Soup Season (Part I)

Just outside my kitchen window

Also know as sweater season, soup season is here. This is just my feeling on the matter; in Hungary it's always soup season. At school every lunch consists of a soup followed by a second course. I show my students a picture of a bowl of soup and ask, "What is it?" "Lunch!" they say.
With the aid of my trusty guide and companion, The Traditional Hungarian Kitchen, I made the famous "Jokai Bean Soup" in my very own kitchen (and you can too!).

The book

 Who's this Jokai fellow and why does he get his own soup?
 

Raw ingredients

He was a 19th century Hungarian novelist, and apparently he liked this soup so much they named it after him.

First the beans and the ham hock need to soak for at least 8 hours. Then they are boiled together. The hock is removed, vegetables (carrots and parsnips) are added, and the kitchen starts to really smell good

Ham hock, purchased at the market from a butcher

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On another burner I sauteed the onions, garlic, and paprika in duck fat (left over from a previous kitchen adventure, pre-blog). Flour is added to the fat to make a roux. Adding some form of roux or thickener is common in Hungarian cooking. The ham hock, chopped into bite-sized pieces, goes back in, along with some potato dumplings, and finally some sour cream, of course!

Cookbook Photo

My photo

This soup is very hearty and perfect for an autumn dinner (or lunch the next day...). Here's a similar recipe from chew.hu, an excellent resource about Hungarian cuisine, which also includes sausage. Next time I'll make a completely different kind of soup, from fruit!