Birnen, Bohnen und Speck
Birnen, Bohnen und Speck (lit. pears, beans and bacon), also called Bohnen, Birnen und Speck or Grööner Hein and Grönen Heini in southern Germany. Is a stew made of boiled beans, pears and smoked bacon traditionally served along with strong mustard or horseradish.
Note that even though it is served with little or no broth, it still is a stew because the ingredients are effectively stewed, in fact it is not uncommon to serve the resulting soup before or after the main dish.
Ingredients
- 2 hard (unripe) pears.
- 500 grams of smoked bacon.
- 500 grams of green beans.
- 6 large potatoes.
- 2 teaspoons dried savory (Bohnenkraut)
Instructions
Set about 2 liters of water (some people use a meaty broth instead) to boil in a pot. Remove the stem from the pears slice them lengthwise and carefully cut out the core out, next cut up the potatoes in halves and when the water starts boiling add pears and potatoes with the savory and a pinch of salt.
Cut up the chunk of bacon into medallions a centimeter thick, and add them to the boiling pot as well.
When you can stab the pear and the potatoes with a fork and they seem soft and ready add the beans. Wait for 10 to 15 minutes and fish all the ingredients out and serve them on a plate, with a generous amount of mustard and/or horseradish. Add some butter to the potatoes and beans, and salt and black pepper to taste.
This stew will feed two hungry stewlovers.