Pea Soup with Smoked Gammon

INGREDIENTS

1 Old Fashioned smoked gammon hock

For the Stock:

1 carrot, roughly sliced
1 onion, quartered
2 garlic cloves, smashed
10 peppercorns

For the soup:

knob of butter
500g frozen peas
1 onion diced

METHOD

Place the gammon hock in a large pan and cover with cold water, bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Drain and place the hock back into the pan with the stock ingredients. Cover with cold water, bring to the boil and then reduce heat to a simmer, cook for 3 hours or until the meat falls from the bone. Leave to cool in the pan.

Reserve the stock and reduce to 1 litre.

Once the gammon is cool, strip the meat from the bone, discarding the skin and trim any excessive fat.

Take the gammon that you want to use for the soup and chop it or shred it into chunks.

Heat a knob of butter in a saucepan and when lightly foaming gently cook 1 chopped onion until softened, but not coloured.

Add the gammon stock and 500g frozen peas. Bring to the boil and cook for a couple of minutes.

Remove from the heat and blend until smooth. Stir in as much of the chopped gammon as you would like.

Garnish with some whole peas.