If you’re not interested in reading the blurb before the recipe, feel free to use this link to the recipe.

Hello reader,

Tonight’s meal is inspired by Lorraine Elliot and Friday’s post on Not Quite Nigella. It was a best of five post, and number one was pea and ham soup. I highly recommend Lorraine’s blog. Many of my weekend meals are inspired by her posts.

The first week of July is often the coldest in Canberra, so it’s a good month for all things comforting. The comfort of the people I love. Comfort food. Comfortable clothes to fit my growing frame and accommodate my winter coat!!!

Lorraine’s recipe doesn’t include gorgonzola. I got that idea from the cauliflower soup I made a few weeks ago. Cheese in soup is sheer indulgent enjoyment.

How has your week been? On a scale of 1 to 10, mine has been 7. It started poorly last Sunday evening. Queensland and NSW played the second game of this year’s State of Origin series. We were defeated convincingly. At work, my days have been enjoyable. I am always buoyed to be working with intelligent and capable people. In the evening, though, I continue to indulge in refined, processed, sugar-laden products. My chocolate cravings persist.

PHOTOS

Recipe

Equipment

• Frying pan
• Pressure cooker
• Stick blender

Ingredients

• Onion
• Fennel
• Celery
• Garlic
• Rice bran oil (RBO) (Pal & Pratap, 2017)
• Green split peas (1 cup) (Rose et al., 2021)
• Ham hock
• Bay leaves (Raman et al., 2017)
• Vegetable stock
• Frozen peas (about 4 cups)
• Gorgonzola cheese (Torri et al., 2021)
• Anchovies
• MSG
• Pepper

Instructions

1. Heat up a frying pan and add some RBO.
2. Sauté the onions, fennel, celery, and garlic until fragrant and changing colour.
3. Transfer the onions, fennel, celery, and garlic to the pressure cooker.
4. Add the MSG, anchovy fillets, split peas, ham hock, bay leaves and vegetable stock to the pressure cooker and cook for 50 minutes.
5. Open the pressure cooker when the internal pressure equilibrates with the outside pressure.
6. Remove the cooked ham hock (and bones if the bones have slipped out) from the soup.
7. Add the frozen peas, so the residual heat cooks them.
8. Puree the soup with a stick blender to make it smoother.
9. Add chunks of gorgonzola to the soup.
10. Remove the meat from the bone and pull it into small pieces.
11. Ladle soup into a bowl and add the ham.
12. Season the soup with pepper.
13. Give thanks to the Lord.
14. Eat with a spoon.

PHOTOS

Serving options

This soup would have been great with a piece of well-buttered crusty sourdough bread. You could also add some garnish, like finely sliced chives or finely chopped parsley.

I have enough soup leftover to freeze in vacuum-sealed bags. I’ll reheat them in a water bath set to about 80 °C for 30 minutes and enjoy a warm bowl of soup after work.

TOP

Thoughts on the soup

This was a heart-warming soup that was flavourful and unctuous. I’m grateful I have some leftovers. I put it into vacuum bags and have two portions in the freezer ready for later in the week.

Some people experience a lot of flatus after pea and ham soup. Tomorrow is going to be explosive. 😆💨

Final thoughts

• What comforts you in winter?
• What soup have you made recently?
• Would you add gorgonzola to a pea and ham soup?

Bibliography and glossary

Winter coat

A winter coat is also known as abdominal adipose tissue!

Pal, Y. P., & Pratap, A. P. (2017). Rice Bran Oil: A Versatile Source for Edible and Industrial Applications. J Oleo Sci, 66(6), 551-556. https://doi.org/10.5650/jos.ess17061

Raman, V., Bussmann, R. W., & Khan, I. A. (2017). Which Bay Leaf is in Your Spice Rack? – A Quality Control Study. Planta Med, 83(12-13), 1058-1067. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0043-103963

Rose, D. J., Poudel, R., Van Haute, M. J., Yang, Q., Wang, L., Singh, M., & Liu, S. (2021). Pulse processing affects gas production by gut bacteria during in vitro fecal fermentation. Food Res Int, 147, 110453. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2021.110453

Torri, L., Aprea, E., Piochi, M., Cabrino, G., Endrizzi, I., Colaianni, A., & Gasperi, F. (2021). Relationship between Sensory Attributes, (Dis) Liking and Volatile Organic Composition of Gorgonzola PDO Cheese. Foods, 10(11). https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10112791

TOP

Photo gallery

TOP