This dish, this is ‘poor folks food’ as my Daddy used to call it. Why? Well we were poor, I mean really poor growing up and this is what we ate. Thing is, I never looked upon is as ‘poor’ food but rather as comfort food. It was warm, filling and just felt like it hugs your ribs through out the day. It had your veggies, proteins and dairy in it plus honestly, it fed a ton.
Now I call it ‘stoup’ as it’s a cross between a soup and stew. It’s thicker than a soup but not as thick as stew. It’s chunky but has a broth that is FANTASTIC when you dip hot buttered buns into after everything else is gone.
I can remember one winter growing up it was particularly cold. So cold they actually “thought” about closing down the schools for a day. I say thought as they never EVER closed school for it being too cold. We just bundled up more and toughed it out. Today I swear if a snowflake falls, kids immediately get a 2 hour delay. I call foul! We didn’t get that!
…ever!
Anyway, as I was saying it was really, really cold. When I got home from school (meaning my bus dropped me off and my Daddy picked me up at the bus stop) as I was walking up the sidewalk I could smell this dish. I was sooooooooo excited as this dish meant home. It was pure comfort. This dish is simplistic; rustic even.
I walked in and there were my siblings, Mom and a couple of our neighbors. Apparently they were going to play poker that night. Good times to say the least!
I hurried up, got out of my ‘good clothes’ and ran back into the kitchen ready to chow down on this.
I think I had 2 bowls of this, heck maybe even 3 before my tummy said ‘No Mo!’. I helped clean up, wipe down the table and wanted to play cards with the big folk. I ran to my room, got my little piggy bank and proceeded to play Quarter-Dime-Nickle poker. Now what’s funny is that the big folk never ‘let’ the kids cheat or get away with stuff. If we were going to play we were going to realize that it’s called gambling for a reason. That you can lose or you can win. What was cool is after us kids lost our money or even the big folk, we’d go to playing other card games. It was good old fashioned wholesome fun. No video games, no tv, no movies… It was the type of fun where you actually got to laugh with folks face to face and just create great memories.
Crockpot Ham Potato Bean Cabbage Stoup
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Ingredients
- 1 medium head of cabbage, cored and rough cut into 1–2” pieces
- 4 medium red potatoes (skin on or off)
- 2 cups fresh green beans cut into 1 1/2” sections
- 1 small white onion, cut into small chunks
- 2 ½” thick ham steaks cut into 1”x1/2” thick cubes
- 4 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade
- 2 teaspoon fresh black pepper
- 1–2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 whole bay leaf
- 4 tablespoon butter
- 1/4 cup flour
Instructions
- Place half of the cabbage, onions, potatoes, beans, and ham down in the crockpot. Season with half of the pepper and salt. Add in the bay leaf.
- Next, add the remaining cabbage, onions, potatoes, beans, and ham along with the remaining salt/pepper.
- Pour 3 cups of the stock over top. Place the lid on and cook on low for 7 hours or 4 for high.
- 20 minutes before the dish is done, add in the butter and stir gently.
- After 10 minutes, put the flour and remaining 1 cup of stock in a jar and shake to make a slurry.
- Pour this into the crockpot, stir and replace the lid cooking for at least 10-15 minutes.
- Remove the lid and allow it to cool for 10 minutes.
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