Recipes: Split Pea Soup with Ham Hocks & Garlic Yogurt

As many of you know, my 88-year-old father is nearing the end of his happy and fortunate life. For the past couple months, as his health has gone downhill, I’ve been spending lots of time with my parents in the Pacific Northwest, hence my lack of blog posting.

I’m heading back down to Washington again on Wednesday. At home in Alaska, I’ve been making lots of freezer food so my husband can have quick and easy meals while I’m gone. This weekend, I spent a lazy Saturday afternoon making a giant pot of Split Pea Soup, comfort food at its most basic.

I started making Split Pea Soup 35 years ago as a college student living on work study wages. In those days, I ate it because it was cheap, filling, and very tasty. Now, I eat Split Pea Soup just because it tastes good. As it has evolved over the years, my Split Pea Soup recipe is one of my favorites.

There are two keys to making wonderful split pea soup: the soup must cook at low temperature for a long time and the ham hock (or leftover ham-bone) must be meaty and of best quality. Low and slow cooking allows the flavors to meld seamlessly into one another, and the cartilage in the hock to dissolve and give the soup a silky mouth feel.

In Anchorage, Mr. Prime Beef on the Old Seward Highway sells beautifully meaty smoked ham hocks; make sure to have the butcher cut them into thirds for ease of cooking and better tasting soup. The other day, I also say nice-looking whole ham hocks at Natural Pantry; sadly, this store doesn't have an in-store butcher to cut them up.

Split Pea Soup with Ham Hocks
Serves 12
Finish Split Pea Soup with a dollop of Garlic Yogurt (see recipe below) or a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Whether to purée split pea soup is a personal decision, and isn’t necessary. I’ve served and enjoyed the soup both ways. Lately, I’m liking the more refined puréed version; its flavors seem to be better balanced. Split Pea Soup freezes really well and a quart freezer bag easily holds enough Split Pea Soup for two. Of course, you can always cut the recipe in half if you aren’t serving a crowd or stocking your freezer or don’t have a large enough pot (a Dutch oven is only big enough to make half a recipe). I use a mortar and pestle for crushing the peppercorns, but you can also crush them with the bottom of a saucepan.

2 pounds dried green split peas
4 cups diced onion, 1/4” dice (about 2 large)
2 cups diced garnet yams (sweet potatoes), 1/4” dice (about 3 medium)
1 1/2 cups diced celery, 1/4” dice (about 3 stalks)
1 cup diced carrots, 1/4” dice (about 3 medium)
1 Tbsp. freshly crushed black peppercorns
1 Tbsp. freshly crushed dried thyme
2 cups white wine
5 bay leaves
2 - 2 1/2 pounds smoked ham hock, cut in thirds
Water
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

Spread out the split peas on a tray or flat pan and inspect carefully, removing any pebbles or debris. Rinse and drain the split peas.

Put the split peas, onions, garnet yams, celery, carrots, crushed peppercorns, crushed thyme, white wine, bay leaves, and ham hocks in a very large stock pot. Add water to cover the ingredients by 6 inches (3 inches if you cut the recipe in half). Bring the mixture to a boil, cover, turn the heat down to low, and simmer for 2 hours. Remove the cover and simmer for 1-3 more hours until the split peas are very soft, the meat is falling off the bone, and the liquid is reduced to your liking.

Using a slotted spoon or tongs, remove the bay leaves and the ham hocks, including all the bones and chunks of fat. If you are puréeing the soup, process it with a stick blender (or in a blender or food processor) until it is very smooth.

Remove and discard all the fat and bones from the ham hocks. Dice the meat into bite sized pieces and add it back to the soup. If the soup is too thin, simmer it longer. If it is too thick, thin it with water and simmer for 15 minutes before serving.

Garlic Yogurt
When I’m in a hurry, or have strained Greek yogurt on hand, I don’t bother with straining the yogurt. It tastes fine if you just mix all the ingredients and serve immediately, though the texture is better if you strain the yogurt. This recipe makes enough for about 6 servings of soup, so double the recipe if you’re serving Split Pea Soup to a crowd.

