Beef Shank Kraut Soup

Beef Shank Kraut Soup, exclusively Skirt in the Kitchen

It has come to my attention that I must cook a good nourishing soup for winter.  After all, January is National Soup Month, but it’s also Be Kind To Food Servers Month-by proclamation, State of Tennessee.

If you’d like a little more technicality about it, January also attributes its calendar days to being the month recognized for Hot Tea Month, Oatmeal Month, and California Dried Plum Digestive Health Month.

Today?  January 16th?-It’s the United States’ National Freedom Religious Day.  How ’bout that.  It’s heralded as an “unofficial observance”.   I like the trivia of things, don’t you?  Do you find it interesting?  A little or just-not at all?We can work while we chat…  I’ve got carrots ready, and I have them in virgin coconut oil to soften on the stove.  I want to cook them, first, since they will take longer to get tender compared to the rest of the vegetables.After that, we’ll cook in the celery,then chopped onion and garlic.  Let’s add salt and pepper.I’ve brought up a quart of Christmas Kraut from the cellar.  It’s not a typical sour kraut; meaning, it doesn’t taste like sauerkraut.  You know I’ve got to be entirely difficult and mess up an idea to revamp, right?!  It’s more like canned cabbage.  It’s meant to be added into food dishes when cooking.  The spices and seasoning fermented with the kraut are enough for the soup.Let’s put in the whole thing!-even the bay leaf.  To the liquid now in the soup pot, let’s pour in chicken broth (or beef broth), and water if we still need some liquid.Here’s what we’ll do-we’ll rinse 2 cans northern white beans, then drain them and put in the soup.  I think this soup needs to have these pretty beads.  I’m thinking jewelry with purpose…Crystals for my locket bracelet…  I’ve got the rose gold.  My sister markets these pretty pieces on Origami Owl.There’s only one thing left to do now-Float a beef shank.  It will sink as it cooks, accenting the broth.  Let the meat bone put the finishing touch of flavor into the soup.  Let’s heat this pot of something-good, then have it slow-cook on the stove top for a while, covered.  This will take a long time, because we want the meat to easily slip off the bone, putting it’s drippings into such a nutritional soup to have on a cold day.Cool the soup, completely; refrigerate-then heat up hours later or into the next day to reap the full benefit of flavor from the beef shank with the kraut and broth.  I’ll send this home with you.  Give the bone to your best friend-your 4-legged companion.This is when a mess can be a good thing…cabbage kid