Sophisticated Culinary: A Delicious Split Pea Soup With Ham

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Not so long ago we published a recipe of a vegetarian split pea soup, in which we used two tablespoons duck fat to enrich its flavor, and the result was very good. This time around, we don’t use duck fat and use some ham and two tablespoons butter instead. It is a different flavor, one worth trying as well.

For the vegetarian version: http://vivalifestyles.net/a-great-and-simple-split-pea-soup-recipe/

INGREDIENTS

Butter, 2 tbsp
Carrot, 1, (optionally) pealed, chopped
Celery stalks, 6 (about 2 cups), roughly chopped
Duck fat, 2 tbsp
Garlic, 4 cloves, smashed then chopped roughly
Green split peas, 1 Goya bag (1 lb), rinsed
Ham, 1/2 lbs, 1/2-inch cubes
Olive oil, 2 tbsp
Onion (white), 1, large, (2.5 cups)
Parsley leaves, 1/4 cup, for sprinkling on top
Pepper, 1 tsp, ground
Salt (Kosher), 1 1/2 tbsp
Stock (chicken), 8 cups (or use 8 cups water plus 8 tsp chicken base)
Water (hot), 4 cups

HOW TO MAKE IT

Heat up one tablespoon olive oil in a Dutch oven until it shimmers, on low heat. Add onion, celery, carrot, salt and pepper, duck fat, and bring to medium heat, for 10 minutes. Make a little empty spot in the middle of your pot, melt butter, and cook garlic for 1-2 minutes, until fragrant.

Add chicken stock and split peas, bring to a boil, cover and simmer one hour, stirring on occasion. Add 4 cups of (preferably hot) water, cover again and cook for another hour. Using an immersion blender, you can blend all or just 1/2 half of the soup it for a desired consistency. Blending half is my favorite because I enjoy eating the small pieces of vegetables in my soup; as you can see, this is a matter of taste.

In a medium saucepan, over medium-high heat, heat up 1 tbsp olive oil until it shimmers. Add ham cubes and saute for 5 minutes. Add fried ham to the soup.

Ready to serve. Refrigerates well for a week. Freezes well for several months.

YIELDS: 12 servings

Half a pound of ham, 1/2-inch cubes.
This is an example of homemade frozen chicken stock. We usually make lots of it and freeze them in ziplock bags about 8 cups each. You can defrost the broth prior to adding it to your soup: That’s not what we did, we added it to the soup, covered the pan and waited for it to defrost in the pot on high heat.
Soup ready to serve.

SOPHISTICATED CULINARY by Lucas Eller, New York