pea soup II

we put the lamb to freezer yesterday. no pics, you ask? well, this thing has been an issue with me lately... plain forgot, again. promise this wasn't the last time.

you might remember from my june 1st entry that i put some smoked deer in the freezer specifically to make pea soup. took it out yesterday to thaw for making soup today.

started last night by taking my almost biggest kettle, measuring 4 liters of water and 1 kg of dried peas into the kettle to soak overnight. peas are sold (usually) in 500 gr bags that have recipe for pea soup in the back. more or less doubled the recipe (and ended up with quite enough soup)




peas last night










all soaked up this morning









this morning put kettle with peas and water they soaked in onto stove, brought to a boil and simmered for an hour


was looking to use 2 medium size onions for the soup but, low and behold, there weren't any in the pantry! instead, there was something that used to be onions. fortunately these shallots were in fairly good condition. but... who uses shallots for pea soup... (need to start paying more attention to onions, among other things)

could have used some zen by chopping the shallots with knife, but my bamix has been very lazy lately so made it work some. usually don't like what "choppers" do to onions (=make them mushy) but for this soup mushy was perfect

after and hour of simmering added chopped shallots and smoked deer bones with some meat on them

after the hour of simmer with bones, white stuff on top is pea skins, quite harmless, just mix it in. at this point bones were fished out, let cool a bit...

...meat came off the bone easily with fork

thought that deer might nor be enough so added some smoked ham. took the nasty outer layer off, might have left it on for smoky flavor had been all pork

approx 2 cups / 5 dl of cubed meat, left: deer, right:pork

after this, mix well, simmer for another 20 to 30 mins before seasoning with 2 tsps of dried marjoram. as usual, didn't add any salt as there is some in deer and ham, but feel free to add salt to your taste

traditional accompaniments to pea soup are crisp bread and cheese- some add mustard, chopped onions, know someone who adds ketchup...

you could make this all vegetarian by adding carrots, or any other root vegetable, instead of meat. cooking time will be more or less the 2 hours since peas do take that long to cook. we ate huge bowls today and there is plenty more. will bring some to certain someone's mom tomorrow