White Bean and Ham Soup

The best part about ham is that there are endless possibilities with what to do with the ham hock. Split pea and ham soup, cream of potato soup with ham, cassoulet, a smoky sausage and ham chili, posole...
Today, however, it was what I had in my cupboard that would determine the fate of said ham hock. I had a few cans of white beans and an open box of instant mashed potatoes I keep around to use as a thickening agent. In the fridge I had carrots, onion and celery to make a yummy mirepoix (that's just French for raw veggies sauteed in butter or olive oil). So it was written in the stars for me to make white bean and ham soup on this lovely Thursday.

1. Peel 4 large carrots and trim the tops and bottoms off. Dice the carrots to about the size of your fingertip. Clean 4 celery ribs, cut off the tops and bottoms and dice the same size as the carrots. Peel and dice a medium yellow (or white) onion and combine with the other veggies.

2. Drizzle the bottom of a large stockpot with olive oil. Once heated, carefully put in the veggies along with 1/2 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Reduce heat to medium low and cover for 10 minutes.
3. In the meantime, cut off the remainder of the ham slices and trim off the excess fat and crusty skin on those pieces, set the slices aside for use later. If you have cheesecloth, take the fat and skin that was trimmed off and tie them up in the cheesecloth, this will be used for flavor but the fat will stay in the bundle and not escape into the soup.

4. Place the ham hock in the pot with the veggies and add 6 cups water and the cheesecloth bundle.

5. Simmer on low for 1 hour then turn the ham hock so the other side is submerged. Add 2- 15 ounce cans of white beans or Cannellini beans. Simmer on low for another hour.
6. Now comes the messy part. Turn off the heat and place a colander on top of a large saucepan (preferably in the sink). Pour the soup into the colander and then pick out the large chunks of meat and bone and skim off any of the fat that didn't melt away. Discard the cheesecloth bundle, bones and unwanted meat. Ultimately, you should have carrots, onion, and celery left in the colander.

7. Pour this back into the stockpot and mash the mixture a few times with a masher or the back of a spoon or fork. This will help thicken the broth and release a beautiful, warm orange color. Return the broth back to the pot that you drained in step 6.
8. Return the pot to the stove and heat on low. Add 1 more can of white beans, 1/4 cup instant mashed potatoes, a few dashes of poultry seasoning and salt and pepper to taste. Let simmer 30 more minutes.
9. Now, get the ham slices that you set aside from step 3 and cut into a small dice. Heat on low for 20 more minutes.
10. Slice up a nice loaf of crusty bread and you're finished!

I wait until the last 20 minutes to add the ham because it will turn a weird, almost grey color if left cooking too long. Plus, the soup already has the ham flavor from the ham hock and cheesecloth bundle.