Chinese split pea soup via Fuchsia Dunlop

[rugessnome]

Dai Shuang's yellow split pea soup, from Every Grain of Rice

Advantages: not particularly difficult
Disadvantages: not a one pot recipe/dirties several dishes, benefits significantly from the somewhat to pretty obscure in US supermarkets ingredients of whole Sichuan pepper and pea shoots (and is prettier/possibly slightly different in taste with yellow instead of the more ubiquitous green split peas)


tip: don't allow wet but drained split peas to linger in a container without water to cover--their surface starch will cement them together if you do

300g split peas, ideally yellow, which have been soaked overnight in lots of cold water
25g piece of ginger
2 spring onions, whites separated from the greens, and greens sliced (this quantity of soup is supposed to want 4 tbsp or 1/4 cup of sliced spring onion/scallion greens as the garnish which ? may be more than two onions worth?, but start there)
3 tblsp lard or cooking oil
3/4 tsp whole Sichuan pepper
up to 1.5l chicken stock or water (note: based on my own experience I recommend starting with less than this. 1 liter might be enough)
salt

Toppings:
handful of pea shoots, ideally
4 tbsp or 1/4 c of sliced spring onion greens, starting with the tops of the two chopped ones
handful of fried or roasted peanuts
small handful of fried dough twists or, more easily, croutons

Drain and rinse the split peas, and put them in a pan with lots of water. Boil for 10 min and then simmer for 30 min until the peas start to disintegrate. Strain, reserving the cooking liquid.

smash the ginger and spring onion whites with the side of a large knife (cleaver or chef's knife) or rolling pin, but don't break them to smithereens. Heat a wok or less ideally a large saute pan/pot that can hold the whole volume of soup on high, add the oil, and stir fry the ginger and onion until fragrant. Then add the Sichuan pepper and sizzle a few moments more. Add the cooked peas with a slotted spoon and stir fry them for a minute or two.

Measure the reserved cooking liquid and add stock or water--I recommend starting with about 1 liter worth of liquid, which was still very liquid for me vs. standard western split pea soup, but Dunlop says 1.5 liters. Add this to the pan with the peas and seasonings. Maybe cook it briefly to heat through, especially if your water or stock was cold. Season with salt to taste.

Pour the hot soup over the pea sprouts in (a) serving bowl(s), then scatter the other toppings ...on the top.

Comments

[kaberett]

Hmm. Local supermarket has recently started carrying pea shoots (and come spring I'll be growing them). Will consider!