David Parker, of Claremont, was drawn in by the photograph of a ham and rice soup I wrote about last month in Close-Up, but judging from the ingredients, he thought it might be bland.
So, he turned to Peter Christian’s Recipes, a book by Shirley Edes and Julia Philipson, in search of “spices that would make sense.”
In the soup section, he spotted just the thing.
“All right, well this has peas and it has ham,” and the quantity seemed roughly the same, said Parker, who calls himself “a cook, not a chef.”
With the split-pea soup recipe in mind, he added ¼ teaspoon basil and ½ teaspoon thyme from a big box of spices he keeps on hand. He opted for half-and-half, which the original slow-cooker recipe calls for (I had substituted skim milk), and also added a couple tablespoons of dried porcini mushrooms.
A buttered baguette with garlic and melted mozarella made a nice accompaniment for the the soup, which he served during last Monday’s spring snowstorm, said Parker, who enjoyed the flavor.
It was the perfect dish for the weather, he said. “I’d definitely make it again.”
— Aimee Caruso