Split Pea Soup with (Ham) and Bacon

When I was a kid, my family would drive up the California coast to the now-touristy city of Solvang, a Danish settlement. Along that route was Pea Soup Andersen's. One of their billboard advertisements you could see along Highway 101 featured Happea and Pea Wee, two cartoon characters splitting peas.

With this recipe concoction a few things happened. First, I didn't fry up enough bacon. The two slices of bacon only yielded one tablespoon of liquid lard. Second, when it came to the immersion blender, I forgot to take out the bay leaf. And, even with the chopped bacon as a garnish, the base of the soup needs more salt. This is probably due to the fact that I only added a half teaspoon in the beginning. What is different about this recipe than the one used by Cook's Illustrated is that there are no onions nor celery in it; also, the 2.5 pound smoked ham bone.. well, that isn't in here either. I did, however, chop up some lunch meat (Hormel's natural honey baked ham) and tossed that in. *laugh* And fourth, when I rinsed the peas with cold water and set them aside in a colander, when the peas dried, they stuck like glue to the colander. I had to use a knife on the reverse side of the colander to get the peas out. Grrr.

Split Pea Soup with Ham and Bacon

Note to future self: Don't rinse dried peas until ready to use.

Ingredients

2 qt homemade chicken broth
1 lb dried split peas, picked over and rinsed (just before adding to pot)
3 small white, red, or Yukon gold potatoes
3 medium organic carrots, diced
1 c. cooked ham, diced
up to 2 tbsp olive oil (optional)
1 bay leaf, whole
1/2 tsp dried oregano, crushed
1/2 tsp powdered thyme
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp ground paprika
sea salt, to taste (at least 1/2 tsp)
freshly ground black pepper, to taste (optional)

Directions

1. In a large heavy-bottomed pot, fry bacon on low-medium heat until crispy. Take bacon out, chop, and set aside. Don't worry about the burnt bits of bacon stuck to the bottom, that will deglaze when the broth is added.

2. Add enough olive oil to bring the oil level in the pot up to 2 tbsp. Add carrots, garlic, salt, and spices. Saute vegetables until almost tender, 10-15 minutes. Add broth, peas, potatoes, ham, and bay leaf. Bring pot to a boil, then simmer on low and uncovered for 40 minutes. Stir soup occasionally.

3. Check the peas in the soup. If the peas look like they're about to disintegrate, turn the heat off. Remove bay leaf from pot. Use an immersion blender to puree the soup. It'll be a little chunky and that's okay. It's not like you're serving this at a restaurant.

4. Serve in bowls and garnish with chopped bacon.

Sour Cream and Green Onion Dip, No Mayonnaise

I'm pretty sure Alton Brown adds mayonnaise to his version of this dip to put in an extra zing to it, but that style is just not for me. This recipe is from the New York Times and I added garlic powder to it because I like garlic. I'm sure you could just as well stir in some roasted garlic too, but that may overpower the onion element to the dip. For this batch, I used Darigold natural sour cream.

Ingredients

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3-4 stalks green onions, minced
1 c. sour cream
1/2 tsp sea salt, or more to taste
1/2 tsp garlic powder

Directions

1. In a small pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onions, salt, and garlic powder and stir until green part of onion turns bright green. Continue stirring for 2-3 minutes so the onions don't burn. If you're using ordinary white onions, you could cook the onions until they turn translucent. You could even caramelize the onions too if you wanted. It makes no difference in the recipe. Remove from heat, and strain oil out to another container for later use (later as in, not used in this recipe).

2. To a cup of sour cream, mix in green onion mixture until the onions are evenly distributed. Taste. If it isn't salty enough, add a little more salt. Cover the container the dip is in and store in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes so that the onion/garlic flavor permeates the sour cream.

