This recipe came out of my own head

Zucchini Soup:

1 smoked ham hock
a couple tablespoons of olive oil or bacon fat
4 stalks of celery minced
4 or 5 medium zucchini sliced into thin rounds
1 clove garlic minced
1 jalapeno seeded and minced
1/2 c homemade chicken stock if you have it
6 or more cups of water
1 teaspoon marmite
1/3 cup heavy cream
salt to taste (mine needed a good bit) and freshly ground pepper to taste

heat oil or bacon fat over medium high
Toss in onions. jalapeno and celery
stir until tender but not browned
add zucchini and garlic
cook stirring another 3 or 4 minutes
add ham hock bay leaf chicken stock if you have it, and water to cover
bring to boil, reduce heat, cover and cook stirring and adjusting heat from time to time for 45 min to an hour until meat from ham hock is tender
Stir in marmite and cream
Remove from heat and take out hock to cool a bit
Turn soup into a liquid with immersion blender
Cut skin from hock and cut up for dogs
shred meat with 2 forks or chop (shredding is better for some reason)
Put meat back into soup
season well with salt and freshly ground pepper
put garlic croutons on top to serve

I was just looking for a way to use up all this zucchini my one plant is presenting me with. I hoped this would be good enough to eat. I had no idea I'd create a masterpiece. It was sorely lacking in umami until the marmite that I so rarely use popped into my head.

Sounds like a very tasty soup, Liz.

I often slow boil a smoked ham hock until you can pull it apart with a fork, and make a good meal out of it with a variety of accompaniments, but I've never done a soup - although Linda sometimes takes a portion of my boiled ham hock to add to a single serving of pea soup for herself.

Steamed smoked ham hocks are regularly seen as a favored lunch dish menu item in Montreal, PQ bistros.

It was a matter of necessity for me to do something. My one zucchini plant is producing more than the plecos and me to eat. I've been preparing them every way I could think of, sauteed with onions in butter, sliced in half with the center scooped out and stuffed and baked, sliced into rounds and topped with pepperoni, mozzarella and red pepper and baked, and sliced into rounds and fried. I was able to use up 5 of them for this soup and still have more. I'll take some to the LPS for them to feed to their rodents and frogs. That'll clear them out for a day at least.

I didn't plant any this year. Still have a freezer filled with zucchini bread

Liz, what is marmite? How many zucchini has that one plant produced so far? Soup sounds great.

It's a condiment beloved in Australia. They spreed it on their toast in the morning but nobody but their own countrymen does that with it. It tastes really funky. What is special about it to the greatest hit of ummami of anything you can imagine. It is used to add depth of flavor to a bland dish like this soup, or anything really, that is made from zucchini. I looked in the stores for it without luck so bought in on line from Amazon. I've had it for a long time but still have a whole lot left. In other words, as long as you don't spread it on your morning toast it will last and last.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Disgirl

Liz, what is marmite? How many zucchini has that one plant produced so far? Soup sounds great.

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It's a bug is it not? A hellgraamite related larva?

No. This is something fermented. It's made with yeast.

Thank you for this recipe, I'll try it!