Pea & Ham thick soup, this is a very easy one to make and very tasty.
You will need:
2 Packets of dried peas (250g packets)
1 Ham hock (about 1kg including bone)
2 Medium onions
2 Large potatoes
1 Tin of Butter Beans. (400g)
3 Chicken stock cubes (I use Oxo)
1 Level Teaspoon of Garlic granules (The magic ingredient)
Method: part 1
Soak the peas overnight in water in water and don’t forget the bicarbonate of soda block as this helps them to reconstitute.
As most ham or gammon contains a lot of salt it is best to also soak the ham hock overnight in plenty of fresh water, salt naturally migrates into fresh water so two or three changes of the water is advisable to remove excess salt. I find it easy to just place the hock into the slow cooker crock pot and fill it with cold water. Weather or not you leave the skin on is up to you, but in my opinion this adds to the flavour when cooking and can easily be removed at the end when you break up the meat from the bones to remove them and dogs especially with relish this fat if mixed in with their food, so no waste there.
Method: part 2
1. Chop up the onions into large slices
2. Cut up the potatoes into small cubes about ½” square and par boil for about 8 minutes.
3. Pour the soaked peas into a colander and rinse thoroughly several times under running water to remove the bicarbonate of soda.
4. Open the tin of Butter beans and drain, most of these beans are sold in salted water and you do not want that in the pot as there is enough salt from the ham hock, so no salt needs adding to this dish.
5. Remove the ham hock from the water and pat dry using kitchen roll.
6. Place the hock into the crock pot first and then surround it with all the other ingredients in the usual layered fashion.
7. Finally mix the stock cubes and the garlic granules with a pint of boiling water and pour over the vegetables.
8. Don’t overdo the liquid as this recipe will reduce down quite a lot during cooking and the liquid level will actually rise in the pot.
Best cooked slowly on ‘Auto’ for about 6 hours, occasionally gently stirring the ingredients, at this point add a good sprinkling of ground black pepper to taste. The peas and onions will completely dissolve into the liquid during cooking leaving just the beans and most of the potatoes whole.
My own preference is to cook it the day before and slowly reheat it again for the meal ( these sort of things always taste better when re-heated) as attested by the old nursery rhyme.
“Peas pudding hot, peas pudding cold,
Peas pudding in the pot, nine days old”
I would not fancy eating it that old, but served with a nice chunk of fresh bread, lovely.
