pieces
Directions:
Fill a medium size pot  with water to about 1/2 full. Bring to boil. Add washed beans. Stir and let it sit for about an hour.

Place chorizo pieces in a dry fry pan, render the sausage over medium heat till the sausage starts to brown. Remove the meat from the pan. Leave 1 tbsp of the grease in the pan and remove the rest

Saute the carrot, celery and onion with the sausage fat.

Add 1 tsp 5 spice powder and toast the spice lightly with the vegetable till the vegetable soften.

Transfer the vegetable to a large dutch oven, add the bean and the liquid, fried sausage pieces and the ham shank.

Add chicken stock

Add tomatoes

Add tomato paste

Then chili powder

Add bay leaves, Bring the soup to a full boil, then lower heat to simmer. Cover and let it cook for about 2-3 hours till the beans are tender

Once the beans are tender, Remove the ham shank from the soup. Separate the meat and the shank bone. Cut up the piece into bite size piece.

Add cabbage and 1/2 the chopped cilantro to the soup

Return the ham meat to the soup

Add more stock or water as needed. Need to make sure there is enough liquid for the noodle to cook.

Add 1 cup of macaroni. Bring to a boil. Cover lower heat to simmer and let it cook for additional 30 mins. Please remember to stir the soup every now and then to make sure the noodle is not sticking to the bottom

When the noodle is tender, add remaining cilantro before serving. Safe a pinch-ful for garnish.

Serve 10-12 minimum. The soup freezes very well. Separate into smaller container. When reheating, you may need to add water, check seasoning.


Enjoy
Aloha

German meets Hawaiian style Portuguese sausage and Kale Soup

Mr Wonderful loves "boiled dinner". It is basically boiling vegetable (potatoes, cabbage and carrot) will smoked sausage today. It is actually quite foreign to me. In the last year, he upgraded his recipe with Mrs Dash and onion!! That's a big step

At times I do feel bad that I made him eat all these vegetarian food. I do make meat for him and he appreciates that. One great thing about him is that he would try anything, however when it really boils down to it, he is a meat and potato guy with a strong Germany root.

Mr Wonderful has been fishing up North, I hope he will be coming back with some fish this afternoon. I woke up to a cold rainy day. It's perfect for some soup. It would be great to have something hearty to get the chill off, especially being out in the elements. I brought back a couple Hawaiian Portuguese sausage and I  still have 1 last sausage in the freezer. I decide to make some soup. My version of Portuguese Kale soup. It's boiled, it's potato, he should like this. You will notice I am keeping the pieces of vegetable and sausage pretty big. He like soup hearty. The sausage, potato and kale will "shrink" during cooking.

Hawaiian Portuguese sausage, kale and potato soup
1 large(12 oz) Hawaiian  Portuguese sausage, cut into 1/2" quarter pieces, or any smoked sausage with spice will make a great substitute.

1 large onion, skinned, cleaned and cubed
4 red skin potatoes, cleaned and cubed, I am leaving the skin on, if prefer, you can use peeled potatoes instead

3 gloves garlic, cleaned and chopped
1 bunch of kale, washed, stem removed and tear into small pieces
4 cup low sodium chicken stock
Pepper to taste
Directions
In a large dutch oven of pot, brown the sausage piece for 5-8 mins over med heat.

The sausage is quite oily, I didn't have to add anything at all. Remove some of the oil if you like. Leave about 2 tbsp in the pot.

Add garlic and onion, sauté with the sausage till caramelize and translucent

Add potato and cook for 4-5 min and lightly browned

Add kale in by the handful and fold into the meat mixture.

The kale will soften with heat. 

Once everything is combined. Pour in 4 cups of chicken stock

Bring to a boil,  then lower heat to a simmer, cover and let the soup cook for about 35-40 mins till the kale and potatoes are soft and tender. 

Taste and season with pepper. The sausage is quite salty and highly spiced, I didn't have to add any salt at all. 

Ladle the soup in to a bowl, top with fried shallot and serve.

Enjoy
Aloha

5 heads to a pot of Creole Lobster soup!

In many old cultures, such as Chinese and Hawaiian, wasting food is frowned on. I usually try to use every usable parts in most of my cooking. Actually there is a lot of flavor in some of the “discards”.

As I mentioned yesterday, we went to a lobster boil and I took home the 5 extra heads that my friends didn’t want to venture with. 

I was allergic to shellfish as a child, but I was required to help picking crabs for our family restaurants during my late teen years whenever I was back in Singapore.  I didn't start eating seafood till I moved to Hawai'i. I learned to eat lobster at my friend, Matt's in MA. I still remember his mother taught me how to take apart a lobster like a REAL Bostonian!!

I was going to make stock and freeze it for later. However, the weather was a bit crazy here, we had pouring rain, then tornado warning, actual tornado touch down northeast of the house. I decided to stay home and make some soup. I was going make chowder; Mr. Wonderful seems to like heartier soup. However with the crazy storm, I couldn’t get out of the house! I also found a piece of kielbasa with the lobster heads… Hmmm sausage? Shellfish? Rice… Let’s cook a little Creole here.

Creole inspired leftover lobster soup

• 6 cups lobster stock (or any seafood stock
•  
• 1 medium onion, cut into ¼” pieces
• 1 garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tsp crushed garlic from a jar
• 6" piece of spicy/smoky sausage your choice. cubed. (I use the leftover spicy kielbasa)
• 2 stalk celery, cut into ¼” pieces
• 2 carrots, peeled and cut into ¼” cube
• 1 tbsp dried herbs de province
• ½ cup basmati rice, rinsed thoroughly
• 1 tsp ghee or butter
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• ½ cup of lobster meat (or other seafood, such as lump crab meat)
• ½ cup of lobster tomalley (optional)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Parsley, chopped for garnish

Directions:

Optional:

Prepare 6 cups of lobster stock:

Break down 5 leftover heads; remove tomalley and body meat, reserve for later use.

 

Boil the shells in 8 cups of water for 3-4 hours over low heat

Strain and press on the shells to extract all the stock. Reserve

Prepare the vegetable and soup ingredients while making the stock.

Heat ghee with olive oil over medium high heat in the same pot you make the lobster stock if you want. I like using ghee instead of butter in my cooking. Ghee is clarified butter and it has a higher smoke point, it does not burn easily like butter and still give you that great rich flavor)

Sauté chopped garlic and onion, add crushed garlic.

Add sausage and brown lightly.

Add carrot and celery, sauté for a few mins. Add herbs de province; crush it lightly by hand, sauté for a couple of mins

Add rice, mix well. Let the rice toast for a min or so to develop some flavor.

Season with salt and pepper

Add 6 cups of stock, bring to a full boil. 

Cover. Reduce heat to med low, cook for about 20 mins till the rice is soft, the soup will thicken into a thin porridge consistency. Add lobster meat and tomalley. Heat thoroughly

Ladle in to a bowl. Garnish with chopped parley and serve.
(Serve 6 of Mr. Wonderful or 8 of me – 6 as entrée, 8 as starter)

You can easily adapt this recipe to other seafood, such as crab or fish. You don’t have to make the stock; you can use any seafood stock, such as clam, shrimp or fish. (Better than Bouillon is my preferred brand)

If you are using fish, put uncooked large pieces into the soup and let it cook directly in the liquid. I would also add a sprinkle of lemon juice and lemon zest to the garnish when serving.

Aloha!