It's a Northern Thing

Pease pudding that is! A favourite of many people from the North of the UK and brilliant with ham. Easy to make and tastes just the way I remember it from my childhood when my grandma used to make it. So here's the recipe, of course all the ingredients can be found in Bulgaria

• 250g split yellow peas
• 750ml bacon stock, you can use shop bought stock cubes (or OXO) but homemade bacon or pork stock improves the taste so much.
• salt and pepper to taste.

 You can soak the split yellow peas overnight but I find this isn't really necessary.

• preheat oven to 150C, 300F or gas mark 2.
• Place split peas and enough stock to cover the peas (they will swell during cooking) in an ovenproof dish, season and cook for up to 1 hour, adding more stock if necessary and checking every 15 minutes. 
• Once the peas have started to disintegrate remove from oven.
• Top up with any leftover stock and mash or blend with a liquidiser.
• Leave to cool and chill in fridge or if you prefer eat it hot!

Tip - homemade stock is easy to make, simply boil any bones or leftover meat for at least 1 hour with seasoning, then remove meat. For pease pudding you can leave small pieces of meat in the stock, or if using packaged stock simply cut up pieces of ham/bacon and add them to the pease pudding as it cools.