Pease Porridge Please

The Ingredients (for 5 to 8 servings):

• 500 g (or 18 oz) of dried black-eyed peas
• 140 g (or 5 oz) of salt cured pork
• 1 medium onion
• 6 garlic cloves
• 2.5 g (or 1 teaspoon) of freshly ground black pepper
• 2.5 g (or 1 teaspoon) of Cayenne pepper
• 6 g (or 2 teaspoons) of garlic powder
• 475 ml (or 2 cups) of chicken stock
• 5 bay leaves
• 2 sprigs of thyme
• 900 g (or 2 lb) of smoked pork bones
• 225 g (or ½ lb) each of Brussels sprouts, carrots, and mushrooms
• 225 g (or ½ lb) of lean smoked pork
• Cooking grade olive oil
• Water

The Method:

1. About 5 hours before serving, rehydrate the black-eyed peas by bringing them to the boil in a large pot containing water to at least double the volume of the peas.
2. Boil the black-eye peas for 2 minutes, turn off the heat, cover the pot, and let the peas steep and cool for 2 hours.
3. Drain the black-eyed peas and set them aside.
4. Cut the salt pork in to slices approximately 1 cm (or ⅜ in) thick, then cube them.
5. Cut the onion into cubes of similar size to the salt pork.
6. Finely dice the garlic cloves or put them through a garlic press. 
7. Heat enough oil in a large soup pot to cover the bottom, and fry the salt cured pork cubes, stirring frequently, over medium high heat until they begin to turn brown.
8. Add the onion and garlic and continue to stir frequently until the onion is translucent and no longer smells raw.
9. Turn the heat to medium and add the black pepper, Cayenne pepper, and garlic powder, stirring  briefly to disperse the spices.
   
10. Add the black-eyed peas.
11. Add the chicken broth and 950 ml (or 4 cups) of water.
12. Add the bay leaves and thyme.
13. Turn the heat to high until the broth is boiling.
14. Add the pork bones and turn the heat to low, covering the pot.
15. Simmer the mixture for 40 minutes.
16. Meanwhile, trim and rinse the Brussels sprouts, peel and chop the carrots, clean and slice the mushrooms.
    
17. Add the vegetables to the pease porridge and continue to simmer for 1 hour more, or until the black-eyed peas are soft.
18. Remove the pork bones from the pease porridge and place them on a chopping board. 
19. Cut any meat away from the bones and return it to the porridge.
20. Cut the lean smoked pork meat into bite-size pieces and add them to the hot pease porridge about 5 minutes before serving.

Pease porridge garnished with purple basil

The Story:

This recipe was made from parts of a suckling pig that my son-in-law and daughter smoked in the backyard as a surprise for us. We had to avert our eyes so as not to discover what they were doing but we could not avert our noses for long! After we ate a small part of the smoked pork, the rest was cut into manageable parts and many pounds of meat were frozen. The spine and meat adhering to it were the bones that we boiled the black-eyed peas with; we added some fileted shoulder meat at the end of the cooking. Because the pig was brined overnight before being smoked, I added no extra salt to the pease porridge.