MAMI'S RED BEAN SOUP ... WITH A TOUCH OF AMARILYS!

HILDA GACIO'S RED BEAN SOUP WITH A TOUCH OF AMARILYS!   
                                                               

 

Ingredients: 1 16oz. pkg. of dark red beans

                    1/ 2 of 16oz. pkg. of light red beans

                    3 ham hocks with lots of meat or

                    2 small ham hocks and one small ham steak (we like it with lots of ham).

                    4 small potatoes (peeled and cut in large pieces)

                    2 large sweet potatoes (peeled and cut in large pieces).

                    1 small can 8oz. tomato sauce

                    Salt and Pepper to taste

 Sofritooooo!  1 and ½ big Spanish onion or sweet onions (cut up for sofrito)

                       1 and ½ big green pepper (cut up for sofrito)

                       4 Dientes de garlic, (garlic cloves) (cut up for sofrito)

              

Procedure:  In a 6 quart pressure cooker place your beans and your ham hocks or ham hocks with ham steak and cover them up to the top with water as directed by pressure cooker instructions. Usually inside the pressure cooker is a little circle that I call the marker. The water should stay below the marker unless you want to do a lot of cleaning! You are warned now by the voice of experience. LOL.  Water should not go above that. Cook the beans and the ham for about fifteen minutes after the top of your pressure cooker, (the little hat it wears,) starts dancing a rumbita.

Make your sofrito by placing your cut up onion, garlic and green pepper in a bath of olive oil and cook on low until tender. Drain off the olive oil. (THIS SOFRITO COMES OUT BETTER IF YOU KICK OFF YOUR SHOES AND DANCE AROUND THE KITCHEN TO THE RAP OF MY SOFRITO POEM!

After your pressure cooker has cooled and you can open it, pour in the cooked sofrito, the small can of tomato sauce, the potatoes and sweet potatoes, and salt and pepper to taste into your pressure cooker. If you used a lot of ham you are going to need less salt. Cover pressure cooker for a second time of cooking and cook contents again. About five or six minutes after the little hat on the pressure cooker starts  dancing again. I don’t cook it too long because the potatoes can turn to mush.   

There are times I don’t have the garlic and I use garlic powder. That also works. If for some reason your potatoes do not get cooked the second time because they were too many or cut too big you can let it simmer on the stove until they are done. We eat this many times over white rice. The next day it thickens like a potaje, which is a thicker soup. Not hard to make. Fun! Great therapy especially when your family tells you they love it! 

So what’s the touch of Amarilys? I use beans of two different colors and I dance to my Sofrito Poem while I make it!

                                                                             
                               Mami, Hilda Gacio, receiving the book I dedicated to her and Papi,
                               Cuban-American, Dancing On The Hyphen!