Black Bean Soup

The aroma of the onions, garlic and olive oil mixed with the simmering beans and ham bone fill the house. My son, says, "That smells so good! I wish I liked beans." We serve this with sour cream, and Perfect Cornbread Sticks.

• Ready In: 3 hrs 30 mins
• Serves: 8
• Yields: 1 pot of soup

Ingredients

• 1  ham bone (from yesterday's ham)
• 1  cup  ham stock
• 2  cups dried black beans
• 8  cups water
• 1  tablespoon olive oil
• 4  onions
• 3  shallots
• 1  garlic clove
• 1  cup  very dry sherry

Directions

1. After a nice baked ham meal, save the bones (and any small fragments of meat).
2. Boil in 4 cups water and reduce liquid to 1 cup.
3. Remove fat, and reserve for bean soup (either freeze, or make soup next day).
4. Thoroughly rinse dried beans and discard water.
5. Add water to beans (the 8 cups to 2 cups beans).
6. Bring to boil, boil gently 2 minutes.
7. Cover and let sit 1 hour.
8. Do not discard water, since you have cleaned the beans. There is flavor in the water, and the color is so rich.
9. Put back on heat and simmer gently.
10. Sauté onions, shallots, and garlic in olive oil and add to soup.
11. Deglaze the pan and add to soup.
12. Add ham bone, broth, and fragments to soup.
13. Add very dry sherry to soup, and simmer gently, uncovered, until done, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
14. Add extra liquid (water or wine) if soup reduces too much.
15. Serve with a dollop of sour cream and corn sticks.