Grandma's Pea and Ham soup and a rant!

One of my pet hates is the food produced on competitive TV cooking programmes, I'll be having a rant at the BBC, not just you, shortly!  The ingredients are expensive and extravagant; not even the most ardent home cook could either afford or find room for  the equipment used and the finished dishes are more worthy of the walls of the National Gallery than the table - edible art on a plate. Oh and whilst I'm at it, who the blazes wants to stare down John Torode's throat way past his tonsils as he chomps his way through "Lightly Roasted Pigs Nose and a hint of smoked cauliflower foam with an Owl turd jus!"  That's a job for his dentist, not TV viewers!  Let's get real, nourishing, inexpensive and hearty food is fun to make and healthy. 

Life wasn't always easy in the 20's and 30's when my grandparents were raising families in the north of England. In fact keeping body and soul together was top priority after getting a job and keeping it.  My Gran and Auntie Lizzie had a tough time raising dad and mum, but one thing is for sure, there was always a delicious meal on the table each night even if the ingredients cost next to nothing and would probably scare the pants off some of today's young mums and dads if you put them down on the kitchen worktop and said make something delicious from this!

Today's recipe harks back to those times and is still relevant to the tough times we're having today.

Ingredients

• Water 
• Dried marrowfat peas - 1 packet 250gm
• Pork Hock - 1
• Carrots - 4
• Onion - 1
• Bay leaves, to taste, I use three
• Salt, to your taste but wait until the soup is made before adding seasoning.

* Pork hock is a pigs knuckle joint, found below the ham, fore leg or hind, it doesn't really matter, above the 'trotter,' it has loads of meat, and when cooked releases lots of lovely rich sticky gelatine into your finished soup.   It is highly prized in Germany and much of Northern Europe. 

Method

Day one - evening

• Put the dried peas in a large bowl, big enough to allow the peas to expand to two or even three times their dry volume. Add a pinch of bicarbonate of soda if you have it. 
• Boil a full kettle of water scald the peas with it and leave overnight to soak.

Next day.

• Peel and chop the carrot into medium sized pieces, do the same with the onion.
• Drain the soak water from the peas and rinse them well with cold water in a colander under a running tap
• Wash the hock well in cold water
• Put the hock into the largest pan you have, scatter the peas and vegetables over it and cover the meat and vegetables with plenty of water.  Put the bay leaves on top
• Set the pan onto the hob and bring it gently to the boil.

• Skim and discard any scum from the top of the cooking liquor as the water boils.
• Once the liquor boils put a lid on the pan and turn down the heat to a rolling simmer.
• Then wait for as much as four hours for the peas and meat to cook!  Slow cooking releases and combines all the delicious flavours of the ingredients. 
• When you are happy that everything is cooked, remove the lid from the pan and take out the hock. Set it aside on a chopping board and gently remove the bones, fat and skin.  If you have pets, they'll love the trimmings!  
• Remove the bay leaves.
• Break the pork into bite sized pieces and put it back into the pan, then decide what consistency you want the soup to be.  I like mine quite thick, so I reduce the contents of the pan until the soup is the consistency of loose porridge.  Your choice.
• Check the seasoning and add salt or a chicken stock cube to your own taste.

Finally

For a main course serve a generous portion in large bowls, making sure that each serving contains chunks of pork.  Eat and enjoy your soup with warm crusty bread.

As an h'ors d'oeuvre serve rather less, but still expect to be asked for "seconds."

This soup keeps well in the fridge for several days - put it in a suitable covered plastic container then heat it up as you want it.  To store it for longer, put portions in the freezer in airtight zip-lock bags.