Porkapalooza Pea Soup

It's a stay-inside Friday night and I have nothing (really) to do. Keith cleaned the house from top to bottom this week, up to and including washing floors, towels and linens. (If I didn't know better I would think Aliens abducted my ACTUAL husband.) I was supposed to go out after work with a friend but she had the same motivation as I did at the end of a long week. Home now, in my jammies with a fishbowl of my most favourite wine, I mustered up a little energy and decided to use the ham bone that has been vaccum-packed in my freezer since Thanksgiving...if for nothing else than to create a little room there.

All my vegetarian friends should probably just stop reading here - because this is a soup that is offensively full of meat...with some peas thrown in for good measure.

Keith loves thick, hearty, meaty soups..so this was conjured up especially for him. Even the stock is over the top...with twice the amount of everything I would normally use.

Double-stock

In a large soup pot, add:

2 litres of chicken stock
2 litres of water
2 large yellow onions, chopped into chunks
2 large carrots, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped with leaves from the whole bunch
4 stalks of fresh thyme
4 bay leaves
leftover smoked ham with meat on the bone
salt and black pepper to taste

Bring everything to a rolling boil, reduce heat and simmer for two hours.

When stock is done, strain and transfer liquid into another large pot.  Remove the meat from the ham bone, chop into bite-sized chunks and add to the stock.

In a large frying pan, brown 1/4 lb smoked bacon (slab bacon works best), cut into cubes and 1 double-smoked sausage, cut into thick slices.  Drain well and add to stock along with 500 grams of green split peas and a grated carrot and simmer for at least an hour or until peas are thoroughly cooked.

*A word of caution - this soup can be seriously salty with all the cured meat - if necessary, dilute to taste and simmer a bit longer. (Or use sodium reduced chicken stock, or even just 4 litres of water for the broth.) My friend Karen suggested putting a potato in the soup as it is cooking to absorb the salt - I think my mom used to do that...sounds like a perfect solution.

Garnish with fresh thyme sprigs and serve it on it's own... anything else might be over-kill.   ;-)