Split Pea Soup

November 9, 2014 / featherheadlady / 2 Comments

Split pea soup is something you either really like or you want no part of. It’s a soup I really like. I usually make mine with pork hocks but have made it with a ham bone. I remember my mother making pea soup and it remains one of my dad’s favorites. I’ve ordered pea soup in restaurants and been disappointed…either the soup is so thick you can eat it with a fork or watered down and tasteless. I also like mine with croutons or a slice of good bread. I’ve never been a soup and crackers person and especially am not a crackers in my soup person. Split pea soup. It’s what was for dinner tonight.

Ingredients

Pork hock or ham bone

8 cups water

16 oz package split green peas (sorted and rinsed well)

3-4 cloves of garlic minced

1 large onion diced

3-4 carrots peeled and diced

2-3 stalks of celery diced

1/2 sweet red pepper diced

4-5 small gold potatoes diced

3 cups diced tomatoes

salt and pepper to taste

In a large heavy kettle put your pork hock (or ham bone) and water over high heat and bring to a boil. Once it starts to boil turn heat down to low and simmer for about 2 hours. Add the split peas and minced garlic and simmer for 1 hour. Remove the hock to a platter and add all of the diced vegetables.

I had orange, purple and yellow carrots so I used one of each. But ordinary orange carrots would be fine.

Remove the meat from the bone. My organic farm has awesome, meaty pork hocks.

Stir the meat and the tomatoes into the soup and continue to simmer for 30 minutes until all of the vegetables are tender. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

I made some croutons for our soup with some day or two old sour dough bread that I had. I lightly buttered a few slices, sprinkled on a little garlic salt, and grated a little Parmesan cheese on top.

Cube and spread out on a baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave the croutons in the oven another 15-20 minutes.

Ladle some soup into a bowl and enjoy.

This soup is like many soups that taste better the second day. This soup will also thicken up. If it becomes too thick thin it out with a little chicken or vegetable broth.

Potato and Corn Chowder with Ham

October 31, 2014 / featherheadlady / Leave a comment

Soups are a favorite of mine to make and to eat especially as the weather starts getting cold. I had ham left over from last night and not a lot of time so this was a perfect soup to make. One of my favorite soups since childhood contained many of the same ingredients as my potato chowder but instead of ham it had fish. We called it “kala mojakka” (Finnish for fish soup). Sometimes the only parts of the fish the soup contained were the heads but they gave the best flavor to the broth. This from the days when nothing edible went to waste. To me, any soup was “mojakka”. My grandmother made it best.

Potato and Corn Chowder with Ham. It’s what was for dinner tonight.

2 stalks of celery

2 leeks (white and pale green portion only)

1/2 sweet red or orange bell pepper

1/2 large sweet onion

3-4 cloves of garlic

4 T butter

2 T flour

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp dried thyme

salt and pepper to taste

1 1/2 cups diced potatoes (redskins or Yukon)

1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen corn

4 cups chicken broth

1 cup diced ham

1 cup half and half

Rough chop onion, celery, pepper and leeks.

Dice the potatoes and rinse well. (I prefer not to peel the potatoes.)

In a Dutch oven or heavy kettle melt the butter and sauté the vegetables (onions, celery, pepper and leeks) over medium heat until they are tender, 5 minutes or so.

Thin slice the garlic and add to the sautéing vegetables.

After adding the garlic sauté another minute. Add in the flour and stir until incorporated with the vegetables. Stir in the broth, the diced potatoes, the cayenne pepper and thyme. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer about 10 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

Add corn, diced ham and salt and pepper to taste. Stir in one cup of half and half.

Continue to simmer until thoroughly heated.

Ladle into bowls. Garnish with a little shredded sharp cheddar cheese and some fresh parsley.

Enjoy! I told you it was easy and not very time consuming at all. Once again this is a recipe that can be modified based on personal preference or just based on what you have on hand. The soup is excellent with no meat or you can substitute sausage. Cook the sausage ahead of time and put on paper towel to “degrease.” Add the sausage near the end of the recipe in place of the ham.

I like to serve this soup with homemade croutons but I had no bread. Crackers had to do tonight. I have two bowls of leftover soup. It’s what will be for lunch tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow I can make some good bread to go with it. Maybe.

Tomatillo and Pork Chili

September 3, 2014 / featherheadlady / Leave a comment

I love to go through cooking magazines and find recipes that look interesting, have lots of veggies, and different spice combos. I’m fortunate that I have a husband who eats almost everything and anything. This is a recipe that I found in Eating Well. I’ve made a couple modifications…one on purpose, another quite by accident. But I’ve made it several times and we always enjoy it.

Tomatillo and Pork Chili…it’s what’s for dinner tonight.

In a large Dutch oven heat 3T of olive oil over medium heat. Add:

1 large onion diced

1# ground pork (I used ground pork breakfast sausage)

Cook until meat is no longer pink.

Add:

3 cups diced tomatillos

1 cup diced pablano pepper (about 2 medium)

Now add your seasoning:

2 T minced chipotle chilies in adobo sauce

3 T dried oregano

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp salt

Now add the canned goods:

1 15 oz can cannelloni beans (white kidney beans)

1 15 oz can white or yellow hominy

Rinse the beans and hominy before adding.

1 14 oz can of diced tomatoes (I used my home canned stewed tomatoes)

Finally, add the liquid:

4 cups reduced sodium chicken broth

OR, as I mistakenly did,

3 cups reduced sodium chicken broth and

1 12-oz bottle lager style beer 🙂

Bring to a boil and reduced heat to a simmer. Cook on low partially covered for about 50 minutes until the liquid is reduced and thickened.

Serve this chili with any or all of the following garnishes:

Sliced black olives , cheddar or jack cheese, diced green onions, diced avocado, or jalapeños. Like me, you can modify to your personal taste. I’m fortunate that I have an awesome organic farm very near by where I get excellent meats. I love their breakfast sausage and tried that as an experiment and it worked!

Now I need to make us some cornbread to go with the chili. I’ll post the cornbread later.