Heirloom Bean and Escarole Soup

In trying to mix it up, I decided to try a soup recipe next.  Most of the soup recipes in the book have some difficult to find ingredients but this one seemed to be one I could pull off.  Escarole is a form of endive and while I couldn't locate escarole, I did find endive at my local store so I used this instead.  I am quickly learning that many of these recipes involve several steps ahead of the time you actually want to make the dish.  I am realizing the book is easy to follow but likely not for a "decide what's for dinner at six pm" kind of person.  The first step in this recipe involved soaking the beans overnight.  I wasn't sure what "heirloom" bean meant and the recipe indicated any type of white bean so that's what I used.  

After soaking overnight, I cooked the beans over a slow simmer with leeks, carrots, herb bouquet, and onions.

I also had to pick up a ham hock to make the broth which also consisted of chicken stock, leeks, carrots, and onions.

Now, you would think I would be way skilled with a ham hock being that I am from Georgia, but I have actually never bought a ham hock, cooked a ham hock, and I dang sure haven't tried to cut the meat out of a cooked ham hock as the recipe instructed!  I did the best I could...although the the ham hock was greasy and tough once cooked.  I'm not sure what part of a hog the "hock" is from and I don't think I want to google it to find out.  We will leave that as a mystery....but I will see there were some very interesting parts of a pig in the basket with the ham hock at the supermarket and we'll leave it at that...

After getting the broth ready, I added the beans and then stirred in the escarole/endive.   The soup turned out to be pretty good for a cold fall night.  It was very flavorful but a little on the salty side.  The broth called for a "generous" helping of salt so I may have gotten carried away.  Here is what the finished dish looked like:

Next up is that buttermilk fried chicken recipe I have been promising...maybe the fridge won't go out this time!