How to make Peas Pudding like a Geordie - Peas Pudding Recipe

 

'Pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold

Pease porridge in the pot, nine days old

Some like it hot, some like it cold

Some like it in the pot, nine days old'

I love food that's steeped in tradition, and this phrase 'nine days old' in the nursery rhyme above refers to Lady Jane Grey, the ‘nine-days-queen’, apparently. Ridiculing her by suggesting that rather than being royal (she was Edward 1st's cousin) she was like 'pease porridge', associating her with basic peasants, like us I suppose. The rhyme is from Tudor times, yes Mary the 1st sang it and it caught on; daughter of Henry the eighth, she wanted to make England Catholic again and invade France. Fortunately she pegged it and Calais was supposed to be engraved on her heart 'A' level history me. I have you know, got a 'D' at night school, Anyway Liz '1' came along and we Brits got spuds and fags and a pretty good film with Judy Dench... Oh shit that's Shakespeare. Maybe with hindsight a nation of left footers would be panacea to the misery of generations of us skoolkids doing pointless  as you like it  English lit.

I do my research and some of the above was on the internet so it must be right.

Anyway peas pudding is what it is, it's poverty food, and that's fine. Simple grub cooked well is miles better than posh nosh. It was good enough for miners to call it Geordie caviar it's good enough for us.

And it's great - boil a ham hock, add some split peas and your family is well fed with several meals for pennies.

Ingredients and recipe:-

No dhal tho, that won't work, yellow split peas only, buy some at your supermarket, the packets I bought I found at Booths and had dust on the top they were 70p each.

So buy a ham hock, mine cost £3.50 at the butchers, in Scotland it's known as a ham hough, but then they had Mary Queen of Scots who was also Mary '1'st, and she slept in every castle they have so she must of been pretty active on Tinder.

Boil for a few minutes the ham hock in a large pan of water, add some diced onion, bay leaves, garlic, peppercorns, then simmer for about two hours. Skim off some fat stuff. Leave to cool till the next day.

So fish the ham hock from the jelly in the pan and set the jelly to simmer - it will become liquid again quickly, remove the spices etc with a slotted spoon. Add the split peas, I used two packs, 500 grams and add a chicken oxo and simmer for about 40 mins, the peas will fall apart and may stick to the pan so keep checking. Using a blender, blend. Season if you think it needs it, don't add salt at all earlier as you don't know how salty your ham will be. Add about 2oz of butter and stir it in. 

Next the hard bit, open the cupboard where the takeaway containers live, catch them as they cascade onto the floor and find some that fit the lids. 

Pour the peas pudding into the containers and then warm some butter and paint it onto the grease proof paper that you place on top of the peas pudding, as top pic. Leave to cool and enjoy.

You will be surprised how much great ham you'll get off your ham hock, I made chicken mushroom and ham pie, fed the dogs and there was still lots left.

But as any Geordie will tell you, a stottie (barm, morning roll, bun) or even toast with a slab of peas pudding with ham and mustard, is purely belter.