Captain’s dinner (Kapucijnertafel)

Serves 4:

• 400 g dried marrowfat peas
• 1 ½ l water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 100 g smoked bacon or pickled beef in thin strips
• 15 g  butter
• 150 g finely cut leek, onion, carrot and white cabbage
• 1 teaspoon salt

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Word has it that the captain of a Groningen coaster invented ‘Captain’s dinner’. He was  the owner of the ship, but didn’t have two pennies to rub against each other. Dried marrowfats were healthy and cheap. To give his crew a good example he joined them for the  meal occasionally, but adorned it with several titbits to his own taste. Hence the name.

However, we do have much earlier references to this sailor’s food. Grey peas – akin to marrowfats – featured on the menu of the East and West Indiamen in the 17^th century. “At Sunday lunch time each man gets half a pound of smoked bacon, or one pound of beef or mutton and grey peas as many as everyone desires”. Three drams a day and “light ale to their liking”. But wine for the captain.

This is one of the dishes Dutch expatriates like to serve when they feel a bit homesick. But not only there. In the nineties of last century the humble pea was served with champagne and even a vegetarian version was created. But of course we present the true tar’s original here: ‘with all the trimmings’.