3. Serve with fresh vegetables (carrots, cucumbers, broccoli, etc) or chips.

Creamy Tomato Soup

Last week my local Fred Meyer grocery store had a lot of soup on sale and there were even coupons in the weekly newspaper circular. Of course, aside from buying organic beef stock on sale, I tend to shy away from buying commercially made soups. But, I was curious about the can of basic FM tomato soup whose ingredients listed tomato paste, water, and some other trivial things like salt and spices. While I can't break even on the cost when FM soup is on sale (only $0.59), I can use higher quality ingredients to make an inexpensive tomato soup. A 6 oz can of organic tomato paste is only $0.99, and when purchased in bulk at Costco drops to roughly $0.65/can. With the availability of fresh sun-grown tomatoes months away (only imported and greenhouse grown are "in season"), using canned tomatoes might be the way to go during the winter.

To reconstitute a 6 oz can of tomato paste, the general ratio is about 2 cups of liquid. For a cream-based tomato soup, this generally means you are adding milk or cream at some step in the cooking process. For a regular tomato soup, you could just use broth or water for the liquid. In this recipe, sugar and baking soda help adjust the acidity of the tomatoes. 

Ingredients

One 6 oz can of organic tomato paste
1 1/2 c. organic whole milk
3/4 c. filtered water or vegetable broth
1/2 tsp organic granulated cane sugar
up to 1/4 tsp baking soda (optional, only add to balance acidity)
Spices (see below)
sea salt, to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Optional spices: garlic powder, powdered/dried oregano (omit if using dried basil), dried basil (omit if using dried oregano), paprika (a little heat, but mostly for color), fresh parsley (for garnish) or dried parsley

Directions

1. Heat the milk separately from the rest of the ingredients. 

2. In a separate pot, combine tomato paste, water, sugar, baking soda, and spices. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 10-15 minutes.

3. Gradually whisk the milk into the tomato soup.

Serves 2.

Pea Pesto

Ingredients

1 (10 oz) package of frozen green peas, thawed
1 garlic clove
1/2 c. Parmesan cheese
1 tsp sea salt, to taste
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/3 c. olive oil
8 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 whole grain baguette, sliced
unsalted butter, softened

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

1. In a food processor, pulse together peas, garlic, cheese, salt and pepper. With the machine running, slowly add olive oil until well combined.

2. Slice baguette diagonally into equal portions. Spread butter onto the top of each slice and toast for 5 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven.

3. Spread about a tablespoon of pea pesto on top of a baguette slice and top with a cherry tomato half.

Source: Giadia at Home

Lemon Pound Cake

I grew up eating the Sara Lee stuff and can probably still eat an entire loaf by myself. This ingredient ratio comes from Cooks Illustrated and becomes a pretty tasty dessert bread for guests who enjoy a more lemony than sweet flavor to this classic cake. The magazine would have you poke holes with a toothpick or skewer into the top side of the cake before drizzling on their lemon glaze, which really isn't quite a glaze at all but more like a lemon syrup. For a real glaze, you'd probably have to swap out the real granulated sugar with powdered sugar so that it sets up like a crust when it hardens.

If you don't stock cake flour, simply combine 1 cup all-purpose flour (minus 2 tbsp) with 2 tbsp cornstarch.

Ingredients: Cake

1 1/2 c. cake flour
1 c. (2 sticks; 16 tbsp) cold unsalted butter, diced
1 c. organic cane sugar
4 large eggs
2 tbsp lemon zest
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt

Optional additions to step 4:
For lemon poppy seed pound cake, stir in 1/2 c. poppy seeds, or
For lavender pound cake, stir in 1 1/2 tbsp dried lavender flowers

Ingredients: Lemon Glaze

1/2 c. powdered sugar
juice of a lemon
lemon zest (optional)

Bring sugar and lemon juice to a boil in a small pot, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Let cool and set aside until ready to use.

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

1. Prepare a 9" x 5" loaf pan by using unsalted butter or olive oil to grease the pan, dust it with some flour, and tap out the excess.

2. In a food processor, pulse together sugar and lemon zest. Add lemon juice, eggs, and vanilla extract. Transfer mixture to a large bowl.

3. In the same food processor, pulse together flour, baking powder, salt, and butter. 

4. Gently whisk flour mixture into wet ingredients. Pour batter into prepared pan. 

5. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce oven heat to 325 degrees F and bake for an additional 30-35 minutes until the surface is golden brown and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.

6. Cool on a rack before storing or serving.