I noticed some of my canned goods were coming close to expiring and figured I would throw together a side dish of nearly expired pinto beans, greens, niblet corn and mixed vegetables. I figured it needed some flavor to round it out, so I diced up some yellow onion, then added a little garlic, fried them for a minute or two in olive oil, poured in the canned goods, and then dug out an old, still frozen, ham hock from the freezer and cut most of the bigger chunks of meat off it, adding them to the mix as well.
I let it simmer for 30 minutes but it was not quite right, so I added some Szechuan oil and a couple teaspoons of Italian Colatura di Alici and left it on the low burner for another 40 minutes.
When it tasted right, I set it to the side to cool and split it into 6 Tupperware containers to freeze.
I figure there is nothing new under the sun, so there must be an equivalent type of dish from the south, of the US or of Italy, but for the life of me I have never heard of it. It kind of reminds me of a Brunswick Stew, but not. Mainly because there is no tomato and it is canned goods.
But it is pretty darned good! Smokey, rich and small flakes of ham hock in nearly every bite. This is the shot of it after I warmed up one of the leftover Tupperware dishes this morning. I should have taken a shot of it when I dished it out of the Dutch Oven, the colors were a bit brighter then. Still pretty darned good, though.
Anyone else have “pantry clean-out” recipes that worked out well?
Between the ham hock, the greens and the Colatura, it actually turned into a side that I will make again.
