Garbure

A soup thick enough to stand a spoon in, where the ham bone goes in at the start and the cabbage at the very end.

Pork, Duck. Not vegetarian — contains duck, pork.

Ingredients

• 1 ham bone or smoked ham hock
• 250 g dried white beans, soaked overnight
• 2 onions, chopped
• 3 carrots, in thick rounds
• 2 leeks, sliced
• 3 potatoes, in chunks
• 1 turnip, in chunks
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 small green cabbage, shredded
• 2 duck confit legs, as on their own page
• 2 bay leaves
• a few thyme sprigs
• 2 litres water
• black pepper

Method

1. THE HAM BONE GOES IN AT THE START AND THE CABBAGE AT THE VERY END. Three hours for the bone, because that is where all the salt and body in this soup comes from and nothing else is added to make stock. Fifteen minutes for the cabbage, because cabbage cooked for three hours turns grey and sulphurous and will be the only thing anybody tastes. Everything else goes in between those two, by how long it takes.
2. IT IS MEANT TO BE THICK ENOUGH TO STAND A SPOON IN. This is not a broth with things in it. Some of the beans and potato are crushed against the side of the pot near the end, which thickens it without flour and without a blender. If a spoon falls over, reduce it further.
3. NO SALT UNTIL THE VERY END, and probably none at all. A smoked ham bone simmered for three hours in two litres will take the whole pot most of the way there, and salt added early concentrates as it reduces.
4. THE CONFIT GOES IN AT THE LAST MINUTE, warmed through rather than simmered. Duck confit cooked in soup falls to shreds and loses its skin; laid on top of each bowl it stays itself.
5. AND IT IS BETTER THE NEXT DAY, considerably. The cabbage is the only thing that suffers, so if you are making it ahead, hold the cabbage back and add it when reheating.
6. The soaked beans drained. The ham bone, water, onions, bay, thyme and garlic brought to the boil and skimmed.
7. Simmered, lid on, 1 HOUR 30 MINUTES.
8. The beans added and simmered 1 HOUR more until tender.
9. The bone lifted out, the meat picked off and returned, the bone discarded.
10. Carrots and turnip in, 15 minutes. Then leeks and potatoes, 20 minutes more.
11. Some of the beans and a potato or two CRUSHED against the side of the pot with the back of a spoon, and stirred through to thicken it.
12. THE CABBAGE added and cooked 15 MINUTES only, until tender and still green.
13. Tasted. Pepper generously. Salt almost certainly not needed.
14. The duck confit legs, made as on their own page, wiped of fat and crisped skin-down in a hot dry pan 5 minutes, then set on top of the bowls. Served with bread.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under France · All recipes