It's a real pea souper!

Let me tell you a little about my Sunday today. On Saturday I worked a 10 hour shift, then ran home to get changed for a 5 hour security gig at a wedding reception (let me tell you about that kind of job....it's a lot of standing in a lonely driveway for 5 hours...). This morning I literally dove out of bed at 8 o'clock in one of those "Oh god I overslept" panics - I had grand plans for getting a lot of homework done, and I needed to start early.

As I put some coffee on to brew I took stock of the morning - the air outside was chilly, my pajamas were cosy, and by the time I sat down on the couch, coffee to hand, my brain had put it's foot down with a big "not today, son".

So with my homework put on hold in favour of a movie marathon, what better way to complement one of those blissful, sleepy Sundays than a big old pot of pea and ham soup.

T'was a fitting choice for late lunch/dinner (linner?) because it's exactly how I grew up eating it. My Dad's house has an old pot belly stove in the living room, replete with flat-top lid, and of a cold winter weekend you'd often find something simmering away on top of it. Just thinking about this soup recalls for me the smell of wood smoke, the sharp kiss of cold winter air, and the joy of seeing an incredibly hard working man sit down and read a book by the fire - I can't tell you how relaxing that combination could be when I was a kid.

Pea and ham soup was a particular favourite of mine and my twin sister Liz - and you know, honestly, I don't know why. Obviously there is that it is delicious, but I feel like it was something more. Perhaps it was the colour - last week I made a joke about stew looking like vomit, but this dish... Maybe it was the name itself, Pea and ham soup. It just sounds so antique, like something Paddington Bear might eat for dinner.

Pea soup - with various choice eats being added into it - has been eaten since records began, in several different cultures. The English take gained prominence as an early ration for sailors - peas could be easily stored, were cheap to grow, and were packed with protein. Throw in another familiar maritime delicacy, salted pork, and you have the basis of a classic dish.

The neat thing is that none of that has changed. Dried peas are chip as chips to buy (which is an ironic expression because potatoes replaced peas in the 19th century as a cheap staple. Chips were cheap as peas!). They can stay in your cupboard for ages. There full of protein and low in fat. Of course, English food stares at you with a blank expression when you say things like 'low fat', so we throw in a ham hock - and what is that if not salted pork? If you decide to give this soup a crack this week, take joy in knowing you're eating just as a 16th century sailor would have!

I'll briefly mention the cooking process, and I do mean briefly - brown some chopped carrots, celery, and onions in a big 'ol pot. Throw in 11 cups of water, a ham hock, and half a kilo of dried green split peas. Simmer it away for a good couple of hours, fish the ham hock out, pull off the meat - and I mean you can literally just pull it off - shred it, throw it all back in the soup and you're done!

I think it might be the simplest recipe I've covered thus far. It's also a joy to cook, accompanying you as it does for most of the day (it'll be sitting on the stove for almost 3 hours), gently reminding you to tend it with it's hearty aroma and gentle gloop gloop gloop. 

Nothing to do today but keep yourself warm, curl up on the couch and get a good story happening.

Gloop gloop gloop.

Sometimes the simplest things in life , like cheap, easily stored food and all three Lord of the Rings on the TV, can be the most enjoyable.

Gloop gloop.

Nostalgia is a beautiful thing.

See you next Sunday.

                                       -Jon