Americas Test Kitchen Chunky Ham And Split Pea Soup Recipes

Steps:

• Place the butter in a large soup pot over medium-low heat. Stir in onion, celery, and sliced garlic. Cook slowly until the onions are translucent but not brown, 5 to 8 minutes.
• Mix in ham, bay leaf, and split peas. Pour in chicken stock and water. Stir to combine, and simmer slowly until the peas are tender and the soup is thick, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Stir occasionally. Season with salt and black pepper to serve.

Steps:

• Ham Stock: Prepare the day before: Place the ham hocks or shank in a large kettle add 3 quarts of water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer covered for about an hour or until shank is tender. Strain broth into a container, setting aside meat to cool, and place container in the fridge overnight. When meat has cooled pull from the bones, dice and refrigerate. After stock has set overnight, remove the hard layer of fat and use stock in soup. Note: I used my pressure cooker for this at 30 minutes to make this on the same day of the soup. A quick freeze, then chill helped me to skim the fat pretty easily. Prep: Chop the onion, celery and carrots or use your food processor to make this quick. Bundle the fresh thyme with the bay leaves and tie with a kitchen twine for easy removal. Rinse the dried peas and pick through them before using. Dice the Yukon Gold potatoes into very small bite-size pieces. Chop the ham into small pieces. The pressure cooker made the ham so tender, that it broke apart very easily. In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, saute onion, celery and carrots in olive oil over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes, until they begin to soften. Add garlic and continue to sautee' another 2 to 3 minutes. Add dried peas, bay leaves, thyme and stock. Bring to a simmer and cook about 30 minutes, then add potatoes and cook another 30 minutes or until soup is thick, potatoes are soft and peas have almost but not quite disintegrated. Add ham meat and Old Bay Seasoning (or paprika) and cook another 10 minutes. Remove bay leaves and thyme stems and season, to taste, with salt and pepper. Purée very lightly with immersion blender or puree a couple of cups of the soup in the blender, so that soup remains very chunky.

Steps:

• Place ham, bay leaves, and 3 quarts water in large stockpot or Dutch oven.
• Cover and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
• Reduce heat to low and simmer until meat is tender and pulls away from bone, 2 to 2 1/2 hours.
• Remove ham meat and bone from pot and set aside.
• Add split peas and thyme to stock.
• Bring back to boil, reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered until peas are tender but not dissolved, about 45 minutes.
• Meanwhile, when ham is cool enough to handle, shred meat into bite-sized peas and set aside. Discard rind and bone.
• While peas are simmering, heat oil in a large skillet over high heat until shimmering.
• Add onions, carrots, and celery and saute, stirring frequently, until most of liquid evaporates and vegetables begin to brown (5 to 6 minutes).
• Reduce heat to medium-low and add butter, garlic, and sugar.
• Cook vegetables, stirring frequently, until deeply browned, 30 to 35 minutes and set aside.
• Add sauteed vegetables, potatoes, and shredded ham to pot with split peas.
• Simmer until potatoes and peas dissolve and thicken soup to consistency of light cream, about 20 minutes more.
• Season with pepper to taste.
• Ladle soup into bowls, sprinkle with red onion, if using, and serve, passing balsamic vinegar separately.