Nigella's ham in coke - why do I have to keep the cooking liquid?

[michaelad]

It is printed in Capitals in the recipe.. DO NOT THROW AWAY THE LIQUID... but then it never tells me why to actually hold on to it [sad

She also has a recipe for soup you can make with the left over liquid - it's the next one in the book, iirc.

I throw it away, btw - have never fancied Coca-cola soup

I always wondered that too.
Dutifully kept the liquid, then chucked it out the next day!

Ah, MM, that explains it.

It is for South Beach Black bean soup on p130 of Nigella Bites.
Have done the Ham but not the soup. It worries me a bit, so let us know what it is like if you do it.

right..did the ham..was absolutely yummy and will now freeze some of the coke "broth". Does someone have the exact recipe for that South beach soup to hand?

Right..
Ingredients:
500g black beans
Coca cola ham stock
Juice of half a lime
1 tsp ground cumon
1 tsp ground coriander
To serve:
Sour cream
Fresh coriander
Lime wedges

Cook the black beans in the Coca Cola stock until they are tender. Remove about 3 ladles of the soup to a blender, add the lime juice and ground spices, blitz to a muddy puree and stir this back into the pan of soup. And that is it.
Swirl some sour cream, as you please, into the bowls of soup as you ladle them out and sprinkle with freshly chopped coriander. Plonk the lime wedges onto the table and let people squeeze the sharp juice into this dense sweet soup as they eat.
Serves 8

Oh and she also says
I never soak black beans: just make sure that when you cook them they get their 10 toxin-destroying minutes of vociferous boiling and you are away.

HTH

Ahem, that should be Cumin.

everyone I know who has ever made that soup says it is bleurgh so I wouldn't bother!

soup is bowfing, and one of the reasons i don't make that recipe any more... all that lovely stock goiing to waste.

well, never got around to actually freezing the stock after all and ended up chucking it the next day.. but it does not sound too appetizing, I have to say..

The soup is VILE - throw the stock away, save yourself the effort and expense of making the soup first

Glad I was right to be a bit wary of the soup then. I agree the ham is yummy but I cooked one in cranberry and orange juice last year for Christmas and that was better. Mmmm

did u put the mustard and erm, cant remember was it treacle? on it to glaze? did it stick? when i made it it mealted all over the place, but was yummy!

Yes, it was black treacle and it did stick! Yum!