Recipe - Grandma Sofies Split Pea Soup With French Bread Croutons

SOUP
1 pound Split peas
One half pound Bacon
1 lg Onion; chopped
2 lg Stalks celery
3 tablespoon Parsley; chopped

CROUTONS
1 Loaf sourdough French bread
One fourth cup Butter; or more if needed
1 Garlic clove; minced (opt.)

This is NOT lowfat, lowcalorie, or low _anything_ for that matter, but
absolutely delicious and an alltime family favorite!

Rinse peas in cold water and bring to a boil in 3 quarts of water. Cut
bacon small and brown with onion. Add with drippings to peas. Cook until
peas are soft and just starting to disintegrate, about one hour, stirring
occasionally to prevent the solids from settling out and sticking to the
bottom of the pot. Chop celery small and add with parsley to the soup and
cook until the celery is soft, about 15 minutes more. Thin with water if
necessary to the proper consistency; it should be like light cream with
little bits of pea still visible. If too thick, it is more like 'pea
porridge' and not as appetizing.

Meanwhile, make the croutons. Cut the bread (leave crust on) into 3/4"
cubes. Melt the butter in a frying pan (Grandma Sofie used a heavy cast
iron one), and when the foam is just through dying down but before the
butter begins to brown, add the bread cubes in batches sized according to
the size of your pan: The croutons should never be more than one layer
deep.

Sometimes Grandma Sofie sauteed a little bit of garlic in the butter before
adding the bread and sometimes not the croutons are good both ways. I
think that living all of her life in California sometimes overrode her
German upbringing and that's how the garlic snuck in!

Fry the bread cubes over MEDIUM heat until dark golden, stirring and
tossing frequently to brown on all sides. Take your time about this, as if
you get the butter too hot it will burn and taste bitter. If the croutons
are done correctly, they will be crisp and fairly dry and light enough to
float on top of the soup.

Ladle the hot soup into bowls and pass the croutons in a basket for each
person to add at the table.

Note that you _could_ get by with a half a loaf of French bread for the
croutons, but only if you're alone while you're making the soup. Otherwise,
the croutons have a tendency to 'dissappear' when you're not looking!

From: My husbands maternal grandmother Sofie Schmidt Murray, 18921980. She
was one of those cooks who never used recipes; I wrote this down one time
while watching her make it. Linda Hurlbert Shogren
(hurlbert@concentric.net)

Recipe by: Sofie Schmidt Murray Posted to MCRecipe Digest V1 #737 by
hurlbert hurlbert@concentric.net on Aug 12, 1997