Dutch Oven Split-pea Soup With Ham

This weekend, I was doing a lot of yard work, even on sunday.  I know, I know, it's supposed to be a day of rest.  Oh, well.

So, even though I'm working in the garden, I still wanted to cook.  I wanted something simple and easy, a two-step, one-pot meal.  I'd found, buried in the freezer, an old ham bone from one of my past dutch oven roasting days.  Time for split-pea soup!

I had done split-peas many times before.  This recipe for Dutch Oven Split-Pea soup is the first time, and this one has been the basis for all of them.  It's good, but this time I kicked it up a notch.  It must've worked, because even though I cooked up a whole 12" dutch oven worth of the stuff, there were no leftovers.  That's good, too, because split-pea doesn't usually make great leftovers. It ends up as less of a soup and more of a paste.

I've found, by the way, that when you do these recipes, your final result will vary a little based on the way you cooked your ham.  Some of the residual flavors and spices from the ham will carry over into the soup.  I, personally, like that.  It gives a little variety.  The same is true if you make your own chicken stock.

Anyway, since I really dressed up this recipe, I'm going to rewrite it here, rather than just linking back.

Dutch Oven Split-pea Soup with Ham

12" Dutch Oven
15-20 coals below

• 1 sliced onion
• 4-5 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 stalks chopped celery

• 6 cups water, at least half of which could be chicken stock
• 1 lb bag of dried split peas
• 1 ham bone with lots of meat left on it.
• 1 diced potato

• Generous shakes of oregano, parsley, and chili powder
• salt and coarse ground pepper to taste

I started by lighting up some coals and letting them start to get white.  I put about a tbsp of olive oil in the bottom of my dutch oven, and let that heat up.  I chopped up the veggies while it was all getting going.

Once the oil was hot, I dropped in the onion, the garlic, and the celery to sautee.  Remember, if it's hot enough, they'll sizzle as soon as you drop them in.  I stirred them up and salted them a little.  The dutch oven was plenty hot, and pretty soon they were browning.

Once the garlic was brown and the onions were translucent, I poured in the liquid.  I used a bullion powder to make it all chicken stock.  I didn't have any of my homemade stock left.  Bummer... 

Then I added all of the other set two ingredients, and let it come back up to a boil. 

Once it was simmering, I started adding in the herbs and the chili powder.  I added the chili powder a bit at a time.  I'd shake in some, let it simmer for 15 minutes or so, then taste. Add some more, wait, and taste.  I wanted it to have an edge, but I didn't want to have a recognizable chili taste.  In the end, I probably added a little under a teaspoonful. Season with salt and pepper to taste, but be a little cautious, because the ham will add lots of salty flavor already.

It turned out great!  We all gathered around our new patio table, and had a wonderful outdoor meal.  If you try this one, let me know how it goes!

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Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Updates and News

Here are a couple of bits of exciting Dutch Oven News:

First of all: Andy, over at Back Porch Gourmet, did his Beef/Leek/Cinnamon challenge dish!  It sure looks great!  It's a cinnamon glazed roast.  Check it out.

Second:  This weekend is the Spring Convention of the International Dutch Oven Society (IDOS).  Here's the details.  I'll be at Taste of Dutch again this year, but I haven't decided yet what I'm going to cook.  I'll probably do some kind of bread, and maybe a pasta dish. I haven't made up my mind yet.  But come on out and taste some great dutch oven cooking!

Here's what it was like the other years that I went:  2009, and 2008






Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Monkey Bread!

This weekend was our church's televised conference weekend.  That means we Mormons don't go to church to listen to our local leaders, but instead watch our global leaders speak on TV.  It's a great family time, as we all sit on our couch and watch.

It's also a great time for food traditions, and one of ours is that we make Cinnamon buns, in the dutch oven.

But this year, after conference, we were going to an Easter party, and there would be a lot of people, so I thought it would be better to make Monkey Bread.  That's basically the same thing as a cinnamon roll, but it's smaller, so more people can get a portion.

Many people make Monkey bread by taking canned "pop up" biscuits and rolling them in cinnamon sugar.  Then you stack them randomly in your dutch oven and bake them.  That's easy enough, but I love making things from scratch, so I jumped in and did it.  I also love yeast bread, so I did it that way.


Dutch Oven Monkey Bread

12" Dutch Oven

10-12 coals below
20-24 coals above

• 2 Tbsp Yeast
• 2 cup water (at about 110 degrees)
• 1 cup butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 5-6 Cups Flour
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 eggs

• 2 Tbsp ground cinnamon
• Some sugar

First, I activated the yeast by stirring it into the water in a cup.  While that was getting all bubbly, I mixed, in a bowl, all of the dry ingredients, but only about 4 cups of the flour to start.  I sifted the flour.  I've gotten into the habit of doing that.  It aerates the flour, and I think it's a bit lighter as a result.

Then, I got out my pastry cutter and cut in the butter.  I guess another option would be to melt the butter into the powders.  Either way...

Finally, I added the eggs and the yeast mixture.  I stirred it all together, then turned it out onto our floured countertop and kneaded until I got a good windowpane.  Once it was all kneaded, I set it aside to raise.

In about two hours, it was nicely raised.  I mixed some sugar into the cinnamon until it looked like a nice blend and it tasted right.  I started pinching off doughballs that were about the size of ping-pong balls, rolled them in the cinnamon sugar and put them into the oiled dutch oven.  I don't worry much about the placement, just scatter them evenly.  After putting them in, I sprinkled the rest of the cinnamon sugar over the top.

Once the doughballs were done, I started up some coals, and when those were getting white, I put a lot of them (25-30) on the lid of the dutch oven to pre-heat.  That was heating while the dough was raising a second time in the body of the dutch oven.  Once they both were ready, I put the dutch oven out on (and under) the right amount of coals and baked them for about an hour.  I use the thermometer, and got them to the 190-200 range.

It got a little burned on top.  I wonder if that was the sugar.  They were sure yummy, and everyone at the party loved them.







Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.



Mark's Other Blog Posts: Making LDS Music