Thursday, September 9, 2010

September Food...Pea Soup

Print Friendly and PDF
It's the first week of September and it really feels like fall. The marine mist is swirling around the beach, and the days of sitting on a patio reading a magazine are almost gone. I did wander down to Slainte by the Pier yesterday for some yummy halibut bites with mushy peas...and managed to sit in the sunshine, unfortunately it didn't feel like summer sunshine.

I finally managed to clean out my fridge and freezer, and I found an old ham bone. I decided to make a pot of split pea soup. I can't remember the last time I made pea soup, but we make it all the time at the deli, so I remembered almost everything. The only traditional ingredient I neglected to add was potatoes...but I never usually have potatoes at home, anyway. The one ingredient I really enjoyed was a large handful of chopped fresh Rosemary. It smelled and tasted so rich and plantlike. I think the smell always reminds me of pine trees. Here is a very loose recipe for pea soup:

In a large pot, simmer a ham bone, with some meat still attached in enough water to cover the bone, for 1 hour. Take the bone out, let cool, and remove the meat and dice up. To the broth in the pot, add 1 chopped onion, a couple of cloves of garlic, some chopped celery and carrot, and a couple of bay leaves. Boil for 15 minutes then add a cup or more of dried yellow split peas, and boil another hour or so. When the peas are soft, add lots of ground pepper and some herbs,( I used fresh Rosemary and Thyme). Simmer for another 10 minutes, add meat back into the pot, and turn off the heat. When the soup is cool enough to taste, adjust seasonings, adding salt etc. I threw mine right into the fridge, and ate it today. It was YUMMY! Very rich and satisfying. Not too thick, with a soft herby hit,nicely seasoned with big bits of ham in every bite. It didn't need anything else, not even a piece of bread or cracker. I'm not a great soup lover, but soup as a meal works for me if you can pick between slurping and chewing. I was quite glad to be home alone...

No comments:

Post a Comment