Wednesday: Split Pea Soup with Dough Boys

Technically, these are called Dough Byes by anyone I've ever talked to, looks funny in print so I won't do it. Won't! Except there where I did. A pretty basic split pea soup, the sole raisin detter for ham, as far as I'm concerned. It is SO COLD right now, this plus hot chocolate is alls I wanted today.

You will need:



1 ham bone, hopefully with ham still on it
1 tsp vegetable oil
3 onions
3 carrots, large-ish
3 celery stalks
Salt, pepper
1 lb split peas, dried
1 Tbsp (or probably more) thyme
2 bay leaves
1 c all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp butter, cold
1/2 c milk

First, prep! Lookit your hambone. Trim off all the meat you can, but don't get crazy aboot it. Set aside. Dice your onions and veggies into small pieces. Don't worry about anything else yet.

Get out your largest soup pot, warm the oil in it and cook the onions, celery and carrots until softened, about 5-8 minutes. Dump in 8 litres of water, or however much your pot will take. Add in the hambone (I just like to say that), pepper, 2 tsp thyme and one bay leaf, bring to a boil. This will take a while, let's have some coffee and thank the sweet baby jeebus for naptime while we wait.

When boiling, cover partially and reduce the heat to med-low. Let low boil for 2 hours, then remove the hambone (call me!) and set aside to cool. It should be reduced by about half by this point. Using a large spoon, scrape any fat off the top and discard.

When the hambone has cooled, strip the rest of the meat off and chop finely. Return to the pot, adding in any additional ham you may have left over. It worked out to about 6 cups. Rinse the peas and throw into the pot. Add in the thyme, more pepper and the last bay leaf.  Cover completely and cook at a gentle boil for another 1 to 2 hours, until the peas are soft. Taste it around the 1 hour mark, adjust seasonings as necessary. I find that the thyme sometimes gets taken out with the fat, so feel free to add more. This is also when I would add salt, not much is needed because of the saltiness of the ham, but it will need some.

When the peas are nice and soft and it tastes the way you want it to, start assembling the dough boys. Mix the all-purpose flour with the baking powder, salt and baking soda. Cut the butter into the flour mixture, until it looks like small bread crumbs.

Slowly add in the milk, until the dough can easily be formed into balls. Roll into one-inch balls, stop handling immediately.

Bring the soup to a rolling boil, dump in the balls all at once and close the lid tightly. Set the timer for 10 minutes.

The dough boys should be all puffed up and amazing, and the soup will be thickened just so. Enjoy!