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Pease pudding used to be a staple dish in England, but is quite rare now - it's only really seen in the North East and parts of Yorkshire. Which is strange, because it's delicious, cheap and nutritious.
About the Peas
Pease pudding is made from yellow split peas. Make sure you have the right kind of peas - they look like yellow lentils or channa dhal, but they are not the same at all. Nor are they the marrowfat peas that you would use for mushy peas. They are a kind of dried pea. Check the packaging for whether they need to be soaked in water for an hour before you start cooking. The ones I use only need to be rinsed.
Make a Ham Stock
Pease pudding gets a lot of flavour from being cooked with a ham hock (or pork shank) and maybe a finely chopped onion, but I like to make a stock separately by boiling the meat for an hour with onion, carrot, celery and a bay leaf. Near the end of cooking add salt and white pepper to taste.
Cook the Pease Pudding
Drain/rinse the peas, add them to a saucepan and cover with the stock. You'll probably need twice the volume of stock as you have peas - but you may need extra water later on if the peas are getting too thick. Bring the liquid to the boil, turn it down to a simmer, cover and cook for about 40 minutes. Stir it every ten minutes or so. When the peas have broken down to a mush your pease pudding is more or less ready. Melt in a good chunk of butter. If you like a really smooth pease pudding you can whizz it with a stick blender.
Pease pudding can be eaten hot or cold (or in the pot, nine days old), and served with ham, bacon or pork pies. You can use the meat from the ham hock to make rissoles.
250 grams yellow split peas 1 medium onion 1 medium carrot 1 stick celery 1 ham hock or pork shank 50 grams unsalted butter 1 bay leaf salt and white pepper to taste
Makes 4 -6 servings Prep time: 5 minutes. Cooking time: 40 minutes. Total time: 45 minutes.