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Wednesday, February 15, 2012

One Smoked Pork Shoulder and Six Meals

A bowl of split pea soup garnished with crispy bacon.

Last Saturday, we bought a smoked pork shoulder. We were told that a great way to prepare it was to boil it for 2.5 - 3 hours to draw out the excess salt. So we gave it a go, and boiled it all afternoon. We have proceeded to eat off that one piece of meat ever since. It has inspired us to look for other cuts of meats that we can stretch just as far in future weeks. Do you have any suggestions?

Something we noticed shopping at the grocery store was that it was really hard to tell what season it was. They had artichokes and plantains on sale in February! We decided to go for it since all of the vegetables came from somewhere else anyways. Hopefully this week, we will be able to make it to the farmers market and get back on track with our seasonal foods.

Meal 1 - We were inspired by our trip to England to have some ham and eggs for dinner with a side of plantains and a big salad (it didn't make the photo).


Meal 2 - Ham with artichoke and salad. I know it looks more like an Easter dinner than one in February, but all the vegetables came from another quadrant of the world, and the artichokes were on sale...


Meal 3 - Breakfast of eggs, ham and plantains. I had never had plantains before living in NYC and this week was my first time making them at home. They are pretty low on the glycemic index and inexpensive.


Meal 4 and 5 - Split pea soup is such a satisfying winter meal. Please see below for the recipe.

Meal 6 - Some ham and swiss sandwiches with salad. I didn't take a photo.


Split Pea Soup Inspired by Burnt Offerings' on Food 52

Ingredients
1/2 lb bacon, sliced into lardons
4 carrots, diced
4 ribs of celery, diced
1 large onion, diced
1/2 t sage
1/2 t thyme
1 t rosemary
3 bay leaves
1 lb dried split peas
2 lb smoked ham hock (or this time I used the shoulder joint and the remaining meat)
8 C water or chicken stock

Method
Place a Dutch oven over medium low heat, and add the bacon. Once the bacon is crispy, remove from the pan and set aside for garnish. Add the carrots, celery and onion to the pan and cook for 15 minutes (or until tender). Add the sage, thyme, rosemary and bay leaves and stir to combine. Spread the peas out on a cookie sheet and check for stones. Remove any stones and add to the pot. Nestle the ham hock or pork shoulder into the peas and vegetables, and add the water or chicken stock. Bring to a simmer and lower heat. Cook for about 2.5 hours. Remove the ham hock or pork shoulder, let cool, remove the meat and chop into bite size pieces. Add the meat back into the pot. It is ready to enjoy. Dish up and garnish with the bacon.

* I only have 1 cup glass measuring cups and I didn't want to have to measure out 8 cups of water with them, so I thought of using our coffee pot carafe. Each "cup" on the coffee maker is 6 ounces, so just under 11 cups= 64 ounces, or 8 cups. Thought I'd pass my tip along.



This post is part of Simple Lives Thursday, Full Plate Thursday, Frugal Food Thursday, Alphabe-Thursday, and Sunday Night Soup Night.

11 comments:

Monica said...

I don't know abou the pea soup, but everything else looks good! :) We cooked a pork roast a couple weeks ago and used it in 2 different recipes. I love that you stretched this out to 6 meals!!

Gattina said...

You gave me an idea ! it's a long time ago I didn't make a pea soup !!

anitamombanita said...

Oh yes, split pea soup...so awesome in winter!

Annesphamily said...

Goodness what delightful meals you prepared! Mmm...It is good to find bargains in this tough economy! Enjoy the weekend.

Miz Helen said...

We can usually get several nice meals from a Smoked Pork Shoulder, it is a great meal maker. I just love you pea soup, it looks delicious! Thank you so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday and have a great week end.
Come Back Soon!
Miz Helen

Anonymous said...

All of these meals look so good! I'm especially a big fan of split pea soup. I'm hosting a weekly blog carnival specifically for soups, stocks and chowders, every Sunday! I would love you to come and post this recipe. Just stop by my blog on Sunday - the link will be up!
www.easynaturalfood.com

I hope to see you there:)
Debbie

Linda Bob Grifins Korbetis Hall said...

you make my mouth watery.
wow.

storybeader said...

Looks delicious! Esp. the split pea soup! And I love artichoke - haven't eaten one in a long while... {:-D

Anonymous said...

I love cooking once and getting multiple future meals.
You can do the same idea with roast chicken.

Jenny said...

I love how you Made so Many Meals from the smoked pork shoulder...

And they all sound absolutely Magnificent...

I will have to give that recipe a try...

Marvelous post for the letter "M"!

Thanks for linking.

A+

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing this with Sunday Night Soup Night, look forward to seeing you again soon!

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