Speck and mushy peas

I need to clean out my freezer and refrigerator of bits and pieces.

I had some speck, some baby green peas, some onions, mushrooms, and a handful of cherry tomatoes on the cusp of blooming some mould.

Speck with caramelised onions and mushrooms with mushy peas and cherry tomatoes

Speck is smokey bacon and sold as a block rather than rashers. I had an open packet after I’d used some speck a few weeks ago for some other dish.

I also have some frozen baby green peas in the freezer because frozen peas are so versatile. When I make mushy peas, I use sour cream, and I had a little left after having it with avocado during the week.

Because I ate a sweet lunch on Friday rather than my usual caramelised onion and mushrooms on Italian bread I had some brown mushrooms getting a little dry in a paper bag in the refrigerator.

Speck with caramelised onions and mushrooms with mushy peas and cherry tomatoes

Ingredients

  • Speck
  • Onion
  • Cloves
  • Chicken stock
  • Baby green peas
  • Sour cream
  • Butter
  • Cherry tomatoes
  • Onions
  • Mushrooms
  • Claire’s whiskey Seville marmalade
  • Olive oil
  • Balsamic vinegar
  • Golden syrup
Speck with caramelised onions and mushrooms with mushy peas and cherry tomatoes

Instructions

Speck and caramelised onions

  1. Cut the speck into thick slices. When I write thick, I’m thinking, at least 1 cm thick. You want to be able to bite into the smoked bacon and experience the smokiness as your teeth cut through and the fatty meat juices burst from the moist, tender flesh over your tongue. 
  2. Quarter a brown onion with a sharp knife. I use a Chinese-style meat cleaver which I like to hone with a cook’s steel each time I use it. I love the sound of iron on iron.
  3. Put the speck, onions and some cloves into a saucepan and pour over enough chicken stock to cover the meat.
  4. Bring the chicken stock to a simmering boil and cook for about 40 minutes.
  5. The idea is to get the speck soft and floppy.
  6. After 40 minutes, take the saucepan off the hob and allow it to rest off the heat.
  7. With a mandolin, slice a couple of white onions and remove the stalks from the mushrooms.
  8. Begin to caramelise the onions in some olive oil over low, slow heat. Add in the mushroom caps and stalks and put a lid on the frying pan.
  9. When the onions and mushrooms soften and begin to take some colour, add in a little balsamic vinegar and continue to cook slowly. For some extra kick add a dessert spoon of Claire’s whiskey Seville marmalade. Watch the onions and mushrooms because you want them caramelised and not burnt.
  10. Towards the end, add in some golden syrup for a little extra sweetness. Adding the golden syrup is an optional step.
  11. When the onions and mushrooms are ready, take the frying pan off the heat and transfer the caramelised onion and mushrooms to a bowl.
  12. Remove the pieces of speck from the saucepan. Dry the surfaces of the meat and fat with a towel.
  13. In the frying pan used for the onions and mushrooms, fry off the speck along with the cherry tomatoes. Fry the meat until it takes on some colour and a little crispiness.
Speck with caramelised onions and mushrooms with mushy peas and cherry tomatoes

Mushy peas

  1. Put the frozen baby green peas into a silicon mixing jug with a little water and cook using microwave radiation. Cook the peas until they just become soft.
  2. Drain out the excess water and add in a nudge of butter and a dessert spoon of sour cream.
  3. Blend with a stick blender.
  4. The sour cream keeps the peas bright and green.
Speck with caramelised onions and mushrooms with mushy peas and cherry tomatoes

Serve the food

  1. Put everything on a dinner plate.
  2. Shoot a photograph.
  3. Sit down and eat with a knife and fork.
Speck with caramelised onions and mushrooms with mushy peas and cherry tomatoes

What have I done this week?

I’ve been out twice. I know, right? What a gadabout. I like the description of gadabout in the British Engish Thesaurus (see below).

On Monday evening I went out with some pathologists (specialist microbiologists, as a colony) to XO in Narabundah and we enjoyed the Christmas menu.

On Wednesday evening, I went out with some work friends to Tipsy Bull in Braddon and enjoyed a collection of vegetarian tasting plates.

What have I watched this week?

I watched the food show Ugly Delicious produced and starring US-based celebrity chef, David Chang. David is of Korean heritage, and this is important to know when watching the program.

David spent the series highlighting the differences between the sophisticated Italian and French cuisines against the messy and ugly south-east Asian and Indian cuisines. The premise being there is inherent racism because Asian food is quick and looks sloppy, and the service is often curt. In contrast, Italian and French food is refined and sophisticated with the food elements and plating being elegant, and the service is polite and courteous.

I could see his perspective, but I don’t see it as racism. Eating at a fine dining restaurant with attractive looking food and courteous service is enjoyable with the right company. Likewise going for cheap eats in an Asian restaurant with cheap tables and chairs, newspaper for table covering, and disposable chopsticks can be just as enjoyable with the same company.

Final thoughts

Have a good week. Let me know what you think in the comments section.

British English Thesaurus

gadabout: gallivanter, pleasure-seeker; wanderer, rover, rambler, drifter, bird of passage; traveller, journeyer, explorer, globetrotter.

Natural yoghurt with no added sugar and Kensington Pride mango

19 Responses

  1. “You want to be able to bite into the smoked bacon and experience the smokiness as your teeth cut through and the fatty meat juices burst from the moist, tender flesh over your tongue.” Mmmmmmmmm!!!
    I do love reading your cooking and recipes. Eroticism for the tummy!
    Thinking newspaper on a table is a good thing! Easy is sometimes logical and much more fun! Spent ages on a Christmas dinner and was wiped out for almost a day with a headache accompanying the Christmas Eve doings.

    1. Thanks, Kris. Sorry to read about your headache associated with Christmas. I hope you’re feeling better now.
      Thank you for your kind words about my writing. I do like to be descriptive. Not erotic, per se, but food and eating involves so much of our senses.

  2. I’ve never ever made mushy peas. Is that odd? I think it might be! I think that whole dynamic about Asian food being cheap is often an issue for chefs because people look towards food like Thai as being cheap and cheerful and a takeaway staple rather than paying higher prices like they might for French food.

    1. Thanks, Lorraine. It’s not odd, but I am surprised. One day, I hope to see mushy peas on NQN 😊

  3. I like the combination of mushy peas and sour cream, will be trying that soon…actually the entire meal sounds good and was certainly colorful. BTW, you look good in your Santa hat. 😊

    1. I like the vibrant colour the sour cream helps create with the peas.
      Thanks, I thought this year, we all need som festive spirit 😊

  4. That looks like a wonderful dish! I’ve often seen “speck” on the menu as a topping for pizzas in restaurants, and I never quite knew what it was, but now I do, thanks to your blog–and I think I will order it now. Cheers!

  5. I love quick Asian meals but of course have been to very upmarket Asian r’rants that have that mood lighting/ambience/service that the quick ones don’t. Love your mango dish Gaz.

  6. It is. I don’t know where it came from. When I moved house 15 years ago, I found frozen brussels sprouts in the freezer that had a 1992 eat by date. They had been there 11 years. I did put them in the bin though!

  7. Mushy peas are my favourite thing… Another term you might like is being on the randan, which means going out and having a wild time. I desperately need to clear out my freezer. And also to label things that go in there from now on…

    1. I’ve never heard of “being out on the randan”. Is it a phrase peculiar to your area of the UK?

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