I’m taking the night off work (actually three nights ) while I recover from a mild case of pneumonia, so I’ve decided to cook some pantry stuff. Also because I can’t get to sleep.
I found a two-pound bag of pinkish split peas in my pantry. Not totally sure how or when they got there, but I might as well try to use them. Problem is that I’ve never cooked split peas before (although I have done pinto beans, with varying degrees of success).
So I’m going to crawl into some trousers and hit the local Honey-baked Ham store for a ham bone, which should be a good starter for whatever you can suggest. Because that’s where y’all come in. I’d be very grateful if a few of you would provide me with some split pea recipes while I’m out.
Soak them overnight. If you forget it doesn’t matter than much.
With clear water boil the peas and hambone
Slowly. Keep the fire low. Keep water or stock going in. Dice up, very fine, garlic and onion. Add to pot.
Don’t add salt til nearly done. It makes peas and beans chewy. IME.
Stir often. One scorch and thats it.
You never forget that smell.
Dry beans and peas are simple. Takes time and a sturdy wooden spoon.
Also a crock pot works great. Throw everything in. On low. All day. Watch the water.
Gift link to Ethiopian split peas. Simple to make, and require no ham. I don’t think there’s a whole lot of difference in taste between yellow split peas and pinkish. Two lbs of dried split peas is a lot to use up.
Yep, I discovered the bit about tomatoes the hard way. Damn things cooked for like six hours and never got palatably soft. As for salt, it makes for creamier beans. Definitely one of many bits of cooking advice told over the years that turned out not to be true. Explanations all here:
2 Tbsp. butter
1 med. yellow onion, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
3 medium carrots, peeled and sliced or diced
2 bay leaves
1 Tbsp. fresh thyme
salt
black pepper
2 cups dried split peas
6 cups chicken broth
1 smoked ham hock or ham bone
Melt butter in large heavy pot. Add onion, celery, and carrots, and cook until onions are soft. Add the bay leaves, thyme, and pepper. Add broth and ham hock/bone. Bring to a boil.
Turn heat to low, cover, and simmer for 1 hour. Remove bay leaves. Add half the peas and simmer for another hour. Remove ham and let cool. Add remaining peas and cook until soft but not disintegrated. Remove meat from bones and re-add.
I would make an Indian dal - great as a side dish to Indian curries, but also as a dish in it’s own right. Lovely with a chapatti or naan bread to scoop up the goodness. There’s a gazillion recipes out there but if you’re not that familiar with Indian cooking them Madhur Jaffrey has some great and simple recipes.
I soaked all the peas, and yeah, it would probably overwhelm the pot. So when I drain them I’ll put half in a Ziplock bag in the freezer. Also, the ham bone had a LOT of meat and would probably overwhelm the pot all on its own, so I got my couch surfer to cut the meat off and save it.
I have no molasses, but I do have a lot of brown sugar, so I’ll try some of that.
Soaking is unnecessary. It cuts down cooking time, but not as much time spent soaking.
Always add some Savory, sometimes called the ‘bean herb’. The flavor enhances beans and split peas, and also reduces gassiness if you are prone to that.
The recipe posted by @Jeff_Lichtman contains the ingredients found in in almost every split pea soup recipe. Sometimes I add some 1" chunks of potato near the end of cooking. I think this is a (French?) Canadian style.
Whenever I read the cooking times for dried beans, lentils and suchlike - I always wonder why they never suggest using a pressure cooker. Or in the modern world - an InstaPot. Cooking time is in minutes not hours. Salt, tomatoes et al are all welcome to the party.
I made red beans last night in the Pot - had sautéed onions, garlic, ginger, added some spices then some crushed tomatoes from a can, plenty of salt. Threw in some chopped kale I had lying around. Set to pressure cook for 20 mins. And let the pressure ease off by itself after cooking.
AIUI, the history of pressure cookers is replete with incidents of the vent stem becoming clogged with particles from starchy foods, leading to dangerously overpressurized containers and catastrophic explosive failures.
So, some of us old schoolers have been psychologically conditioned to be wary of such foods in pressure cookers.
And on the other end of anecdata - I was raised in India where every single household had at least one pressure cooker (not an exaggeration). Incident of explosion were so rare that I never really heard of any. I still use it daily.
It is possible that the history of pressure cookers is replete with anecdotes of the vent stem becoming clogged but they all trace back to a few incidents that happened very long ago. Modern pressure cookers have secondary relief valves and/or are designed to deform under excessive pressure to release steam without an explosion.
Recent events that are likely to have happened were reported in Cuba where due to trade restrictions and economic conditions people were making their own pressure cookers which had no extra safety features. Sometimes had no valve at all and just a tiny hole that allowed steam to escape and the user had to carefully monitor the heat to prevent an explosion.
BTW: I used to have a pressure cooker made in India. It had an usually shaped sealing gasket that wore out and if I could have found a replacement I would still have it. Excellent pressure cooker and because of it’s design was much easier to clean than a lot of them.
I had wondered from your post whether you might be Indian (due to the recipe and use of pressure cooker.) Many times when I read a Desi recipe, it will obviously be written for a pressure cooker, referencing whistles and the such, and I have to convert it to what I’m guessing is the equivalent on an InstantPot. Despite becoming more mainstream over the last five or six years (I remember an Amazon sale years ago being the first big push with them), they are still not something most people own, in my experience. I’d guess maybe 15% of my friends and acquaintances have one. And they are still viewed with suspicion by a lot of people.
So you’re not gonna see a whole lot of recipes with them, though online a lot (ok, maybe, again 15%) of more recent recipes may have an Instant Pot version of a recipe where appropriate. I agree they are great particularly with legumes.