I really thought succotash was a made up word that Sylvester the Cat said on Looney Toons, in the same vein as Yosemite Sam’s made up cursing.  Apparently, it’s a dish with two main ingredients, corn and lima beans. Succotash can be made with heavy cream, bacon fat, butter or olive oil and one can add in tomatoes, literally whatever.

Regardless of what you add, I recommend soaking the beans overnight, adding a smoked hamhock, and letting the beans sit for a night before you eat them, it’s well worth the wait. This concoction is more of a lima bean soup, but it’s still delish.  Oh, and check out Mark Bittman’s cornbread recipe for a can’t fail cornbread.

Succotash (or Lima Bean Soup if you will)

Ingredients

1lb Dry Lima Beans

1 Onion

3 slices of bacon

4 tbsp. salt

1 smoked ham-hock

1 package of frozen corn kernals (or 3 ears of corn if you have fresh)

2 tsp. cinnamon

3 tsp. cayenne

2 tbsp. dried sweet basil

2 tbsp. granulated garlic powder

Directions

Wash dried beans throughoughly, picking out any impurities.  Soak beans in 4 cups of water overnight.   Put beans into stock pot, barely cover with water, bring to a boil for 5 minutes.  Strain the beans and let them sit.

Dice the onion and cut strips of bacon into 1/2 inch pieces.  On med-high heat, put your bacon pieces in the bottom of the pot, and when they start to render (when the bacon fat turns liquid) add your onions and cook till they’re translucent.

Add your lima beans back to the pot.  Immediately add enough water to cover the beans, by a couple of inches.  Keep water on high until it boils, and add in your spices.   After it boils add a pacakage of frozen/fresh corn and cut the heat down to low and let it simmer for at least 2 hours.

Serve with cornbread and enjoy.