Slovak Ham & Vegetable Soup - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 (3 lb) smoked pork shoulder, washed (cottage ham)
water
2 onions, finely chopped (about 1 1/3 cups)
1 cup dried lima beans or (14 ounce) can lima beans
3/4 teaspoon pepper
4 -5 sprigs parsley
1/4 cup barley
3 (20 ounce) packages frozen mixed vegetables (if you prefer you can use bags of individual vegetables, corn, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, carrot)
1 small cabbage, coarsely chopped
2 (10 3/4 ounce) cans condensed tomato soup
Steranka
1 egg
1 cup flour
4 teaspoons water

Preparation

Place ham in an 8 quart stock pot and add water to 1-inch below the top.
Add onions, beans (if using dry beans), pepper, and parsley.
Let simmer 5-6 hours.
To prepare steranka: mix together egg, flour, and water and knead until smooth (dough should be very stiff).
Pinch off bits of dough (about the size of a pea) onto a lightly floured board.
When all of the pieces have been pinched off, drop into boiling water slowly so that the water doesn't stop boiling.
Boil until all of the pieces come to the surface (3-5 minutes).
Rinse with cold water and drain.
Remove ham from the soup, and chip into bite sized pieces.
Discard fat and bones, and return meat to soup.
Add steranka and barley, and cook for 15 minutes.
Add all vegetables (if using canned beans add with the vegetables instead of with the onions and seasonings), and simmer for 45 minutes.
Add tomato soup, and simmer 15-20 minutes longer.