What's for dinner? Pea and ham soup

A couple of evenings ago, I headed into Aldi search of some German sausages. I grabbed 3 packets. I was looking for the sausages to go with the Sauerkraut I had leftover from Sundays pork knuckle. I've had their sausages previously and again they did the job.
However, whilst I was in Aldi I saw a packet of green split peas. The first thing that came to mind was pea and ham soup. I headed straight for the refrigerator isle to find a ham hock. No joy. They did have a piece of smoked speck though. I thought it should do the trick.
So, this afternoon when I got home from work, nice and early for a change and with a slight Autumnal chill in the air, I thought today is the day.

Did my lazy google search and found a pea and ham soup recipe on Taste.com.au. Had a quick glance at the ingredient list. Had everything except carrots. Walked up to the local veggie shop and bought two carrots and whilst I was there got a cut watermelon and some yellow peaches.


Into the kitchen now. I gave the peas a good rinse as you do with rice to rinse off the excess starch. I think starch is the right word. Anyway, I turned on the pot to high heat, my stove-top doesn't reach to a massively high heat, especially with some of my thicker, better quality cooking equipment. I added a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. I only have extra virgin ( buy it when it's on special, use it for most non Asian dishes). Then I started through the ingredient list and chopped and added to the pot. Started with carrots, whilst I was cutting them the oil became fragrant and wafted in my direction, only the addition of a little garlic could make it better. I didn't add garlic, at least not yet.I popped in the carrot, celery, onion and then the garlic. All ruff chopped and into the pot. gave them a stir after each addition and then added the peas and smoked speck, seasoning followed by 6 cups of water. Bring to the boil, reduce to a simmer and then get on with your afternoon.

In my case getting on with my afternoon involved a little reading from Culinaria Germany to try to increase my knowledge of the food of my Mum's country of birth and a little of McGee on food and cooking. In Culinaria Germany they covered a little on potato dumplings which were said to be an essential part of Sunday roast in the region of Thuringia. In McGee I covered a couple of pages on Ice Cream. Just the kind of reading that makes you want to rush out an get an ice cream maker. I was good. I didn't.

The picture above left is about 1 and a half hours into cooking and you can see that the peas are starting to break apart and give the soup an earthy green colour. I think I am now getting close to the time to remove the smoked meat and then with a stick blender, which I haven't used in some time but came across whilst tidying up the kitchen draws last weekend, or was it the one before. The stick blender is great for this purpose and saves the transferring of the soup to a blender and of course saves on washing up.
I have now blended the soup, after removing the meat. The speck was so tender it was ready to fall apart. A gentle knife was run through it and returned to the blended soup. Thursday night dinner is done.