Proper Pea Soup

Keywords:	Soup ¦ One pot meal ¦ Traditional ¦ Herbs ¦ Seriously Slow Food ¦ My favorite articles
Translations:	Español
Feedback:	48 comments - leave yours!

For a good peasoup, three things are needed - the peas, the ham and myself. Everything else is colored bubbles. If you can't get proper ham or a piece of barbecued pig, you might as well cook another soup as it's never going to be anywhere near good as this. It took me 2 solid month of searching and haggling until I could locate a man who would part with his ham bone. I've been offered all sorts of industrial pig-concentration-camp sorts of hams, until finally I found this extraordinary local ham. They call it a jambon de la borne, or hook ham, as it is hooked up in the huge cheese chalet chimney where people make cheese on wooden fires up there in the Alps. The ham is left until almost black with soot, and it is the most delicious smoked ham I've ever had. With such a ham all you would need really is the bone, but I could not resist leaving a little flesh right where the pig's shins dip into the shit. A unique taste, really.

Peasoup is one of two dishes I've ever seen my old man cook, but boy was it good. It cooks for 24 hours or until the ham disappears into the soup, he used to say. Well, you don't need to cook it that long.

Peasoup
500gr / 1lbs yellow peas
Unbroken ham bone with some meat on it
4 carrots
10 waxy potatoes
1 celeriac
1 leek
3 garlic cloves
2 onions
2 bay leaves
2 cloves
Herbs : parsley, sage, thyme, oregano, celery leaves and savory.

Clockwise from the bottom left : oregano, parsley, sage (in the backü) and my favorite, herbe à maggi or âche or lap', a wild cousin of celery.

Soak the peas in water for at least 90 minutes or overnight. I recommend changing the water regularly as it seems to reduce their use as a chemical weapon.

Some of the sugars at the source of flatulence are dissolved in the soaking water - make sure you discard that water.

Peel, wash and chop the carrots...

... celeriac ...

... and proceed likewise with the potatoes.

Peel the onions and nail the bay leaves on one onion using the cloves. Finely dice the other onion. Finely chop the leek as well.

Crush the garlic. Whenever my father walks into the kitchen, if he sees something cooking that has garlic in it, he'll go Please double the amount of garlic. If you answer But Dad, I already did he'll just reply Well, then boy, just double it again. In other words, the amount of garlic you need to use very much depends on your tastes. Please consider that boiled crushed garlic is way more pungent than sliced or fried garlic.

In a large cast iron pot fry the onions and leeks in a little oil until soft.

Add the diced vegetables ...

... and toss.

Cover with water.

Wash the soaked peas one last time, drain and ...

... pour into the soup.

Stop for a minute to lean over the pot consider the beautiful color and texture of your pea mound.

Add the onion and ham. You may have to break the ham at the knee joint to make it fit into your pot. Just make sure not to break any bone as the marrow could be rancid and impart a foul taste to your soup. Take a reasonable amount of herbs and tie them by their twigs with a kitchen string which you'll attach to the pot's handle for convenient removal later on.

Add some more water until everything is swimming. Leave on a medium fire so that the soup takes a really long time before it boils. This is necessary to help skim off the protein coming off the ham. When all skim is gone, bring to a boil and then turn the heat to the lowest setting and simmer for at least 2 hours but as long as 24 hours. If you go for a long boil you could place this in an oven at 80 C° and program it to stop in a couple hours.

Fish out the herbs an onion...

... then the shinbone ...

... and finally the femur.

Set the onion aside as well as the femur if there is any meat on it.

I'm told children love peasoup - I certainly did back in the days, but not with such large chunks floating in the water.

Use a plunging mixer to turn your soup into proper peasoup.

I would not recommend adding much salt if you boil meat in the soup as there is much more salt than meets the eye in most preserved meats. Just check the seasoning and correct with salt and pepper before giving the soup a final mixing. Chop some more fresh herbs and mix them in.

That's it. The ground peas have soaked up all of the remaining liquid and all that's left to see is a honey-colored brew fit for the gods. Have a taste - amazing, isn't it? The delicate smokey and porky aftertaste imparted by our ham mixed with the garlic and herbs. Have another taste. You start wondering if this might not be the best soup in the world.

You can either slice the ham ...

... and serve it in the soup.

Or dice the ham and mix with the soup.

Here is a bunch of wildflowers I gathered in my garden to help you remember how earthly pleasures are transient.

Hurry, my friend, before it is too late!

Carpe ius leguminum, as the ancient wisdom goes.