Michael's Speckled Puppy Beans

Speckled puppies or speckled beans? Ok, make this great dish with speckled beans and pet the speckled puppy on that cute belly.

Speckled Puppy Beans

12 servings

1 lb. dried navy beans, sorted and rinsed
1 lb. dried black-eyed peas, sorted and rinsed
1-14 oz. can low sodium chicken stock
1-10.5 oz. can cream of celery soup
4 oz. good white wine
1/4 cup butter or margarine
2 cups diced Canadian bacon or smoked ham
2 cups white or gold potatoes, peeled and diced into 1/2” squares
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp. fresh ground black pepper

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. ground thyme
1-1/2 tsp. dried rosemary leaves
1 cup chopped celery
1/3 cup finely grated carrots
1 cup chopped onion
2 tsp. brown sugar
2 or 3 garlic cloves, minced
2 or 3 dashes Worcestershire sauce
salt, to taste

Speckled Beans using smoked sausage instead of ham

Place sorted beans and peas into a large pot. Add chicken stock, wine, butter, and cover well with water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to warm. Add ground pepper, cayenne, thyme, rosemary, and bay leaf. Cover and let sit for an hour or so until beans begin to swell. Add water as necessary, but do NOT over-water.

When the beans and peas begin to soften, add all the other ingredients and bring to a simmer until the beans are tender. Serve with warm cornbread or on top of long grained brown rice.

Notes:

If you don't want to use the Canadian bacon, GOYA makes a ham-flavored bouillon that's quite good. Use two or three packets of that, about a tsp. each.