Comments on: Split Pea Soup: It’s Ugly

By: KarenLynn

KarenLynn — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 16:45:15 +0000

Your split pea soup looks fabulous I had never tried leaks in mine! I am eating my much simpler version of split pea soup and it is not as fancy but good I also like a good piece of corn bread along side it!

By: crazyquilt

crazyquilt — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Yoy know, to read these posts, you'd think I was a fussy eater -- I don't like celery, I prefer split pea to masoor dal, and so on. I'd just like to say, in my own defense, that while I am not as adventurous a gustatory seeker as Barbara, I'm pretty flexible. A situation for which she is significantly responsible; when we met, you could count the vegetables I would eat on one hand. At that point, being fussy would have been a step up.

On the other hand, I took Barbara to her first Thai restaurant, proved to her (with the help of Legal Seafood) that clam chowder could be good, and have worked to expand my own palate over the years.

Yes, I'm still wary of chicken feet, and I still don't much like either celery or cucumbers (it's not the texture, by the way, it's the astringent flavor I don't much care for.) There are a few other things I still don't care for, but, at this point, they are very much the exception.

By the same token, Barbara has spoiled me rotten. I imagine the same happens to anyone who cooks well, and anyone lucky enough to live with them: I can't bring myself to eat crap.

Of course, I've also gained almost forty pounds since I met Barbara, but I was probably twenty or twenty five pounds underweight to start out with. I guess there's a price for everything.

By: ejm

ejm — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Split pea soup – ugly, you say?? Not at all! Yours looks wonderful. (I adore split pea soup!) And that bread on the margin of the photo looks pretty amazing too. I’ve never quite managed to get that lovely ridged pattern effect on top with flour. How did you do that?

-Elizabeth

By: Barbara Fisher

Barbara Fisher — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

As my beloved Zak pointed out, he has broadened my culinary horizons as much as I have broadened his palate. He introduced me not only to Thai food, but also to Cuban and Nicaraguan food, both of which are fantastic. He also puts up with me doing things like cooking nothing but Indian food for an entire month so I can learn enough to make good on my promise to potential clients that yes, indeed, I do know how to cook Indian food.

He also will try anything I cook, if only for just a bite, and has learned to love an impressive amount of vegetables over the past fourteen years.

Elizabeth, that bread is the handiwork of none other than the beloved Zak--he is learning to bake bread, so we can share dinner making duties. The ridges come from letting the round loaf do its final rise in a banneton--a special French basket that is made of coiled rattan or wood that you line thickly with flour. You form the dough into a smooth ball, and set it in the floured banneton and let it rise the last time, then carefully, you invert it onto a baking sheet, and bake it. The pretty spiral design stays intact on the crust.

By: ejm

ejm — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Aha!! A banneton (I should have known) I have tried that method only once with a largish wicker basket I have. I lined it with a tea towel and now that I dimly recall, the bread did end up having the weaving markings from the towel.

My problem is that I really like a thick crust and so always spray the risen loaf with water just before it goes in the oven. I used to use a broiling pan filled with water to produce the required steam at the beginning of the bake. Maybe I should try that again.

I'm very very impressed at Zak's nerve to flip the bread over onto the peel. I am quite skittery about it (even though I know it works)

Is that bread plain flour or was there rye and/or whole wheat in it as well? It really looks fantastic.

-Elizabeth