1 cup whole-milk yogurt
1-2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp. Kosher or coarse-grained salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Line a colander with paper towels. Dump the yogurt into the lined colander and let the liquid drain out of the yogurt for 30 – 60 minutes. Puree the garlic by mashing it into the salt. Mix together the drained yogurt, mashed salted garlic, and freshly ground black pepper. Taste and adjust the seasoning by adding garlic, salt, or pepper, as needed.

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This is my entry for My Legume Love Affair – 9th Edition (MLLA9) which I am hosting this month and which was created by Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook.

Recipe for Seafood and Vegetable Stew with Rouille (Red Pepper Sauce)

Fish and Vegetable Stew with Rouille

The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a new star. John Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, Physiologie du Gout (Physiology of Taste) (1825)

Where do recipes come from? Family, community, tradition, and serendipitous accident are easy but incomplete answers.

The primary source of recipes has always been an individual cook’s imagination and palate. Over time, original recipes are modified by other cooks’ imaginations and adjusted by yet more cooks’ palates, to infinity and without limitation.

The food articles I enjoy most are ones that explain how a dish was developed or why a cook chose to combine certain flavors. Although its authors’ cooking styles and skills are quite different from my own, Ideas in Food is one of my favorite blogs. It focuses on the techniques and thought processes that go into creating unique flavor combinations.

I recently made Seafood and Vegetable Stew with Rouille. Here's how it came into being:

My kitchen counter was overflowing with garnet yams, bounty from more than one Full Circle Farms CSA box. I wanted to do something other than oven-roasting the yams or making oven fries. Looking for inspiration, I randomly pulled cookbooks off the shelves.

Barbara Kafka’s book Soup: A Way of Life had an interesting recipe for Fall Fish Stew that included sweet potatoes. I decided to try it.

My first version of the stew was similar to Kafka’s, though I substituted sautéed sweet potatoes for boiled and edamame beans for limas. After tasting the broth, I wanted more flavor.

In my next version, I added sautéed onions and red bell peppers, and used a different Rouille recipe than Kafka’s. I seasoned the Rouille with dried, ground red Moroccan pepper (poivron rouge). This version was tasty, but I thought it could be better.

In my final version, I added crushed fennel seeds and shelled shrimp. This combination was exactly what I wanted. Although inspired by Kafka, the final stew is uniquely my own.

I internet-ordered poivron rouge from World Spice Merchants in Seattle, one of my favorite herb and spice purveyors. World Spice describes poivron rouge as “sweet red pepper … produced from sweet round red niora peppers grown in the lush valleys at the foot of the High Atlas Mountains to the northeast of Marrakech.“

Poivron Rouge and Sweet Hungarian Paprika

Although Moroccan recipes often call for paprika, niora peppers are what Moroccans use for “paprika.” The flavor of ground niora differs significantly from sweet Hungarian paprika. Niora is spicier and has a fruitier flavor than its Hungarian counterpart, which has a slightly bitter aftertaste.

Moroccan niora peppers are likely the same as the ñora peppers used in Romesco sauce and other Spanish and Catalonian dishes. In addition to having similar names, nioras and ñoras look the same. Most texts refer to nioras and ñoras only as members of the Capsicum annuum family; in other words, as domesticated peppers. However, in Catalan Cuisine, Colman Andrews says pepper scholar Charles Perry “thinks the nyora [ñora] pepper is the variety scientifically called Capsicum annuum grossum/provar. Pomiforme/sub-var. Conc. Humilirotundum Haz."

No matter what its scientific designation might be, poivron rouge has wonderful flavor and a permanent place in my spice cupboard. Its mildly spicy and fruity tastes make distinctively delicious Rouille and a mouth-wateringly good Seafood and Vegetable Stew.

Seafood and Vegetable Stew with Rouille (Red Pepper Sauce)
Serves 4
The stew may also be made with just fish or just shrimp; if so, use 1 pound of either ingredient. Although not necessary, steamed rice is a nice complement to the spicy, aromatic broth. Serve the rice on the side so eaters can stir the amount they desire into the stew.

