You may remember one of my previous diaries on chicken pot pie, a recipe I grew up with, one my mother got from her mother (although she didn’t confirm that until after that diary was posted). Tonight, I present about another recipe that also came down from Grandma Letha to Mom to me—ham and white bean stew.
Mom made a ham every Christmas Eve. At some point afterward, she would use the leftovers to make this stew. I used to do this, as well, but in years past, Mrs. Spectre has been part of the Christmas Eve toy run as part of the local volunteer fire department, which took most of the night. And since we spent Christmas with my in-laws every year, I hadn’t prepared a special holiday dinner in about fifteen years. Although occasionally, I would buy a post-Christmas ham on clearance. However, COVID and other life circumstances have, in recent years, allowed me to bring back the Christmas ham and this childhood favorite pictured above. And there was much rejoicing…. (gratuitous Monty Python and the Holy Grail reference)
As with most slow-cook dishes, this one is easy to adjust to your liking as you go. Want some herbs in it? Go for it! A little hot sauce? You bet! Sweet pickle relish? Hell, y… okay, that one’s a little weird for me, but hey, who am I to judge?
HAM AND WHITE BEAN STEW
1 pound dry white beans
Ham bone, with or without meat attached
1 pound ham, diced
2-3 carrots, diced
1 onion, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 c frozen spinach, chopped
Rinse the beans and cook them in a large pot for about 2 hours, or as directed on the package, until beans are soft. Add ham bone, diced ham, carrots, onion, garlic. Cover and simmer for another hour, adding more water if needed—be careful that you don’t add too much, or the stew will get a bit thin (unless you like it that way). When stew seems done, add the spinach; heat through and blend, then it’s ready to serve!
I like to serve this with (Betty Crocker) drop biscuits, but really, any bread will do. I also usually serve a small side salad.
If you don’t want to buy a whole ham, or your store only has the boneless variety (which happened to me once a long time ago; I could not believe it!), you can use a ham hock as a substitute, or a pork shank, or even an appropriate amount of smoked bacon or smoked sausage—which may come in handy, since hams usually disappear after Christmas, and it may be too warm for stew once the time for Easter hams rolls around.
And because I don’t want to just give out a recipe that you might not be able to make for another year, here’s another stew-type recipe that’s good for winter: chicken and dumplings. This one comes without tradition for me. Mom never made it, which is odd, because Grandma was German, so one would think she’d have at least one dumpling or spaetzle or similar recipe….
CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS
For the chicken gravy:
4 T butter
1/2 cup flour
3 1/2 c warm chicken broth
1 large carrot, diced
3 ribs celery, chopped
For the dumplings:
1 c flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
2 t fresh parsley, chopped
1 1/2 T cold unsalted butter, cut into bits
1/3 c whole milk
3 cups cooked chicken, chopped
2 T fresh parsley to garnish
You will need a Dutch oven or other stove top casserole dish with a tight-fitting lid.
Add butter to the pan and melt it over medium low heat. Saute celery and carrot over low heat for 5-8 minutes. Stir in flour and saute 3-4 minutes. Slowly whisk in the warm broth, stirring until the mixture bubbles and thickens. Simmer for about 15 minutes until vegetables are softened. Add salt and pepper to taste.
While vegetables simmer, make the dumpling dough. Sift flour, baking powder and salt together. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or large fork. Stir in the parsley and milk to make a dropping batter. (I usually end up using my hands to blend completely.)
Stir the chicken into the gravy and heat through. Bring to a quick simmer. Drop the dumpling dough onto the top of the simmering stew by dollops. Cover tightly and cook for 20 minutes, until the dumplings are well risen and cooked through—do NOT lift lid to check progress. Ladle the finished stew into soup plates, sprinkle with parsley.
Enjoy!