Passport & Plate - Namibian Pea Soup
Namibia | Friday, March 14, 2014 | 5 photos
Ingredients
1tbsp vegetable oil
± 700g mutton/lamb shanks
250g dried split peas
½ medium onion, grated
1 small leek, thinly sliced
5 or 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 medium carrot, grated
1 medium potato, grated
Salt & Pepper to taste
2-3 tbsp sugar
Bread, to serve
How to prepare this recipe1. Heat the vegetable oil in a pressure cooker. Lightly brown the shanks by frying in the oil for a about 5 minutes. Add water until the shanks are almost covered. Close the pot and pressure cook the meat until it is almost tender – about 30 minutes. Check it halfway through and add water if needed.
2. In the meantime, simmer the split peas separately in water to start the softening process.
3. When the meat is almost tender, add the split peas with its water to the pressure cooker. Also add salt, pepper, the onion, leek and garlic. Also add enough water to completely submerge all the ingredients. Pressure cook for 10 minutes on medium-high heat. High heat will make the peas at the bottom of the pot burn.
4. Stir the mixture well, making sure to scrape the spoon over the bottom of the pot to remove any peas that are sticking to the base. Add the carrot, potato and sugar. Add more salt and pepper to taste.
5. Simmer the soup, uncovered, for 30-40 minutes or until the peas are completely soft. Taste the soup often, adding seasoning as needed. Remember: you should almost not be hungry anymore by the time it’s cooked!
Serve with bread of your choice. We enjoy German brötchens with this pea soup.
The story behind this recipeAre memories just romanticized versions of what really happened? I used to think so, until this soup transported me a thousand kilometers and ten years back to my hometown.
I am standing on the back of a ‘bakkie’ – the Namibian word for a pickup truck. The wind is icy cold. It blows my fringe into my eyes. My school blazer is covered in minute drops from the fog that hangs thick and white in the streets of Oranjemund – a diamond town on the edge of the Namibian desert. The gemsbok (oryx) that normally line the streets are hiding from the cold, under the trees. Yes...oryx live in Oranjemund. They come in from the desert, thirsty and slim. The tree-lined oasis town is too much to pass up, so they stay, eating grass from lawns and learn to walk over zebra crossings. How ironic!
On days like today, I don’t cycle to my house after school. On days like today, my best friend’s father loads us and our bikes onto his bakkie. We walk into their house through the laundry room, where detergent fumes are overpowered by the smell of his perfect pea soup.
This pea soup completely banishes the cold from your bones and comforts your soul. This is pea soup with melt-in-your-mouth soft mutton. We are a nation of shameless meat-eaters, and mutton is the meat of choice for a ‘braai’ (barbeque), a roast and for soup. Flavored with old fashioned salt and pepper, it reflects the simplicity of Namibian cooking that lets the ingredients sing their own song in unison. It is perfected with patience and lots of tasting. My friend’s father says you shouldn’t be hungry anymore by the time it’s cooked! He sent me a ‘recipe’ - a five sentence guideline with no specific amounts of anything. I followed it as best I could. It worked! I had not eaten the soup in more than a decade, but with the first taste I was back in that kitchen.
All of us have moved away from Oranjemund. It is difficult being so far apart, but making this pea soup always makes it easier to feel closer to them.