1 cup peeled, diced garnet yams or sweet potatoes, 1/2” dice (1 garnet yam)
2 Tbsp. olive oil
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 cup diced red bell pepper, 1/2” dice (1-2 peppers)
1 cup diced yellow onion, 1/2” dice
1 tsp. freshly crushed fennel seed
4 cups fish stock or clam broth (nectar)
1 recipe Rouille (see below)
1 cup shelled edamame beans (thawed) or fresh fava beans
1/2 pound skinless fillets of halibut, rockfish, cod, or other white-fleshed fish, cut in 3/4” pieces
1/2 pound shelled and cleaned shrimp, 16-20 count, halved crosswise
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (1 lemon)
Minced parsley for garnish

Sauté the garnet yams in olive oil, lightly seasoned with salt and freshly ground black pepper, until they start to brown around the edges. Stir in the red bell peppers and onions, and continue to sauté until the onions soften. Add the crushed fennel seed and sauté for 1 minute. Stir in the fish stock, bring to a boil, turn down the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. (The recipe may be made ahead to this point.)

In a small bowl, whisk one cup of the hot broth into the Rouille. Stir this mixture into the simmering stew pot, along with the edamame beans, fish, and shrimp. Do not let boil or the Rouille may curdle. Simmer for 3-4 minutes, or until the seafood is cooked through. Stir in the lemon juice. Taste and add salt or lemon juice, as needed.

Sprinkle with minced parsley and serve immediately with steamed rice and wedges of lemon.

Rouille
Recipe adapted from In the Hands of a Chef by Jody Adams
Rouille goes well with all fish, and is a tasty addition to fish salads. The recipe may be doubled or tripled and keeps for a week in the refrigerator.

1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp. Dijon mustard
1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup best quality extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp. chopped garlic
1/2 tsp. salt
4 tsp. poivron rouge or sweet Hungarian paprika
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

Put the egg yolk, mustard, and lemon juice in a blender and mix well. While the blender is running, add the vegetable oil drop by drop so that it emulsifies with the other ingredients. While the blender is running, pour in the olive oil in a steady stream. Add the remaining ingredients and blend until the Rouille is very smooth, scraping down the sides of the blender to ensure all ingredients are thoroughly incorporated.
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This is my recipe for Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted this week by Dee from The Daily Tiffin.

Moroccan Salmon, Fennel-Preserved Lemon Salad, & Sweet Potato Oven Fries (Μαροκινός Σολομός, Σαλάτα με Μάραθο και Λεμόνια, & Γλυκοπατάτα στο Φούρνο)

I have an irrational aversion to the texture of boiled or braised sweet potatoes. Until I discovered oven roasting, sweet potatoes were emphatically not part of my diet.

Even so, I'd been hankering for Moroccan sweet potato tagine. A cookbook with the recipe had been sitting open on the couch for over a week. A bag of sweet potatoes from my Full Circle Farm CSA box languished on the counter. I needed to try the tagine.

At least that’s how it seemed. Every time I went to make it, however, I thought about mushy sweet potatoes, and stopped in my tracks. Like I said, my reaction is irrational. Intellectually, I want to try it; emotionally, I can’t get beyond no, no, no.

I finally gave up on the tagine, at least for now. Someday I’ll power through my aversion, and discover what I’ve been missing all these years. In the meantime, I constructed a menu around the tagine’s flavors and ingredients, and stuck with oven-roasting the sweet potatoes.

The tagine’s dominant spices – cumin, coriander, papika, and hot pepper – I used as a rub for salmon fillets. I made oven-fries with the sweet potatoes, and salad from fennel, red peppers, and preserved lemons, three more of the tagine’s ingredients. (For how to make preserved lemons, here is an easy recipe.)

The result was truly wonderful. It put us both in a good mood for the rest of the evening.

I wish all my meals tasted this good. Of course, it’s possible the tagine would’ve been even better. I’m still trying to think my way into it.

Moroccan-Spiced Salmon (Μαροκινός Σολομός)
Serves 4

1 pound salmon fillets
1 1/2 tsp. freshly ground cumin seed
1 1/2 tsp. freshly ground coriander seed
1 1/2 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. olive oil

Wash the salmon and dry it well. Using needle-nosed pliers, remove as many pin-bones from the fillet as possible. Skin the fish, if necessary, and cut it into 4 even pieces.

Mix the cumin, coriander, paprika, pepper flakes, and salt. Rub the spices over both sides of the salmon fillets.

