Category: Soups

Mom’s Split Pea Soup and Winter Memories

I remember that it was a Friday night.

It was snowing hard and after eight o’clock and Dad was not home yet. Mom was worried. Heavy snow and blowing wind had been forecast on WCCO that morning, so she had given Dad a list of groceries to bring home. Our family usually went shopping in Hayward on Friday nights, but my parents agreed that this Friday we would stay home in the snug house Dad had built in a grove of jack pine trees along Phipps Road.

In the early 1950’s Dad’s workday ended at six. Allowing a half hour for shopping and fifteen or twenty minutes to drive the four miles to our house, she figured he would be home before seven. By 7:15 she told us that Dad had probably stopped for a glass of beer at the Twin Gables before heading home. By 7:30 she was joining us kids looking out the windows in the front room.

In the daytime you could see the snowbanks along Highway 63 across the field in front of the house, but they blocked the headlights of any cars on the road at night. Highway 63 had not been upgraded with wide shoulders and ditches, so the snowbanks got higher and higher at the plows pushed the snow off the roadway. This year the snowbanks were so high you could barely see the snowplows on the highway and in places you could almost reach the telephone wires when you stood on top of the banks. Mom warned us not to touch the wires while we waited for the school bus.

When we heard sounds at the back door, we ran to see who was there. In came Dad. His hat and coat were covered with snow and the gunny sack he dropped in front of us looked like the snow-covered packs in pictures of Santa Claus on some Christmas cards. He took off his coat, hat and rubbers and high top work shoes, warmed his feet in front of the stove and put on dry socks.

As we sat down to soup and fresh bread, Dad told us how he managed to get home in the middle of the blizzard by following a snowplow. When he got to Phipps Road, he found that the plows had piled a four-foot-high bank across the road and that the road itself was drifted even with the snowbanks on either side as far as he could see in the dark.

He drove north to his uncle Richard’s home which was just a block off the highway. He had been married to “Aunt Trace,” Dad’s youngest aunt. She had died the year before we moved into our new house along Phipps Road. At her funeral I learned that her name was really Theresa. I remember her as being stout and friendly.

Dad shoveled through the snowbank in his uncle’s driveway to get the car off the road, borrowed a pair of snowshoes and a gunny sack and set out cross country. It was more than half a mile, but the wind was mostly at his back. He knew his way through the woods and finally crossed the field north of our house and found the road from the garden to the house.

Next morning Dad snowshoed back to his uncle’s and drove to work. Mom and I shoveled the driveway and the big pile of snow left by the town plow when it opened Phipps Road so Dad could drive all the way home.

I don’t remember what kind of soup we had that Friday night, but it could have been Mom’s Split Pea Soup. I’m sure that we had fresh bread or dinner rolls, because Mom always baked bread and rolls when she made soup. My sisters both reminded me how much we all loved the smell of freshly baked bread, so that may have explained Dad’s good humor after his adventure.

Here is how to put smiles on the faces of everyone around the dinner table with an absolutely delicious pea soup. For the perfect meal, serve it with some Homestyle White Bread.

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 – 2 lb. smoked pork hock
Water
2 medium onions (2 1/2 – 3 inches in diameter)
1 medium potato
3 ribs celery
2 large or 3 medium carrots
1 lb. dried green split peas
1 large bay leaf
3 or 4 whole cloves
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
Salt to taste

PROCEDURE:

Put the pork hock in a soup pot or Dutch oven and cover it with cold water.  Bring the pot to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer the hock for about four hours.   Check occasionally, turn the hock and make sure that it is still mostly covered by water.  Add a little water if necessary.  The long slow simmer extracts gelatin from the bones and skin along with the flavor.

Prepare the vegetables about half an hour before you remove the hock from the broth.  Sort the dried peas into a colander by small handfuls to make sure there are no stones or other debris in them and rinse the peas under cold water and let them drain.  After the hock has simmered for the four hours, carefully remove it from the water with tongs and let it cool on a plate.  Add the peas to the broth before you chop the vegetables.

Cut the stem and root ends off of the onions and remove the dry outer layers and peel the potato.  Scrub the celery ribs and cut off a little of the top to freshen the cut end.  Wash and keep the celery leaves to chop with the ribs.  You can peel or thoroughly scrub the carrots and cut off the stem and root tips.  Chop the onions into a quarter-inch dice.  Chop the carrots into quarter-inch-thick rounds or half rounds.  Chop the celery and potato into a half-inch dice.

Stir the vegetables and spices into the broth.  Do not add any salt at this time.  

Bring the soup to a boil, reduce the heat and let it simmer while you remove the meat from the hock.  Use a sharp paring knife to remove the skin and separate the fat from the meat.  Cut or shred the meat into small pieces and add them to the soup.  Continue cooking the soup until the vegetables are tender. 

Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

Serve with salad, good bread and a beverage of your choice.

Brianna’s Duck, Duck, Goose Wild Rice Soup

Wyatt wasn’t saying much, but he was alert and ready for action. The decoys had been set next to the blind and a mallard was flying overhead. He wore a camouflage hat as any good duck hunter knows is necessary, but his red and black plaid shirt would have betrayed him to the sharp-eyed duck above. It was pretty cold for a hunter-in-training, however, so the shirt was a good idea. If he had a chance to use the pop gun on his lap, at least he wouldn’t be shivering as he aimed.

