Dinner Diary - Ham and Pease Pudding Stottie

I knew we were going to have a couple of days when we'd be dashing out this week, but I had just the right thing in the freezer. The lads at Art of Meat, our local butcher thats well worth a visit, sold me some ham hocks a while ago. So I got one of them out, let it defrost, soaked it to get the excess salt out (put it in a tub, put water on, left it overnight) and then pressure cooked it (half covered it in water, heated the pressure cooker at full pressure for 40 minutes, and left it to cool). Its one of the cheapest cuts you can get and its thoroughly delicious. 

Even better is the stock. It will have set, so warm it up to melt it, take out the meat and put it aside, pour the stock off to cool. The fat will float up and be easy to remove when it sets again.

Now, the stottie. This is Geordie bread and its dead easy - make a simple white bread dough, let it rest once, roll it out thin-ish (like a bit under an inch), prick it all over with a fork and put to thumb marks in the middle. Then bake it in a hot oven for 14 minutes - and thats it. Don't prove the loaf once you've rolled it out. Its dense and tasty. I always reckon on getting two stotties from about the same amount of dough as you make for a loaf of bread.

Pease pudding is made from yellow split peas, the ham stock without fat, and one peeled onion. I'd give you quantities but I've no idea, its all done by eyeball, you'll have to google that. But it all goes into the pressure cooker, cooks on full for 20 minutes, then allow it to cool down until you can open it. Then blitz it up with a hand blender, and let it set. You've got Geordie pate, right there.

I can't tell you how much I love this stuff. Its rich, its salty, its smooth. And you can do a lot with it - straight into sandwiches, as a vegetable side dish with a dinner, or add some water and more veg and cook it into a thick pea soup. Its useful and tasty, its worth making a batch and keeping some in the freezer.

And then the combination... Split a stottie, smear pease pudding on one half, drop ham all over it, and make your sandwich. If you want, you can add some ketchup, chutney or brown sauce, they all work. Or if you're feeling especially decadant, a portion of chips. But whatever you put on it, after eating half a ham and pease pudding stottie you're not going to be hungry.