Split Pea Soup with Ham

Sometimes when you cook a delicious Easter ham, you'll be lucky to have a ham bone left over.  That's the perfect excuse to make split pea soup with ham!

It doesn't look terribly pretty, but it tastes delicious!

Split peas come in yellow or green.  I used yellow peas for this recipe, like traditional Quebecois split pea soup.  

Like so many great soups, this one starts with sauteed carrots, celery and onions.  You can puree the soup later to make it smooth, but I like to keep the texture of the vegetables.  

Add the dried split peas, the ham bone, diced ham and water to the veggies and simmer for an hour. 

That's it!  Easy, warm and delicious. 

Here's what you need:

Ingredients
1 tablespoon vegetable oil or butter
1 medium onion, peeled and diced
2 large carrots, peeled and diced
2 celery stalks, diced
1 ham bone and 1-2 cups diced cooked ham
500g split yellow peas
8 cups water
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper 

Directions
In a large dutch oven, saute carrots, onions and celery in oil or butter until soft. 

Add split peas, ham bone, ham and water.  Add bay leaf.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for an hour until peas are soft and broken up.  Add more water if soup is too thick.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.   

Serve with fresh bread and a salad for a hearty lunch or dinner. 

Crock Pot Pulled Pork

Pulled pork can be very cheap and easy. You can feed a crowd with very little effort.  You can do it in the oven but the crock pot is even easier.  

Pork shoulder was on sale.  This one is about 5lbs and will serve a large group. It's sometimes called pork butt. It has a lot of fat in it but cooking it low and slow lets the fat melt and you can skim it off.  

All you need is the pork and some liquid and flavour.  I used Dr. Pepper for the liquid!  It gives it a sweet & spicy flavour. I also threw in some chipotle peppers, an onion and some spice rub.

This is the spice rub I make to keep on hand.

Toss the pork into the crock pot.

Sometimes it comes with this net or string on it to keep it evenly shaped but that's not really necessary for this.  We actually want the pork to fall apart.

So cut off the string.

And sprinkle the spice rub or some garlic and chili powder and salt over the pork.

Chop an onion into large chunks.

And tuck it under the pork.  Also add some chipotle peppers.  I used 3 for this because I didn't want it too spicy.  If you like it hot you can use the whole can.

Pour 2 cans of Dr. Pepper over the pork.

Cover and cook on low for about 8 hours.  It can even cook longer.  If you're home you can flip it over half way through so all the meat is submerged, but if you're out you don't need to worry about it.  

After 8 hours it'll look like this.

The pork is cooked but there's a lot of fat on the surface.

With tongs, pull the pork out of the liquid into a large bowl.  

Now you can skim the fat off the liquid with a spoon, but if you have the time it's much easier to put the liquid in the fridge.  The fat will harden as it cools and be easy to take off.

With two forks, pull apart the pork...

...until it's shredded.

Warm up the de-fatted liquid and pour over the pork.  If you're doing this the same day you can add it back into the crock pot.  Or if it's over night, warm the liquid in a pot on the stove and then add the pork to warm through.  

You can serve this with potatoes or noodles or in a tortilla, but I like it as a sandwich on fresh rolls.

Heap the pork onto a roll.  You can add barbecue sauce, cole slaw, hot sauce, whatever you like but I just had it as is.

We had this for dinner and I took it to a work pot luck and we still had leftovers.  You can freeze the leftovers if you've got too much.  Easy and delicious!

Mussels with Bacon and Fennel

If you've never made mussels at home, what are you waiting for?  They are super cheap and so easy you won't believe it.  This recipe from Serious Eats is actually a little more involved than it needs to be.  You can use basically any vegetables and liquid you like to steam mussels.  Wine, beer, cider, tomato sauce, coconut milk, stock... the possibilities are endless.  

The bacon in this recipe makes them a little more hearty.  With fresh bread this is a full meal.  For a main course, about a pound of mussels per person will do.  I bought a kilogram for about $4.50!

So here's what you need:

1 kg (2lbs) fresh mussels
3 slices bacon
1 small or 1/2 large fennel bulb
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 sprigs each fresh thyme and tarragon
1/2 cup white wine
2 tbsp butter
fresh parsley
juice of one lemon

First, prepare your mussels by rinsing under cold water in a colander.  Shake them up a bit.  The mussels should all snap closed.  Discard any that aren't closed tightly. 

Here are the ones I threw away.

Now chop the bacon.

Add it to a large pot over medium heat.

And fry it up until starting to crisp. 

Dice the fennel.

Once the bacon is browning, add the diced fennel to the pot and sauté for about 5 minutes until softened.

Chop your garlic, thyme and tarragon and add them to the pot along with the wine.

Then dump in the mussels and cover the pot.  Cook for about 5 minutes, shaking the pot a few times.

Once the mussels have opened, add the parsley, butter and lemon juice and mix until butter is melted.  Discard any mussels that don't open.  

Serve up the mussels in a large bowl and pour the wine broth, fennel and bacon from the pot over top.

These are great with some fresh bread to dip in the broth.  A hearty, filling meal that's cheap and easy enough for any weeknight.  Delish!  

Braised Lamb

Super cheap lamb shoulder chops at the supermarket led me to this absolutely stunning lamb dish. The recipe calls for lamb shanks but the chops worked beautifully.  I'll tell you about the beans tomorrow.  

As you can see, the lamb itself only cost around $5 for four chops. I bought four because the chops were pretty thin but the meat was so rich we could only eat half of it.  

In addition you'll need:

• 2 celery stalks
• 1 carrot
• 1 onion
• 8 (!) garlic cloves
• some thyme
• 1 bottle red wine
• 1 carton chicken stock (3-4 cups)
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• olive oil, salt and pepper

Heat the oil in an oven-safe casserole or enamelled cast-iron pot.  

Sprinkle the chops on both sides with salt and pepper and add to the hot pan.

After 2 minutes or so, when the lamb is browned, flip to brown the other side.

I browned these in batches, two at a time, so they wouldn't be crowded in the pan.  Once browned, remove to a plate.

Now coarsely chop the carrot, onion, garlic and celery.

And add to the pan.

Once the veggies are softened, pour in the wine. You can use about 3 cups or a whole bottle.  

Bring the wine to a simmer and add the chicken stock and tomato paste, then add the lamb back to the pot.

Put the lid on the pot and pop it into a 350 degree oven for about 2 hours.  When it's done it'll look like this:

The liquid has reduced and the lamb is falling off the bone.  Now you can proceed in one of two ways. You can use a spoon to skim the fat off the sauce, remove the lamb, strain the sauce and serve tonight...

OR you can put the whole thing in the fridge overnight letting the fat solidify for easy removal and giving you a warm, delicious, fancy weeknight dinner that heats up in minutes.

As you can see, I chose the latter.

It's a little tricky to scoop the fat when the meat is not totally submerged, but it's still way easier than doing it while it's hot. And letting it sit overnight does wonders for the flavours.

Once you've removed as much fat as you can, place the covered pot back in the oven for about 30 minutes to warm through.  Meanwhile make your beans and gremolata which I'll tell you about next time.

Once warmed through, remove the lamb from the oven.

Remove the lamb from the pot and cover to keep warm, then strain the sauce into a smaller saucepan and discard the solids (bones, carrots, etc.)

Let the sauce simmer and reduce for about 5 minutes, then add a bit of butter and salt and pepper.  The butter is optional but that's what the pros do and it adds new richness to the sauce.

Serve the lamb drizzled with the sauce and topped with fresh gremolata.  

This is a great main dish but wait until you hear about the whole meal!