Ham with Pea Puree

We have a lot of peas from the garden that still need using up so I’m giving this River Cottage recipe a go. I work near Borough Market so I picked up the ham on the way home.

750g decent raw ham

1 onion studded with 6 cloves

1 carrot

1 stalk of celery

A bay leaf

750g peas

The boy gets home as I’m preparing the stock ingredients – onion, celery, carrot and stolen bay leaf. He had better not be hoping for an early supper. This will be a late one. Keep the onion, celery and carrot big enough to easily fish them out once the ham is cooked. Boil the ham (with the onion, carrot, celery and bay) for an hour or so. Ruffle his hair when he complains how long it’s taking. It’s amazingly coarse behind his ears.  He can pod the peas but only under close supervision so at least 80% of them go in the bowl. Pop a handful of the pods into the boiling ham stock. For some reason his cat likes chewing them so he gets a few.

I have the Karl Bohm recording of Mozart’s “Abduction from the Harem” playing, as it’s joyous. Mozart, ham, peas, what else could you want? For some reason I always think it’s called ‘Escape from the Harem’- which it kind of is.

Once the ham is done, remove it but save the water to cover the peas in a small saucepan.  Add a couple of mint leaves. Cook until done. Save about 2 tbsp. or so of the stock . Drain and pour into the blender. Fish out the mint first if you can, or at least some of it. Add a huge knob of butter and get it really smooth Add the reserved water if it needs it. Depends on how late in the season it is, but I like how the water has cooked the ham, then the peas and now the puree.  Season it and get the boy to taste. He likes mushy peas, I don’t so this is as smooth as I can get it.

Slice the rested ham up into inch thick, long slices. His cat gets some of the rind but cut generously so it’s still meaty. Ladle the pea puree onto each plate and add a couple of thick rashers of ham onto each. The boy thinks a bowl of hot chips would go with this. He’s absolutely right.