Dad & Soup

Dad & Soup

Okay, so Asher and I went to Moab yesterday and picked up my Dad. He’s okay, having surgery on his elbow for a hematoma. No broken bones amazingly… just really badly bruised and in pain. Asher drove him home in his car following me. We got home at 1:00. Jennie held down the fort for us while we were gone. Of course, luckily, the kids are out of school today (Thursday) and Friday for UEA.

So he’s home resting and will need us to take care of him for a few days. No driving.

Okay, so this morning Jennie got up at like 4:45 to go to work early for a seminar and I got up with her (yep, on about 3 hours of sleep) and started the Split Pea Soup. So here is the recipe. As I type this it is simmering and will simmer all day long, so we don’t have a clue how it will turn out. It could taste horrible…

Okay… after trying to remember my Mom’s recipe (which we have written down somewhere but can’t find) I consulted with Jennie and Ame 5 different Cookbooks. Here they are:

· The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook – Revised Edition (This is a book I got at Costco and I have to say, I’m impressed with it. I think it’s a great starter place for cooking and I have given it to Ame today as she wants to learn to cook something and do it all herself. So I told her to pick out a recipe and she’s in charge, no help from me or Jennie. (I’m sure we’ll end up doing something to help her, but we’ll see!) She choose Chicken Teriyaki which looks simple enough. I can’t tell you how thrilled I am if Ame ends up helping Jennie doing some cooking. That would be exciting. I’m getting sick of doing all the cooking.

· Fiery Foods That I Love by Paul Prudhomme – (As anyone who knows me can attest, I’m a Cajun cooker at heart).

· Professional Cooking, Fifth Edition – This is a textbook my Mom had and passed to me upon her death. It’s a fantastic book, because it is geared to how to learn to cook for a restauraunt and how to make money at it. It’s kind of cool.

· Soups – Williams-Sonomo Kitchen Library –

· The Fannie Farmer Cookbook – Thirteenth Edition –

I also got a recipe from Elizabeth and Jennie had some ideas about how her Mother did it. Okay, so I put them all together into my head and this is what I came up with. (BTW – Asher and I just tasted it and it tastes good, but it’s not thickening up into a green paste like my Mom’s. Maybe it just needs time or we might have to put it into a food blender. (I’m hoping not, because I made so much).

Here is my Seasoning Mix, the ideas for which I got from all the recipes plus one ingredient just for Jennie:

SEASONING MIX

2 TSP Dried Basil

2 TSP Dried Thyme

3 Bay Leaves

2 TSP of Paprika

1 ½ TSP of Smoked Liquid Hickory

2 TSP of Chili Powder

Salt and Pepper to Taste

Here are the Ingredients we used

· 1 Ham Shank, with bone included. (Jennie said her Mom used a bone from those spiral hams you get on Christmas to make the stock, but those are really expensive. Ham Shank with bone is $20.00, so that’s what I used.)

· 2 Tbls Garlic (That pre chopped up stuff in a jar)

· 4 Medium Onions

· 1 Full bunch of Celery

· 2 Hormel 12 oz packages of Salt Pork

· 1 10 oz package of Shredded Carrots (Kroger Fresh Selections)

· 3 lbs of Split Peas (picked over by Ame)

· 2 lbs (2 packages) of Cantebury Naturals Garden Harvest Split Pea Classic Artistic Soup Mix Organic

We started at 5:00 AM by putting the Ham Shank, Garlic, 1 Onion, and the fluffy stuff from the Celery Bunch into a HUGE pot of water and boiling it for 5 hours. Thus our stock simmered all morning.

At 10:00 AM we diced up the salt pork and fried it in our largest pan. I read afterwards that you should do this slowly to render it down, and not to cook it fast or brown the meat. Well… I didn’t read that till after, so I cooked it high and fast and browned that meat good. Oh well. We’ll see?

Then I took the huge chunks of fatty Salt Pork (with attending browned pieces of meat) and popped them into the boiling stock pot for a while. Might as well add extra flavor over there, yes?

In the remaining fat in the pan we put the remaining onions and celery and carrots that Ame had chopped up. To this we added the seasoning mix. We stirred this pretty constantly, about 10-15 minutes till it looked really good and cooked.

Then we added the 5lbs of peas (with the little seasoning packages from the 2 organic packages) a huge pot, then added the vegetable mixture. This we stirred together. Then we added 12 quarts of the ham bone stock. They say about 2 quarts per pound, but I found that not to be enough (as you’ll notice even more later on).

We threw in 3 Bay Leaves at this point, some fresh Basil chopped and fresh Oregano sprigs.

I took the meat off the bone of the Ham Shank, separated the fat (which made a tasty meal for the dogs) and put the meat back in. Then we added the huge ham bone and the salt pork chunks (we will remove them later). We brought to a boil and it has been simmering ever since.

At this point I could tell I needed more liquid, so 2 more quarts of stock went in. (And yes, we had TONS of stock from the cooking and still have some left).

Then about 1 hour later, we realized we needed even more stock, so put 2 more quarts (which is 4 cups) of liquid in.

At this point we are waiting. We did taste it, as I mentioned, and it was fantastic, but we have mushiness at this point, no green mush looking stuff. But we’ll cook it all day long on low, and really simmer all those flavors together. Hopefully we won’t have to put it in the blender, as I made enough for a friggen army.

Yes… I will tell you how it turns out! Just be PATIENT!