Boiled Bacon or Salt Pork and
Pease Pudding

Pease Pudding:
Place 500 gm yellow split peas in a 4-litre Crockpot (slow cooker), cover with 2 litres of boiling water and cook on high for several hours, stirring every so often, until most of the water is absorbed and a wire whisk is able to reduce the peas to a mash. They can also be cooked in a microwave. My microwave is 650 watts and, using a 4-litre casserole, it takes about an hour on high for most of the 2 litres of water to disappear. I then add another half litre or so (because the mixture is still a bit lumpy) and cook another 15-30 minutes. You can soak them overnight and add a teaspoon of baking soda if you like, but I find this isn’t necessary with either of these cooking methods. If you have to cook in an ordinary saucepan, I would definitely recommend both the soaking and the baking soda. Add 1-2 beaten eggs, some salt or powdered bacon stock to taste, pepper  (or Tabasco sauce)  and about

50 gm melted butter. Place the mixture in a pudding cloth, tie it up and put it in the slower cooker (in boiling water) with the meat, a peeled onion studded with cloves, a bay leaf or two, a tablespoon or two of brown sugar and half a dozen black peppercorns. Cook on low for about 5 hours.

Curry Sauce:
Chop (fairly fine) the onion that was cooked with the meat, cook it with 2 teaspoons (or more, to taste) of Vencat curry powder in a little butter in the microwave on high for 2-3 minutes. Add 4 tablespoons of flour, 2 teaspoons of bacon stock and 500 ml milk. Stir well with a wire whisk. Cook on high for 3-5 minutes, or until thickened, stirring with the wire whisk after each minute. Keep the sauce hot while you finish the pease pudding by squeezing out as much of the water as you can. (I wear rubber gloves for this, to protect my hands against the heat.) Keep the pudding hot in a microproof bowl in the microwave with the sauce while you carve the meat. Cauliflower or broccoli go well with this dish, but since my husband doesn’t care for either we just have an extra large portion of pease pudding. J

Apparently you are supposed to be able to serve pease pudding in slices, but we don’t like it this dry. Experiment to find out how your own family prefers it. Apparently it isn’t traditional to serve it with curry sauce either, but that’s how my mother-in-law served it and I think it would be nowhere near as tasty without the sauce.

Serves at least four hungry people.

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