Wyatt did well for a hunter just approaching his first birthday. He didn’t make a sound, just paid close attention to the stuff going into his trick or treat bag. My guess, however, is that most of the goodies ended up in Matt’s lunch pack to keep Wyatt’s dad warm in the blind or as snacks for Brianna as she put together Duck, Duck Goose.

A few days after Halloween, Brianna appeared at our door with a quart of this creamy wild rice soup made with ducks and geese that Matt brings home. We savored every spoonful, and I asked Brianna if she would let me share it on Courage in the Kitchen. She said yes, but there was still a problem.

I no longer hunt ducks or geese and therefore lack a key ingredient of Duck, Duck, Goose. I remember clearly my last hunt over decoys. My friend Bob and I had set our decoys at dawn on the south side of Totagatic Lake. It was November and a twenty-mile-an-hour wind was blowing snow mixed with freezing rain into our faces. As we slowly sank into the water on the bog and watched the bluebills riding the waves far out in the lake, it occurred to me that I was not enjoying the experience.

Thereafter I confined my duck hunting to sneaking up on teal on the ponds in my grandfather’s pasture. The best days for doing this was when it was sunny and warm. As a bonus, if there were no teal on the ponds, I could head for the thorn apple trees in the pasture in hopes of finding a grouse or two. The pasture is now a forest and I have not tried jump-shooting ducks for many years.

In all but a handful of the recipes for things that Jerri always makes, I cook every dish that shows up in this blog. However, Brianna was kind enough to give me her recipe, answer my questions and review the recipe after I had typed it out, so I’m confident that you’ll be able to put this really delicious soup on your table.

If you like wild rice soup but don’t have any wild ducks and geese, you might try Turkey Wild Rice Soup. I make it a couple of times a year with the remains of the Thanksgiving and Christmas birds that I bag at the local supermarket. We like that soup a lot, but Brianna’s version of Duck, Duck Goose is a soup that any hunter or hunter’s wife should make at least once every season.

The recipe makes a lot, so you can invite some friends or family members for dinner or share with the neighbors.

INGREDIENTS:

4 duck breasts
1 goose breast
5 cups uncooked wild rice
4 quarts water for cooking the rice
1 T salt
1 medium onion (about 3 inches in diameter)
4 or 5 large carrots
5 or 6 ribs celery
1/2 cup Riesling wine
1 T olive oil
4 quarts chicken stock
1/2 lb. butter (2 sticks)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup heavy whipping cream
Salt and pepper to taste

PROCEDURE:

Start by cooking the cleaned duck and goose breasts. It is very important that all the feathers and pellets have been removed from the meat. Remove any skin that may have been left on the breasts. You can render some wonderful fat from duck and goose skins. My grandmother saved this fat for making really tender pie crusts.

Put the breasts into a slow cooker with enough water to cover the meat by a half inch or so. Set the heat control to low and cook the meat for ten hours.

About an hour before putting the soup together, remove the duck and goose breasts from the cooker and allow the meat to cool while you start the rice.

Rinse the rice in cold water and put it into a large kettle or stewpot. Add the water and salt and bring the pot to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer the rice for fifty minutes. Check to see if some of the rice grains have popped open. If they have, the rice is nearly done. You can test it by chewing a few grains. They should be chewy but tender. Cook the rice a few minutes longer if you wish. Drain the water from the pot and set the rice aside.

Shred the meat into small pieces and set them aside while the rice is cooking. This is also the time to prepare the vegetables. Remove the stem and root ends and outer layer from the onion and chop it into a quarter-inch dice. Scrape or peel the carrots and chop them into quarter-inch rounds or half rounds. Clean and chop the celery into quarter-inch rounds. You want two to two and a half cups each of chopped carrots and celery.

Put a tablespoon of olive oil into a large pot (at least eight quarts) and cook the chopped onions over low heat for three or four minutes until they have become translucent, stirring often. Add the carrots, celery, chicken stock and wine and bring the pot to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about twenty minutes until the carrots are just becoming tender. Stir the meat and rice into the stock and vegetables. Raise the heat to bring the pot back to a very low simmer.

Make the roux while the pot is coming back to a simmer. Melt the butter in a skillet or heavy bottomed saucepan over moderate heat and stir in the flour with a wooden spoon. Reduce the heat and stir the flour continuously while it mixes with the butter and begins to bubble. Keep stirring for three to four minutes to cook the flour. Do not brown the roux. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the roux to cool slightly. Whisk two cups of slightly cooled broth from the the large pot into the roux, then stir the roux into the soup and simmer for another two or three minutes until the soup thickens.

Stir in a cup of whipping cream, bring just to a simmer, taste and adjust the seasoning. Do not boil.

Serve with good bread.

NOTES: I normally use a sauvignon blanc or other dry wine in chicken or vegetable soups. However, Briana specifically said that she likes Riesling in this recipe, and she is absolutely right. The sweetness of the Riesling complements the meat perfectly.

I prefer to make roux in a cast iron skillet, but I also use heavy-bottomed saucepans. If you don’t have heavy-bottomed pans, use very low heat and be careful not to burn the roux.