La Garbure de luxe

Ingredients for 6 servings:

• 400 g beans, white
• 100 g green beans
• 400 g potatoes
• 100 g celery
• 250 g leek
• 250 g carrot(s)
• 1 Teltower turnip or kohlrabi
• 750 g savoy cabbage
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 large onion(s)
• 1 red chili pepper(s)
• some stalks of lovage
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 sprigs of thyme
• 2 sprigs of marjoram
• 3 sprigs of parsley
• 2 liters of broth
• 300 g bacon, streaky, air-dried
• 450 g garlic sausage, uncooked
• 2 duck legs
• 1 pork knuckle(s), cured
• Pepper from the mill
• Sea salt
• 6 slices of bread (rustic country bread)

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Rest period approx. 1 day; Cooking/baking time approx. 2 hours 30 minutes; Total time approx. 1 day 3 hours

Bèarner vegetable stew, soup from southwest France

Sort the beans and soak them in water (or canned food) for 12 hours. Discard the soaking water. Fry the duck legs without fat until golden brown. Sauté the onions in the rendered duck fat and render the streaky bacon. Bring some of the stock to a boil in a cast-iron pot. Simmer the duck legs and pork knuckle (or Bayonne ham trimmings) in the stock for a long time until tender. In the meantime, wash the vegetables. Remove any strings from the green beans and break them into pieces depending on their size. Peel the potatoes and dice them. Cut the remaining vegetables into bite-sized pieces. Make a bouquet garni with thyme, parsley, bay leaves, and marjoram. When the meat is almost cooked, cook the chili pepper, potatoes, herb bouquet garni, and vegetables (except the savoy cabbage) in the remaining stock. Peel the garlic cloves, cut them into sticks, and add them. While the vegetables are cooking, cut the cabbage into thin strips or coarse diamonds. After 20 minutes of cooking, add the savoy cabbage. Let everything simmer for 50 minutes. Shortly before the end of the cooking time, cut the meat, sausage, and bacon into bite-sized pieces and add them to the garbure along with the cooking liquid (bouillon). Season to taste. Carefully season with salt and pepper. If using canned white beans, add them to the pot just before the end of cooking and bring to a boil briefly. Place a thin slice of country bread in each soup bowl and top up with the garbure. Serve with a strong, country-style red wine from Bèarn, such as Madiran or Corbières. The people of Bèarn like to add a generous splash of this wine to their soup. Our local beers also go well with this hearty farmhouse soup. Like any stew, this one improves when reheated several times.