Heat the olive oil in a pan until it is hot, but not smoking. Turn the heat to medium high, and add the salmon. Cook for 3 – 5 minutes, or until the pan side of the salmon is lightly browned. Turn over and cook for 1 - 3 minutes, or until the salmon is done to your taste. The exact cooking time depends on the fillets’ thickness; keep in mind that salmon tastes better slightly underdone than it does when it's overdone.

Serve immediately on a bed of Fennel and Preserved Lemon Salad.

Fennel and Preserved Lemon Salad (Σαλάτα με Μάραθο και Λεμόνια στην Άρμη)
Serves 4
When I served this, both of us wanted more salad than I’d made and thought the salmon should be served on a bed of it. I’ve adjusted the salad recipe accordingly. Adding the capers depends on how much you like them; one of us preferred capers, the other liked it better without. Taste the salad without the capers, then try it with capers and add them if you think they’re an improvement.

2 cups diced fennel, 1/4” dice
1 cup diced red bell pepper, 1/4” dice
2/3 cup finely sliced green onions
3 Tbsp. minced preserved lemon peel
2 tsp. minced garlic
1/2 tsp. freshly ground fennel seed
Freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup Preserved Lemon Aioli (see recipe below)
1/2 cup capers (optional)

Mix all the ingredients. Taste and adjust seasoning, if necessary. Serve.

Preserved Lemon Aioli
Makes 1 1/2 cups
Preserved lemons are quite salty, the flesh more so than the peel. Preserved Lemon Aioli gets all the salt it needs from the lemons. I like making this with the peel from half of a preserved lemon, but the flesh from only a quarter of a preserved lemon. To prevent the aioli from being too salty, it’s best to start with a smaller amount of preserved lemon flesh and add more to taste. If you substitute lemon juice and peel for the preserved lemon, be sure to salt the aioli. I prefer making this in a blender because it grinds the ingredients more evenly, but I use the feed tube from my Cuisinart to add olive oil. Put the feed tube into the hole in the blender’s top, pour olive oil into the feed tube, and the hole in the bottom of the feed tube will effortlessly add oil at exactly the right rate for a perfect emulsion.

1/2 preserved lemon or the zest and juice of 1 lemon
3 large cloves chopped garlic
1 egg
1 cup olive oil

Rinse the preserved lemon under running water. Remove the flesh and reserve. Roughly chop the preserved lemon peel and put it in a blender with 1/4 of the reserved lemon flesh. Purée and taste to determine the degree of saltiness before adding the egg and oil. If it needs salt, add more of the lemon flesh. Mix in the egg and purée; scrape down the sides of the blender. Add the oil drop by drop while the blender is running. (The aioli will break and separate if you add the oil too fast, see NOTE below.) When all the oil is incorporated, taste and adjust the seasoning, as needed. Refrigerate for up to two weeks.

NOTE: If the aioli breaks, pour it out of the blender. Add an egg and purée, scraping down the sides of the blender. Add the broken aioli drop by drop while the blender is running.

Sweet Potato Oven Fries (Γλυκοπατάτα στο Φούρνο)
Serves 4

6 garnet yams (sweet potatoes)
6 Tbsp. olive oil
Salt

Preheat the oven to 325°F.

Peel the garnet yams and cut them in 1/4” slices. Cut the slices into 1/4” sticks. Divide between 2 rimmed baking sheets, toss the contents of each sheet with 3 Tbsp. olive oil and plenty of salt. Bake for 30 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through the cooking time. Remove the pans from the oven. (Recipe can be made ahead to this point.)

Turn the oven heat up to 450°F; when the oven reaches temperature, return the pans to the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes start browning. Remove from the oven and prop up one end of the baking sheet so the oil quickly runs off the potatoes to the lower end of the baking sheet (you may need to align the potatoes so they don't block the oil from running off). Serve immediately.

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More Preserved Lemon Recipes
Preserved Lemons, Candied Lemon Peels, and Sparkling Mint-Lemonade (I show you how to make preserved lemons, how to candy the extra lemon peels, and how to use leftover syrup for sparkling lemonade.)
Moroccan Beef Stew (Mike makes a slow cooked beef tagine with sweet potatoes, chickpeas, preserved lemons, and lots of spices.)
Olives, Chicken with Preserved Lemon (Lydia makes a quick-cooking tagine with boneless chicken thighs, olives, and preserved lemons.)
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This is my entry for Antioxidant Rich Foods/Five-a-Day Tuesdays hosted by Sweetnicks.

