Following on from the previous post about soup weather, another soup that I made recently is pea and ham soup.
One of my dad's favourite things to eat is gammon. If we were to take him for a pub lunch he would mostly have gammon with egg and chips. At home we usually have a small smoked gammon joint that you simply bake in the oven, roasted in an old fashioned enamel roaster just like Mum used to use for the Sunday roast every week. (I spotted one of them in a local charity shop in immaculate condition for 75p a while ago and it's been in regular use ever since.)
When the weather turned chilly again we reverted to comfort food and had cauliflower cheese and mash with our gammon joint. There is a generous amount of meat on these joints and the leftovers can be used in a multitude of ways - not least of which sliced, in a excellent ham, cheese and pickle sandwich. The other thing it's good for is soup.
I cut the gammon into thick slices then small dice. Most went into the pot and I reserved a few for garnish when the soup was cooked. The quantity of meat does not need to be precise and you can use more or less any kind of cooked ham.
It was delicious!
Ingredients
About a third (250g) of a small gammon joint, cooked, or a couple of slices of thick ham
350g frozen peas
1 medium potato
1 medium onion
1 vegetable stock pot
Method
Peel and chop the onion and potato. Chop or cut the gammon or ham into small dice.
Tip the peas into the machine, then the chopped potato and onion. Reserve a few bits of meat for garnish if you like, otherwise add all of it to the machine with the stock pot.
Cover with water to the lower line. Season with pepper (ham is quite salty enough) and cook on smooth.
Add a swirl of cream or crème fraîche and a sprinkle of chopped parsley before scattering the reserved chopped ham on top. Otherwise just dig straight in!
Serves 4 generously.
It was Very Chilly here on Saturday [be sure to pack gloves for your holiday!] I think this soup looks delicious - I don't have a soup maker, but my blender should do the job nicely!
ReplyDeleteAngela, the soup maker is excellent for quickly rustling up a soup in less than half an hour but to be honest, this one wouldn't take much longer on the hob. In which case I would fry the onion first.
DeleteAt the time my wife was working in the Civil Service in an office populated mainly by men. Christmas was imminent and it was the subject of coffee-break chat. One revolutionary asked a question that is rarely put: Never mind tradition, what would they all really prefer for their Christmas dinner? The majority consensus was for what we call boiled bacon. It made my wife think of all the excess sums of money spent in the UK on Christmas turkey (plus the palaver that goes with cooking it) and which could have been more happily spent on a £5 bacon joint. In 61 years of married life we have never bought a turkey; not that we've saved money; many of our Christmas dinners have been based on Beef Wellington, with fillet at £40 a kilo.
ReplyDeleteRoderick, as a child we always had a chicken for Christmas, as it was an expensive treat in the 50’s and 60’s. Lately we have cooked a turkey crown, often just a cheap one, and look back on the days of wrestling with a whole turkey with disbelief! It was never worth the huge cost or the effort IMHO!
DeleteWe are fans of those cheap gammon joints, although some are better than others. The one we had last (from Asda) definitely had lots of added water to plump it up. I shall check the labelling more carefully next time - they all look the same from different supermarkets but are obviously not.
Hello Jean. It's not technically soup weather here right now...but truth be told, I'll take a good bowl of soup anytime of year. I found your blog through a comment you left on Caree's retirement blog. It's nice to "meet" you!
ReplyDeleteHello and welcome, Christine! I hope you find something interesting here.
DeletePea and ham soup is an essential food that gets me through the winter but I'm sorry to say that I haven't roasted my own gammon joints for quite a few years. That's especially lazy since gammon, egg and chips for a pub lunch has always been an absolute favourite of mine. It's actually warmed up a bit around here but maybe I could still get away with making some pea and ham soup.
ReplyDeletePhil, acquiring the soup maker has revolutionised our lunches. When out of ideas it just winks at me and what seems like moments and a bit of chopping later we have lunch!
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