TIP OF THE DAY: Ways To Use Fresh Spring Peas

March 27, 2015 at 8:31 am · Filed under Food Facts - Food History, Recipes, Tip Of The Day, Vegetables-Salads-Herbs

Lovers of green peas (also called English peas and garden peas), you’re in for a treat. Spring is the season.

It’s time to serve sides of fresh-steamed green peas and make some delicious fresh pea soup.

But what else should you be doing with these bright green jewels? Their sweet flavor and bright color can grace your table in so many other ways.

You can use almost any cooking method, from boiling, braising or microwaving, to sautéing, steaming and stir-frying. Add them raw to salads and pop them into your mouth as a snack.

They take only a few minutes to cook. In fact, you need to watch them to avoid ending up with mushy peas (if this happens, make a quick pea purée; and if they’ve lost their bright hue, add a teeny drop of food color). We aim for “al dente.”

Create recipes with these flavor accents:

Cured meats: bacon, chorizo, pancetta, prosciutto, smoked ham

Fresh herbs: basil, chervil, dill, mint, tarragon

Fresh picked and divine. Photo courtesy The Chef’s Garden.

The onion group: chives, garlic, green onions, leeks, ramps (spring onion), shallots; red, yellow or white onions

Proteins: chicken, duck, lamb, fish (especially cod and, salmon), seafood (especially scallops), tofu

Spring produce: asparagus, fava beans, fennel, fiddlehead ferns, Meyer lemon, morels, mustard greens

We can’t think of anything more delicious than fresh peas with asparagus, fiddleheads, morels and ramps—or as many of these as you can get hold of—sautéed with garlic in olive oil. Garnish with a chiffonade of fresh mint.

Don’t dally: The season is short! For inspiration, here are just ways to use the bounty of fresh peas.

GREEN PEAS AT BREAKFAST

In an omelet

As a side with fried, poached or scrambled eggs

Atop Greek yogurt or cottage cheese

In a green smoothie

GREEN PEAS AT LUNCH

In macaroni, potato or rice/grain salad

In a green salad or Greek salad*

Pea soup (try a spring recipe, with fresh mint)

Spicy fresh pea salad (recipe)

Plus:

As a snack, raw

*Romaine, bell pepper, red onion and feta, with a fresh dill garnish. Add some lemon zest to the vinaigrette.

Easy, peasy: an appetizer or snack of crostini
with ricotta and fresh peas. The recipe is below. Photo courtesy Chalk Point Kitchen |
NYC.

GREEN PEAS AT DINNER

Asian style: blanched or sautéed with ginger; then tossed with a soy, wasabi, ginger and garlic marinade

Bibb or butter lettuce salad with radish and green onion (scallion)

Blended half-and-half with cooked rice or other grain, topped with grated or shaved Parmesan cheese

Spring pea risotto, with pancetta or bacon plus garlic and onion

Cooked in olive oil and stock (recipe)

Pasta, especially with a white or olive oil sauce (add some prosciutto, bacon or a few grilled shrimp)

Pea & mint soup

Pea pesto, as a sauce or dip (recipe)

Pea purée as a side

Quickly sautéed in olive oil or steamed and tossed with butter

RECIPE: GREEN PEA & RICOTTA TOAST

Enjoy this for breakfast, as a first course or a snack. We chose a rustic Italian loaf with sesame seeds, but any peasant bread will do.

Ingredients

Rustic bread loaf

Ricotta cheese (see if you can find it freshly made, at a cheese store or Italian market)

Salt and pepper to taste

Green peas

Optional: lemon zest

Extra virgin olive oil

Garnish: baby arugula, pea shoots, microgreens or sprouts

Preparation

1. STEAM the peas to al dente and let cool. Combine the ricotta with salt, pepper and lemon zest to taste. Stir in peas to taste (few or many).

2. TOAST the bread and slice as desired (depending on the diameter of the loaf, cut the toast into manageable pieces).

3. SPREAD toast with the pea-ricotta mixture. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. Garnish and serve.

HOW TO BUY & STORE FRESH PEAS

Buying Fresh Peas

For the best flavor, choose small peas. They’re younger, sweeter and more tender than large ones. Look for medium-size pods that are firm and green, with no yellowing. Break open a pod and check the peas. They should be small, bright green and firm. Taste the peas in the pod: They should be tender and sweet.

Freshness counts. As with corn, once picked the peas’ high sugar content begins to convert to starch. Don’t pay for mature peas. You might as well use frozen peas.

Don’t pay extra for shelled peas. You don’t know how fresh they are; and since you aren’t shelling peas day in, day out, it’s a fun activity.

Storing Fresh Peas

Store the pods in the crisper drawer of the fridge in a plastic storage bag. Use them within two days.

Once they’re shelled, the best way to store peas is to freeze them. First blanch them for a minute or two in boiling salted water and then shock them in an ice-water bath to stop the cooking and maintain ther bright color. Drain and freeze them in freezer storage bags for up to six months.

THE HISTORY OF PEAS

The pea is native to western Asia and North Africa, and are one of the oldest cultivated foods, dating to the beginning of agriculture in the Middle East (as long as 10,000 years ago [8000 B.C.E.).

By 2000 B.C.E., pea cultivation had spread throughout Europe and east into India. By the first century C.E., peas were introduced to China and soon after 1492, to the New World.

Along with broad beans and lentils, peas were a staple for most Europeans during the Middle Ages. By the 1600s and 1700s, it became popular pick and eat immature peas. In France and England, where the eating of green peas eating young peas became a fashion.

New varieties of peas were developed by the English during this time, including the familiar green peas we call garden peas and English peas.

Thomas Jefferson grew more than 30 varieties of peas at Monticello. As the process of canning food became widespread in the 19th century, green peas moved beyond spring and became available year-round [source].

Clarence Birdseye introduces the first frozen peas in 1952, which, everyone can agree, enabled a semblance of fresh peas year-round.

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