I'll take the Chocolate Stout, please!

Daniel Del Grande, owner & brewer of Bison Brewing Company out of Berkeley, CA was in San Diego last week.  He visited Hamilton’s Tavern in South Park on Tuesday, January 26th & Pizza Port Carlsbad’s Bottle Shop in North County the following evening.  I really enjoyed the Chocolate Stout, which had a smooth cocoa flavor with a touch of bitterness.   If you are a dark chocolate & stout fan, this beer is for you.  The Imperial Brown Ale & the India Pale Ale were favorites among tasting attendees.  I look forward to trying some of their seasonals like the Gingerbread Ale & the Honey Basil Ale, though their  beer is very hard to find in San Diego.

Not only is Bison Brewing’s beer organic, they look to reduce the beer drinker’s carbon footprint with their Carbon Offset Program.

“Drink Neutral” is a long term Bison promotional program for organic beer consumers to reduce their carbon footprint associated with their beer consumption.  As a leading national natural and organic brand, we engage consumers like you on this issue, educate, and encourage you to take action on your own personal carbon footprint.

Here’s a video which shows the organic farm where their hops are grown.

Apparently Daniel will be returning to San Diego in the next few months, hopefully he brings some more awesome brews to sample.

Split pea soup seems appropriate for the winter season & can be more of a dinner soup or stew, especially when potatoes, celery, & a lot of carrots are added.  Last year after Thanksgiving dinner, I was the beneficiary of a leftover hambone (long story), which prompted my first attempt at making Split Pea Soup.   The hambone still had meat on it & it fell off the bone as the soup was simmering in the crock pot.

A Crockpot, or slow cooker, is the essential tool for this recipe.  If you don’t have one, get one!  It is the easiest way to cook a fabulous meal.  Fill, then turn it on in the morning & you have a ready cooked dinner when you get home at night.  If possible, cook recipes on Low, however in making this soup I cooked it on High & it still turned out well.  Since it gets really hot, it is a good idea to let the soup cool a little before serving.  I have had my trusty crock pot for over 10 years.  Needless to say, it has some character, which can be seen in the Flickr slideshow below.

Recipe

I usually go to the Internet or to my Betty Crocker cookbook (a staple), to find a roadmap to follow when planning a recipe. I searched on Google for “crock pot split pea soup ham hocks“ & found a Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup recipe on About.com: Southern Food. I also checked out the Albertson’s Green Split Pea packaging for their recipe, morphed the two together, then added my own touches. Using a hambone is ideal, however ham hocks will do the job too & supply the soup with a salty pork flavor.  I decided to add diced ham (on sale too!) to the recipe, which was a plus since the ham hocks did not end up being very meaty.  I ran out of black pepper & substituted cayenne pepper, which seemed to work well with the peas & ham & added a nice kick to the dish.

Ingredients

• Green Split Peas (16 oz)
• Ham hocks (2)
• Red Potatoes (3)
• Carrots (3 – 4)
• Celery (2)
• Yellow Onion – small (1)
• Garlic – several cloves
• Fresh Basil – leaves (5 – 7)
• Cayenne Pepper (1/2 teaspoon)
• Sea Salt (to taste)
• Bay Leaf
• Water (1 ½ quarts or make sure H2O covers everything in the crock pot)
• Diced Ham (optional)

Process

• Clean out any small pebbles from the green split peas, then rinse.
• Cut the potatoes, carrots, celery, & onion into bite sized pieces. Mince garlic & chop basil.
• Layer the ingredients in the crock pot in the order listed above under Ingredients.
• Cook on High for 4 – 5 hours.
• Remove the ham hocks & the bay leaf.  Mash the peas, if you would like a thicker soup.
• Add the diced ham (optional) & turn the crock pot down to Low until ready to serve.