Trinidad Corn Soup

Ingredients

• 1 lb salted pig tail {substitute with pieces of Ham , Bacon or Kassler ( this is a smoked pok chop without the bone)}
• 2 cans of cream style corn
• about 6 fresh or frozen corn on the cob, cut into 1 inch ( 2.5 cm) pieces
• 1 lb yellow split Peas
• salt, pepper to taste
• a fresh hot Trinidad pepper or pepper sauce as substitute
• chicken stock, either feshly made or made with bouillon cubes
• 2 sweet peppers, cut small
• 3 tomatoes, chopped up
• celery, cut up
• chive, cut up
• Onion, cut up
• garlic cloves, chopped fine
• several leaves chadon bene, cut small( coriander leaves as substitute)
• a little butter, or margarine to sauté vegetables

Directions

1. Parboil pigtail for 10 minutes. to get excess salt out (not necessary if using substitutes)
2. In a large soup pot ( or pressure cooker), sauté Onion, chive, garlic, celery, sweet peppers and chadon beni for a few minutes
3. Add washed splitpeas, cans of cream style corn, corn on the cob, tomatoes, stock, salt, pepper to taste
4. Add pigtail or its substitute and boil until corn on the cob is soft and the splitpeas have completely dissolved; this may take several hours, less if you use a pressure cooker
5. Make dumplings and add to soup about 20 mins before soup is finished cooking
6. When soup is almost finished , float hot pepper on top of soup, or add pepper sauce to taste when soup is finished cooking.