Souptember: Pea & Ham Soup a homage to my ex mother in law

 

Souptember continues in our house. Although the nights are definitely drawing in and its at that stage when it's dark when I leave the house and almost dark when I return, I'm not quite at the stage of having a big Sunday roast quite yet but I will go for a gammon joint or ham hock with mash potato and seasonal veg. There is invariably some  left overs which gets used up in sandwiches but I also like to use up in a hearty soup. Pea and ham always reminds me of my ex mother in law as she always made a big pan of pea and ham at this time of year when the weather was cold, wet & windy and it really did just hit the spot.  Ex mother in law recently passed away. She had not been well for a long time and as the children said, she was no longer the nanna they knew and she would of hated seeing herself like that having been such a larger than life character.   So this Pea and Ham today is in homage to my ex MIL.  

These days a lot P & H are made with frozen peas but she did it the traditional way, and in my opinion the best way, with split peas and there was always a packet in her store cupboard as there now is in mine. 

The ingredients needed to make Pea and Ham Soup are:

2 tablespoons of butter

1 onion diced

2 ribs of celery diced 

2-3 cloves of garlic, sliced or minced through a garlic press

4 rashes of  smoked bacon diced or a packet of lardons

1 bay leaf

1 packet [250g] of dried split peas

2 pints of chicken/vegetable stock 

leftover gammon/ham diced into small cubes

salt & ground black pepper

Crème Fraiche [optional]

She would start off by soaking the peas over night to bring them up to their full plumpness, but if short on time they were added directly to the soup but the soup will then require extra cooking time. 

In a large soup pan add the butter, diced onion, celery, garlic and bacon and cook slowly until the onions are translucent but, not brown as that will add a bitter taste to the soup.  It will probably take 5-6 minutes. 

Whilst the onions etc... are cooking drain off the peas if soaked overnight and rinse thoroughly.

Add the peas, left over gammon/ham, bay leaf and stock and stir to combine. Now simmer slowly until the peas are tender and the soup thickened. This will take about 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes if you have added the split peas directly to the soup instead of soaking overnight. 

Remove the bay leaf and season with salt & black pepper before serving. 

This is where I  differ from my MIL's recipe  as I like a smoother soup and therefore use my stick blender to blend the soup but just enough that you can still see whole peas and cubes of ham. Now my ex MIL being a good northern  lass would not of held with adding  a swirl of crème fraiche when serving but I do as I think it adds to the taste but that is personal choice and therefore optional.  Neither was she a baker of bread, she lived next door to a convenience store and would not of thought of making her own bread when she could purchase a loaf right on her own door step. Although she was known for keeping some of the part baked baguettes in her freezer for emergencies, again a practice I also follow. 

Is there a particular recipe a relative made that has influenced your cooking and  is something you now make?

Mx

You can find all my other soup recipe's here