Dutch Oven Ham Recipes, Part II

Every time I do up a big ham, I always save the bone. Usually, I make split pea soup with it, but this time, I decided to try something new, slightly. I decided to do a black-eyed-pea soup. This recipe is a variant from something I found online at recipezaar.com.

One of the big changes I made was the orange juice. This ham soup recipe originally called for Sherry. I looked up some alcohol substitution charts online, and they all suggested orange juice for sherry. Having never tasted sherry, I don't know if that's a fair replacement. Still, it tasted good!

Other than soaking the beans, there's really not much to this dish. So, this one is also really good as a beginner dish, since it's really just a dump it in and cook it kinda meal.

Dutch Oven Ham and Black-Eyed Pea Soup

12" Dutch Oven
~15 coals below

• 1 lb black-eyed peas
• 3 Cups water
• 4 Cups chicken stock
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1 ham bone, with a lot of meat still on
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 4-5 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 bay leaf, crushed
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• ~1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1-2 tsp chili powder
  
• salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• A little flour to thicken, if desired
  

Like I said before, there's really not much to this ham recipe. The night before, I opened up the package of beans and put them in a bowl with lots of water. You need to do lots because the whole point is to have the beans soak it up. So, put in an inch plus or so of water higher than the beans.

The next day, drain the beans, and drop them into a dutch oven. Pour in the liquids, and drop in everything else. Because there's a lot of water, I used a lot of salt. It was very very yummy, especially with the french bread!