My Favorite Recipes

This first time I made this soup, I made it for a wine food pairing that we donated for charity.  after tasting during the cooking process, I thought it was too salty, too gritty, too thin, too thick.  You get the picture, so I tinkered with the process until I thought it would pass the minimum taste test.  During the dinner, the soup was the favorite thing of the entire meal and they wanted more.  It just goes to show you that you should taste while you cook.

Ingredients

• 1 lb dried yellow peas
• 8 cups of water
• 1 Tbl Butter
• 1/2 lb salt pork, all one piece
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 stalk of celery, diced
• 1 carrot, diced
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 Bay leaf
• 1 tsp Savory, dried
• salt and pepper to taste

Procedure

Wash and sort peas, looking for any dirt or stones (rare).  Melt butter in a large pot and sweat onion, carrot and celery until soft. Add peas, water, parsley, salt pork, bay leaf, savory and 1tsp of salt.  Bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer until peas are tender, about 2 hours, adding more water if needed. Discard the bay leaf.
Now comes the fun part, determining the type of soup you want to serve. Want a thin soup with chunks?  Serve as is, just add salt and pepper to taste.  Want a thicker soup?  Puree a few cups of the soup in a blender and return to the pot, add salt and pepper.  Want a thick soup?  Puree all the soup and add salt and pepper.  Soup too thick?  Strain and then add some cream, then season with salt and pepper.  See, its easy to make one recipe and easily make it the kind of soup you want it too be.