Thanksgiving Variations (with Recipes for Rosemary and Garlic Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Frozen Meyer Lemon Yogurt)

Thanksgiving dinners are studies in brown and white: brown turkey, brown dressing, white potatoes, brown gravy, white rolls, brown fried onions on green beans, white marshmallows on sweet potatoes. Even the pies are brown: dark brown pecan pie, beige apple pie, burnt sienna pumpkin pie, all topped with dollops of white whipped cream. Cranberry sauce can be the only vivid color on the table.

This year we decided to opt out of brown and white, and instead made a rainbow of colorful food, the brighter, the better. Orange sweet potatoes roasted in the oven with rosemary and garlic, blood red prime rib roasted at 200°F to retain its color, green beans sautéed with shallots, green lettuces and red radicchio dressed with aged balsamic vinegar and best quality olive oil. For dessert we had yellow Meyer lemon frozen yogurt topped with fresh deep fresh blueberries.

No one missed our traditional Thanksgiving dinner.

The best part about the meal is how easy it was to make. The dishes were straightforward and simple. Without complex sauces, or the need to brine a bird too big for its own good, we spent our Thanksgiving enjoying each other. Instead of stressing over getting the turkey in early enough, or whether it would dry out, or prepping ingredients for convoluted recipes, we sat by the fire counting our blessings and reminiscing about our families.

I churned the frozen yogurt during the 3 1/2 hours it took the roast to reach 130°F. When it was done, the prime rib rested for 20 minutes while I finished the meal. Since all the ingredients were trimmed and washed ahead of time, this was plenty of time to make salad, green beans with shallots, and roasted sweet potatoes.

The Meyer lemon frozen yogurt was a particular treat. Seven years ago, my husband’s brother and his wife planted a Meyer lemon tree in their South Carolina yard. This year, the tree had a profusion of lemons.

My mother-in-law packed four of the surprisingly large, tree-ripened lemons and shipped them to Alaska. Meyer lemons I’ve seen in the past have been smaller than regular lemons; these were so large I doubted their pedigree. The largest of the lemons weighed one half pound.

We cut one of the Meyer lemons to squeeze over fresh halibut. It was heavy with juice, and had the characteristic sweet-scented flavor of mandarin and lemon that complimented, but did not overpower, the halibut. With the remaining three lemons, I wanted to make something special. When I read Lucy's recipe for frozen lemon yogurt on Nourish Me, I found an ideal use for the Meyer lemons -- and my Thanksgiving dessert.

Frozen Lemon Yogurt showcases the complex flavors of Meyer lemon, and contrasts nicely with fresh ripe blueberries. It is light, slightly tart, and a terrific end to a filling meal.


Rosemary and Garlic Roasted Sweet Potatoes
I prefer using small garnet “yams” for this dish.

1 small garnet yam per person
1 tsp. minced rosemary per garnet yam
1 tsp. minced garlic per garnet yam
Salt
Olive oil

Preheat oven to 475°F.

Slice the sweet potatoes 1/8” thick. Toss with rosemary, garlic, salt, and sufficient olive oil to coat the potato slices. Spread out in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Roast for 10 – 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are cooked through and the edges are starting to turn dark brown.

Frozen Meyer Lemon Yogurt with Fresh Blueberries
Adapted from a recipe by Lucy at Nourish Me. This makes 1 quart of ice cream. If you don’t have a food processor, you can mix it by hand. If you do mix by hand, make sure to grate the lemon peel as finely as possible and to fully dissolve the sugar before pouring the mixture into the ice cream maker.

1 cup granulated sugar
3 Tbsp. finely grated Meyer lemon peel
1 1/2 cups plain whole milk yogurt
1 1/2 cups half-and-half
3/4 cup Meyer lemon juice
1 cup fresh blueberries

Process the sugar and Meyer lemon peel in a food processor until the peel is very fine. Add the remaining ingredients, except the blueberries, and process until the mixture is smooth. Freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker, according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Scoop into bowls and top with fresh blueberries.

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This is my entry for Antioxidant Rich-Foods/5 a Day Tuesday hosted by Sweetnicks.