Take It As Red

It's bitterly cold today and foggy, and the temperature has been hovering around zero for most of the day so far. Time for erwtensoep, one of the nicer Dutch traditions, in my opinion, and which is only served on bitterly cold days in the middle of winter. Like today.



Unlike English split pea soup, which is made with a hambone, it's cooked with stock made from marrowbone of beef, and served with thin slices of uncooked fat bacon (katenspek - like lardons, only in a chunk) on pumpernickel bread, and garnished with slices of rookworst (Polish sausage, or kielbasa). It's best made the day before eating, but today it's so cold we'll have it for tonight's dinner, only without the fat bacon and the pumpernickel, since that's taking it a little far for me, the person who can't digest fat. That's my afternoon planned then, skimming, skimming, and more skimming.

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