Pease pudding returns

A passing comment online reminded me of pease pudding, ancient Yorkshire food. I remember it from childhood. Probably homemade, but you could buy it cooked, too. You remember the rhyme about pease pudding hot, pease pudding cold? This is the very stuff.

This recipe is for yellow split peas, or pease, but I think I've had it made with green split peas too. Goes with ham. Or anything you fancy.

Since I had all the ingredients in the house, the split peas, onion, carrot being the main players, I put the peas in to soak all day and cooked last night. Didn't have bay leaves, so I used the Indian equivalent, curry leaves. Butter, seasalt, vinegar, didn't have malt, used apple cider. Malt vinegar in the US is an exotic, found on the foreign, expensive, shelves.

So here's the doings, simmering till tender, about an hour and a half. Then the carrots, onions and curry leaves fished out, blended to almost smooth, add salt, pepper, vinegar, beat in a bit of butter. Done.

I had a slice for breakfast, heated and a fried egg resting on top. Nice plain relief from party foods. Some people like to use it like hummus, so I guess it's Yorkshire hummus. It's one of those foods that improve over days.

About curry leaves: they are flavorful, not hot at all, great in vegetarian cooking, nothing to do with what we call curry. The name is confusing. I just use them where I'd use bay leaf.

You can also grind split peas in your coffee grinder, to make flour. It's fun, though the noise alarms the neighbors.