In years gone by, it was our custom to take lentil soup on Christmas Eve, for a few years cooked on the coal burning stove which used to live in the back extension. This year we have gone for a double barrelled affair, taking green pea soup a few days ago and orange lentil soup today. The other significant change was buying a smoked hock from Ben the Butcher. A special order, so a far cry from the days when one could buy them from the bacon counter at Woolworths, more or less a giveaway, and when one could have an Eisbein with sauerkraut and mash at Schmidt's of Charlotte Street.
Soaked the hock in water overnight, scraped the skin (as instructed in the Radiation cook book for some reason) and rinsed it again in cold water. The idea being to leach out some of the salt (and other curing chemicals) - otherwise the soup can turn out too salty. Weighed in at 3lbs 9oz. Go for 90 minutes boiling.
Dug the extra large saucepan out of the cupboard and covered the hock with water. A tablespoon of sugar, some peppercorns and a few cloves. It was boiling at 07:45 at which point I turned it down to simmer. Skimmed the not very plentiful white foam off the water from time to time. Turned the heat off at 09:05 and left the hock in the hot water. Took it out at 10:30.
Headed out to Sainsbury's for the white bread to go with it, a rather wet ride as it turned out. Passed a trolley by the Screwfix underpass. Picked up a new-to-me long format white pudding from the Manor Green Road butcher on the way home.
In parallel, cooked the peas. We had an old packet, full of instructions about soaking overnight and boiling off toxins, years past their sell-by date. Chucked them in favour of the new packet which was much more friendly. No need to soak and no talk of toxins. Settled on 10oz. Washed them in cold water, which was noticeably dirty when I poured it away. Put them on to boil at 11:30 in about three pints of water, half liquor from the hock, half fresh water. Boiled with the lid off for about 10 minutes, skimming more white foam off. Set to simmer at 11:45.
Cooked up some butter, finely chopped garlic and coarsely chopped onion.
Cleaned and diced about half the meat from the hock. Rather closer to genuine ham cut from the bone than the stuff you can easily buy these days.
The soup was spot on time and very good, despite being a little thinner than I was aiming for. Taken with the factory white from Sainsbury's. Which was right for the soup, but very raw and lightweight compared to my own wholemeal - but then it was very cheap at £1.45 for a large bloomer.
Polished off the balance later the same day. Rather nearer its real life green in this snap. It really was green pea soup.
Then today it was the turn of the orange lentils. The last occasion appears to have been just about a year ago (reference 2), when I used 8oz of lentils and reported the soup as being good but thin.
So this year, I went for 12oz. Rinsed in cold water, with the rinsing water turning quite opaque and milky. With a good number of the black specks which look rather like dead flies floating on the surface. Added them to about 4 pints of water, say two thirds hock liquor. Which in the interval had acquired some fat floating on top, but not enough to skin over. I didn't bother fishing it out. Boiled the lentils for 10 minutes then took them off the heat around 11:15.
Back on the heat about 12:30.
Garlic and onions started in a separate pan about 13:00.
Cross-sliced carrots, a little slivered white cabbage and even less celery added to the lentils at 13:20.
Cleaned and dice most of the remaining ham.
Served with white bread - the second half of the loaf from Sainsbury's, held over in the freezer. Plus a few more dead flies turned up. All perfectly fit for today's purpose and it all went down well.
What was left of the hock; enough for a little snacking. Note that by this time it was clear that there were indeed two bones, that is to say leg below the knee, the socket of which is visible right.
Festive sweetmeats for dessert: stollen goujons, dried figs from Greece and chocolates from France. This despite the figs coming from a Turkish convenience store at Clapham Junction and the chocolates coming with Swiss flavoured packaging. The figs were a little damp to my taste, but that may have been the result of taking them after the rather sugary goujons. Bad menu planning rather than bad figs.
The whole being rounded off by a snifter of Calvados from Waitrose. Followed by snooze, followed by a spot of gardening, that is to say leaf collection.
The left-over third of the soup will probably be taken over the next 24 hours.
Verdict: using a hock is a bit of a flap-doodle but it was worth it. It helps if you like, as we do, leguminous soups.
PS: later: small saucepan right done, just the bowl left to go. A heritage bowl from the once famous French company Sovirel (the abbreviated form of 'La Société des verreries industrielles réunies du Loing'), all mixed up with the patents for Pyrex travelling across the Atlantic to the US. Once the latest in kitchen ware, now collectible. One of their factories, snapped above, now more or less derelict. See reference 3.
References
Reference 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legume.
Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/12/lentil-soup.html.
Reference 3: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verrerie_Saint-Martin.
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