Soupe aux pois

As tradition built it

Soupe aux pois

Serves 10 to 12. An optional pork broth simmers 2.5 to 3 hours; the soup itself takes about 50 to 55 minutes.

Ingredients

Pork broth (optional)

• 2 large white onions, in pieces
• 4 garlic cloves, unpeeled
• 2 pork hocks or spare-rib sections
• 3.5 L water
• 1 sprig thyme, a sprig
• 3 fresh bay leaves

Soup

• 500 ml dried yellow split peas, soaked overnight
• 4 slices bacon or smoked pork fat
• 2 onions, diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 3 celery branches with leaves, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• to taste thyme or savory
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 L water or the pork broth
• 125 g cooked ham or pork, in small pieces

Method

Pork broth (optional)

1. Simmer 2 large white onions in pieces, 4 unpeeled garlic cloves and 2 pork hocks or spare-rib sections in 3.5 L water with a sprig of thyme and 3 fresh bay leaves for two and a half to three hours until the meat is tender, then strain.

Soup

2. Brown 4 slices bacon or smoked pork fat.
3. Sauté 2 diced onions, 2 diced carrots and 3 diced celery branches with leaves, plus 2 minced garlic cloves, in the bacon fat.
4. Add thyme or savory, 2 bay leaves and 2 L water or the pork broth above, then add 500 ml dried yellow split peas, soaked overnight, and simmer fifty to fifty-five minutes, stirring frequently since the peas tend to stick.
5. Finish with 125 g cooked ham or pork in small pieces. Yields ten to twelve servings, traditionally finished at the table with a spoonful of herbes salées.

What a modern chef changes

Sous vide stock, blended and re-combined body, dehydrator herbes salées

Cross-references Rung 1 (herbes salées' salt-curing preservation).

Method

1. Cook the pork hocks sous vide for the full broth-building time instead of an open simmer, extracting the same collagen-rich stock at a lower, steadier temperature that never risks scorching the pot base, then reduce the strained broth in a wide pan before it meets the peas.
2. Blend a portion of the finished soup in the high-power blender and pass it through the chinois for a silken base, then fold the whole peas and ham back through it, so the dish keeps its traditional texture on the spoon while gaining a genuinely cleaner underlying body.
3. Make a house herbes salées in the dehydrator: chopped celery, onion, carrot, parsnip, parsley, leek and chives dried rather than salt-cured for a faster equivalent, then finished with flaked salt and a pass through the spice grinder, a modern shortcut to an ingredient this chapter cannot otherwise buy in Britain.