How about some soup?
photo by Jenny
Creamy, earthy, sweet and savory green pea soup with lovely chunks of smoked ham hock. April has you make a ham stock with smoked ham hocks. So lets chat about ham hocks for a moment. The ham hocks you get at a regular grocery stores are smoked and cured, usually all bone, very little meat and that weird overly cured pink color making them very salty. If you can avoid these, please do so, this way you can control the flavor of your soup and it won’t taste like curing salt. Try to find fresh smoked ham hocks, whole foods whole paycheck has them or most good butchers should too. Cooking beans all day with the cured smoked hocks works very well, they stand up to each other much better, but for this soup, you want the delicate pea flavor to shine.
Here is what you will need
For the Broth/Stock
2 pounds meaty smoked ham hocks
1/2 medium spanish onion or any yellow onion
3 small celery stocks
1/2 medium carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
1 head of garlic, halved horizontally, not peeled
1 fresh bay leaf or 1/2 a dried bay leaf
6 black peppercorns
Combine hocks, veggies, bay leaf, peppercorns and 8 cups of water in a stock pot and simmer for 4 to 5 hours. 
The meat on the hocks should be tender and falling off the bone. Remove the hocks to a big bowl, strain the cooking liquid through a sieve into the same bowl and let the hocks cool in the liquid. When the hocks are cooled, remove all the meat, discarding any fatty hard bits. If you’re lucky and you get hocks with the skin still on them, reserve the skin after cooking and crisp them up in the broiler for a crunchy garnish. Since the hocks I got weren’t cured they needed some salt. I salted mine and crisped them in the broiler. You can make the broth/stock a day or two ahead. 
For the Soup
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 medium spanish onion or any yellow onion
1 medium carrot, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 teaspoons maldon salt
1/2 cup dry white wine, sauvignon blanc would work nicely
five finger pinch of fresh mint leaves and more torn leaves for finishing
2 10oz packages of frozen peas
extra virgin olive oil
freshly ground black pepper
3 -4 tablespoons creme fraiche
photo by Jenny
Melt the butter in a large pot, add the onions, carrots and salt. Cover and cook, stirring every now and then until onions are creamy and carrots are tender but still firm. about 15 minutes.
photo by Jenny
Add the wine and bring to a boil. Let the wine boil until it’s all but gone, about 5 minutes.
photo by Jenny
Add 4 cups of broth (freeze the remainder for another batch of soup) bring to boil. Look at that lovely ham hock broth!
photo by Jenny
Add the mint and frozen peas. Cook at a simmer for about 5 minutes until peas are warmed and tender.
Puree soup with an immersion blender right in the pot or transfer in batches and puree in a blender. Add the ham chunks (save some for garnishing) back into the soup and simmer until the ham is warmed. Check seasoning, depending on how salty your hocks were, you may need more salt.
photo by Jenny
Serve with a drizzle of olive oil, black pepper, a few mint leaves, chunk of ham and a big dollop of creme fraiche. YUM! nothing like home-made soup.
Chef Sarah Spry 
