Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Green Tomato and Country Ham Soup For Cold Weather

Here we were on Nov 11 with record cold temperatures predicted for the coming night and we awoke to a light covering of snow that morning with this as my first view out our living room window.


Then a shot of the neighbors pasture and house on the hill and a couple around our yard where we rarely see snow on leaves.




And the really good news is that we have leftovers from a just made pot of beef stew and a big pot of Green Tomato and Ham Soup using the recipe from the now defunct Bistro Restaurant in Tellico Plains.  We were reminded of it during a recent visit to Tellicafe where the Bistro chef now works.  Here is the recipe for this odd sounding but totally delicious soup – assuming you like green tomatoes.

Green Tomato and Ham Soup

Ingredients:
7 ea    Green tomatoes
1 lb     Country ham (Benton’s preferred)
1 qt     Heavy cream
1 qt    Chicken broth
1 T     Salt free chicken base or 2 bullion cubes
1 T     Crushed red pepper (optional)
1 t      Hot sauce or to taste (optional)

Directions:
1. Trim the fat and bake the country ham until just warmed through and dice into small pieces.
2. Dice four of the green tomatoes into small (about 3/8’) pieces and puree the other three tomatoes.
3. Mix all ingredients in a 6 qt. pot over medium heat, stirring often.
4. Bring to a simmer and thicken with corn starch dissolved in water – start with 1 cup water and 1/3 cup corn starch and adjust to desired thickness.
5. Remove from heat and refrigerate over night to marry the flavors.
6. Reheat and serve garnished with a basil leaf.

We omitted the last two ingredients for the non-heat lovers but a little Sriracha works well in the bowl.

It doesn’t make a good pic but I had a small bowl of both the soup and the stew for a perfect cold weather supper.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

11/11/19 event date

6 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing this recipe. It sounds delicious

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  2. Beautiful shots! The soup sounds amazing.

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  3. Larry, Great photos with lots of color although the one out your window may be my favorite. Love this recipe for green tomato and ham soup. I just have to get Laurie to make up a batch now! Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

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  4. Dan sent me pictures of the same snow! WE had it, too, but that's not unexpected. Beef stew is the right way to go when it's that cold, and your ham soup with the creamy broth sounds great.

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  5. Very nice photos Larry. Congrats on that cooler weather and that dusting of white. Perfect soup weather. I really like having another way to use green tomatoes. With our short growing season, I always have a supply at the end of the season.

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  6. Thank you for posting this soup, I am now living in MI but lived in Tellico do 25+ yrs and used to work for Chef Gary, I ❤️ this soup and thought for the heck of it I would Google the recipe not expecting to find it šŸ˜Š

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