Arlette's Pea Soup

I had better let you know straight off, that Arlette was a fictional person. She was the French wife, and later widow, of Piet van der Valk, a Dutch policeman featured in some of the detective novels of Nicholas Freeling. Van der Valk had the distinction of being one of the few, and earliest successful series detectives to die - and to remain dead. (Unlike A. Conan Doyle, Freeling did not lose his nerve in the face of fan dismay, and cheesily revive his man.) Arlette later had a book or two of her own, and Freeling went on to create Henri Castang, a French policeman/detective.

Arlette was an interesting, particular and unpretentious cook, and her lovingly described food was especially appetizing, having the ring of truth about it. Freeling himself was a real cook, and had an extensive, rough and tumble career as an itinerant professional journeyman cook in France and England before he settled into writing. In fact, he wrote a classic book about these experiences before he started to produce the detective fiction for which he is, perhaps, better known. That book is The Kitchen Book, and I recommend it to you,if you haven't read it already. It is a very well done tale of professional kitchens, from the days before celebrity chef memoirs.

In one of the van der Valk novels (I think it is the out-of-print Double-Barrel, but I'm not certain) Arlette, herself from the South of France, prepared a pea soup which Freeling said was more or less the national dish of Holland. Van der Valk relished this humble yet splendid creation, which took 3 days to make properly, and which was ever so slightly varied (in a french kind of way) from the absolutely tradtional Dutch version. They had it with a bottle of reisling , rather than with beer, which they thought would "spoil the taste."

It began with a beef stock, made from meaty bones, and seasoned with parsley, pepper, thyme and a clove or two. The next day, dried split peas were cooked in the stock with a slab of "streaky bacon." On the third day, leeks, onions, celery root and smoked sausage were poached in the creamy soup, along with the heretical additions of carrot , unpeeled garlic cloves, and marjoram. This one dish meal was served with open faced sandwiches of thinly sliced dark pumpernickle bread, spread with mild mustard, a slice of the bacon, and a thicker slice of the celery root.

You may have noticed that I found the description of this meal as attractive as this fictional couple did. You may also be wondering if the novel included this degree of detail, and the answer to that is, I think probably not. But I was recently delighted to discover that in his second book about food, the somewhat reluctant Cook Book of a cook who didn't believe in writing recipes, Freeling went into this much detail and more. I had wanted to try it since reading the novel. Since I already had, in the freezer, a nice pot of beefy stock left over from my recent boiled dinner, I decided to see about making some pea soup.

My only problem was the "streaky bacon", which I felt was not "streaky bacon" as my English mother had once explained it to me. She said that American style bacon is much fattier than English bacon, and called "streaky bacon" there to differentiate it from their ordinary, leaner bacon. Yet Freeling referred to trimming the fat off his bacon, and removing small bones from it, before slicing it for the sandwiches. Since slicing the fat from a slab of ordinary (boneless) American bacon would leave you with a pathetic pile of scraps, I improvised, adding a wodge of Canadian bacon for slicing later, as well as a smoked ham hock, since the Canadian had neither bone nor any fat at all.

Although I have said more about this soup already than appears in the novel, I have left out some related story elements, including the episode of Arlette and the "gweengwocer", which you might enjoy checking out. I have followed the Cook Book's quite general instructions, more or less, and am very satisfied with the result. It is lucky that it's a bit chilly, because this hearty soup is a wintery sort of thing-stokes you up-not for summer at all. The little sandwiches are dynamite, made on that very compact, thinly sliced pumpernickle that comes in the small, square cellophane wrapped packets. Some sorts are loaded with preservatives, but my supermarket had a lovely one which was not.

These are the ingredients, for which quantities were not always specified :

Day 1:sprig of thyme, 4 peppercorns, few cloves, parsley stems, soup bones
Day 2: pound of streaky bacon (or substitutions as above), pound of dried split peas
Day 3: one large celery root, 2 leeks, onions, a carrot, 1/2 lb smoked sausage

I used a mix of yellow and green split peas, because that was what I had. I suspect all yellow might be more authentic. Try it when it's chilly. Freeling said it's especially loved by ice skaters, which I can believe.

Comments

[Baking Soda]

Wow, and all that from a novel! I admire your stamina. I'm amazed you could find pumpernickel in your supermarket.

[gail kendall]

It's a cold day in Lincoln, Nebraska, and while getting ready to make some pea soup since the weather is perfect for it, I remembered Arlette's from the Van der Walk series, which I read many decades ago. What a treat to find the commentary on your website. Mine is going to substitute homemade chicken broth for beef broth and only a ham hock for the meat. Now for relocating some Inspector Van der Walk novels.....