Pease Pudding and Ham Stottie

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large stockpot
• •Potato masher or sturdy fork
• •Large mixing bowl for dough
• •Baking tray

Instructions

1. 1

   Start the pot

   Drain the soaked peas and tip them into a large stockpot with the ham hock, onion, bay leaves, and peppercorns. Cover generously with cold water, at least two litres, and bring to a steady simmer. Skim off any grey foam that rises in the first ten minutes. Then turn the heat low, set the lid slightly ajar, and let it tick away for two to two and a half hours. The peas should be completely soft, almost falling apart, and the ham should pull easily from the bone when you test it with a fork. Check the water level now and then and top up if it drops below the peas. The kitchen will start to smell of something old and savoury and good. That's when you know it's working.

   Soaking the peas overnight is not optional here. Unsoaked split peas take twice as long and never quite reach the same smoothness. Put them in a bowl of cold water before bed and forget about them until morning.
2. 2

   Make the stottie dough

   While the pot simmers, make the bread. Put the flour, salt, and yeast in a large bowl. Rub in the lard with your fingertips until it disappears into the flour. Add the warm water and bring it together into a rough, shaggy dough. Turn it out onto a floured surface and knead for eight to ten minutes until it feels smooth and elastic, with a slight spring when you press a thumb into it. This is a firmer dough than most bread. Not slack, not sticky. A stottie needs to be dense, so don't be tempted to add more water. Put it back in the bowl, cover with a tea towel, and leave somewhere warm for an hour or so, until it has roughly doubled.

   Lard is traditional and gives the stottie its particular soft chew. Butter works if you'd rather, but the texture changes slightly. Either way, the dough should feel smooth and firm under your hands, not wet.
3. 3

   Shape and bake the stotties

   Set the oven to 220C/200C fan. Knock the dough back, divide it into four equal pieces, and roll each one into a flat disc about two centimetres thick and the width of a side plate. Lay them on a floured baking tray, dust the tops with flour, and press a deep thumbprint into the centre of each. That dimple is the stottie's signature. Let them rest for fifteen minutes, no longer, then bake for twenty to twenty-five minutes. They should be pale, barely coloured, with a dense, slightly chewy crumb when you tear one open. A golden stottie has been in too long. You want it almost white, floury, firm on the outside and soft within. Cool them on a wire rack.

4. 4

   Finish the pease pudding

   When the peas are completely soft and the ham is tender, lift the hock out onto a board and set it aside. Fish out the bay leaves, onion halves, and any loose peppercorns. Drain the peas, keeping a cup of the cooking liquor. Mash them with a potato masher or a fork, adding the butter and a splash of the cooking liquor until you have something thick and spreadable, the consistency of hummus on a good day. It should be golden and smooth but not perfectly so. A few soft lumps are honest. Season with white pepper and taste it. The ham will have given it salt already, but check. It should be deeply savoury, almost meaty, even though it's just peas.

   Don't use a blender. A potato masher gives the pease pudding its proper texture, slightly rough, with enough body to hold its own against the bread. Too smooth and it loses its character.
5. 5

   Pull the ham

   When the hock is cool enough to handle, strip the meat from the bone in thick, generous pieces. Discard the skin and fat, or keep the skin if you want to crisp it later under a hot grill, which is not a bad idea at all. The meat should be soft and yielding, falling apart almost, pink and smoky and very difficult not to eat standing up at the counter. Save enough for the stotties. The bone goes into a bag in the freezer for stock another day.

6. 6

   Assemble the stottie

   Split each stottie in half horizontally. Spread the bottom half generously with pease pudding, thicker than you think, thicker than that. Layer the ham over the top in rough folds. A smear of English mustard on the upper half if you want it, and you should want it. Press the lid on. The stottie should be heavy in your hand. That weight is the whole point. Cut it in half if you must, but it's better eaten whole, leaning slightly forward over the plate to catch what falls. There are few better feelings than putting one of these in front of someone on a cold evening and watching them pick it up with both hands.

Chef Tips

• •A smoked hock gives the best flavour here, deeply savoury and sweet at the same time. If you can only find unsmoked, it still works, but you'll want to be more generous with the seasoning in the pease pudding. The smokiness is what makes this taste like the Northeast.
• •The stottie should be dense and pale. If it looks like a normal bread roll, something has gone wrong. It's meant to be chewy and substantial, the kind of bread that holds up to a filling that would soak through anything else. The flour-dusted top and the barely-there crust are what you're after.
• •Leftover pease pudding keeps in the fridge for four or five days and improves overnight as the flavour settles and deepens. Spread it on toast, eat it cold from the container with a spoon, stir it into soup to give it body. It's one of those things that finds a use before the week is out.
• •If making stotties feels like too much on the same day, a good floury bap from a proper bakery will carry you through. It won't be the same, but it will be close, and close is fine when the pease pudding is this good.

Advance Preparation

• •The pease pudding can be made up to three days ahead and kept in the fridge. It firms as it cools, which actually makes it easier to spread. Bring it to room temperature before assembling, or warm it gently in a pan with a knob of butter if you want it soft.
• •Stottie cakes freeze well for up to two months, wrapped tightly in cling film. Defrost at room temperature and warm briefly in a low oven to restore the chew.
• •The ham hock can be simmered a day ahead. Keep the pulled ham in a little of its cooking liquor in the fridge and lift it out when you're ready to build. The liquor, strained, makes a beautiful base for split pea soup later in the week. Nothing wasted.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 430g)