GIVE PEAS A CHANCE!

 

Are you one of those people who always keeps a packet of peas in the freezer? Ready to hand for a quick side dish or addition to soup or stew? Not me. I don’t like frozen peas. In my opinion, they are fairly tasteless and ever so starchy. At least they’re green. Canned ones don’t even have that attribute. 

But peas picked fresh from the garden are a revelation, tender and sweet, almost like a different vegetable. Without even sorting for size, I shell them immediately and plunge them into boiling water. I drain them after 1 minute and chill in ice water. Even the fat, mature peas are good to eat at this point. The peas can be added to cooked foods without further cooking or refrigerated for later use. These fresh-podded peas, once blanched, won’t need further cooking; just reheat them briefly.

I never seem to have more than a small basketful at any one picking. A pound of peas in their pods will make from 1 to 1 ½ cups shelled. Shelling takes about 10 minutes. I can watch the afternoon news while I pop the peas from their pods.

Not everyone has a nearby pea-patch. If you find shelling peas at the farmers’ market, give them a try. Hopefully, they were picked the same morning and maintain their natural sugars. 

Here are some of the ways I served peas during the magical few weeks of pea-picking. 

Ham, Eggs, and Peas on Toast. Utterly simple, incredibly delicious. Fry eggs in olive oil. Place on toasted bread that is “buttered” with extra virgin olive oil. Top with thinly sliced ibérico ham. Quickly heat the blanched peas in the skillet and spoon them over the top of the eggs. A few chips of fried garlic, if you like. Salt and freshly ground pepper. Ya está--that's it! 

Mixed Vegetables (Menestra). This classic vegetable stew changes with the seasons. In spring, garden peas, artichokes, asparagus, and fava beans are included in varying proportions. Each vegetable is cooked separately, then combined. Add a poached or fried egg per person, if desired.  Here's the complete recipe for menestra: Medley of Garden Vegetables.

Potatoes Panaderas with Peas and Egg. Panadera potatoes are sliced and baked with garlic, strips of green pepper, wine, and olive oil. (The recipe for patatas panaderas is here.) I warmed up leftover potatoes with blanched peas and topped them with a poached egg. What a satisfying supper dish! 

Soupy Rice with Peas (Risi e Bisi). This is an Italian recipe but I’ve given it a Spanish twist, using only olive oil, no butter, and aged Manchego cheese instead of Parmigiano. Spanish paella rice is a medium-short grain, much like Italian Arborio. 

After shelling, the pea pods are cooked in stock to add flavor to the cooking liquid for the rice. (If you don’t have stock, cook the pods in salted water with onion.) 

Soupy Rice with Peas (Risi e Bisi)

Arroz Caldoso con Guisantes

Serves 4

2 pounds peas in their shells (2 cups shelled peas)

5 cups chicken stock

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil + more to serve

2 ounces pancetta or bacon cut in strips

¼ cup finely chopped onion or shallots

1 cup short-grain rice

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

¼ cup grated cheese + more to serve

Shell the peas. Reserve the pods. Cook the shelled peas in boiling water 1 minute. Drain and cool them in ice water. Drain and reserve.

Place the washed pods in a pot with the stock. Bring to a boil and cook until the pods are tender, 45 minutes. Use an immersion blender to blend the pea pods and stock until pods are pureed. Pass the puree through a strainer, pressing on the solids to extract all the liquid.  

Heat the oil in a deep skillet and fry the pancetta until crisp. Tilt the pan and skim out the pancetta. Add the onion to the pan and sauté on medium heat until softened, 4 minutes. Stir in the rice and cook 1 minute. Add the stock with pea-pod puree, half of the reserved pancetta, 1 tablespoon of the parsley, salt to taste, and pepper. Bring the liquid to a boil, reduce to medium-low, and cook, stirring occasionally, until rice is tender, about 15 minutes. 

Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the peas and grated cheese. Serve with additional cheese, remaining pancetta, and chopped parsley. Drizzle with additional olive oil.

From my pea-patch: GIVE PEACE A CHANCE!

More recipes for peas (ok to use frozen ones):

Sauté of Peas with Ham 

Rice with Peas and Cuttlefish 

Potato and Pea Salad with Mint

Rice with Peas and Cuttlefish 

Baby Peas with Ham (Guisantes Lágrimas) 

Springtime Vegetable Stew with Dumplings 

Tortilla with Potatoes and Peas 

Learn more about the vegetables of Moorish Spain that have come down to us today. (Hint--no tomatoes or peppers, yes peas.) Much more about the flavors of al-Andalus in my slideshow presentation for the Culinary Historians of New York: Al-Andalus: The Enduring Influence of Islamic Culture on Spanish Cuisine.  And, for lots of vegetable recipes, get the cookbook FLAVORS OF AL-ANDALUS--The Culinary Legacy of Spain. (See below for where to order.)

 

This cookbook explores the fascinating story of the deep and lasting influences that Islamic culture has left on modern Spanish cooking. 

Author and Spanish cooking expert Janet Mendel tells the story of the Moorish influence on Spanish cooking through 120 recipes and photographs for modern-day dishes, from salads and vegetables to fish, poultry and meat to sweets and pastries, that trace their heritage to foods served in medieval times.  (Hippocrene Books)    

 Order on IndiePubs (USA) 

Use PROMO CODE HIPPOCRENE40 for 40% off on all Hippocrene titles at IndiePubs online bookstore.

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(If you order on Amazon, please give my book a review!)

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FROM GARDEN TO TABLE

 

Garden fava beans.

A heap of fava beans landed on my kitchen table, picked by Ben from the kitchen garden. A little later, a handful of shelling peas, broccoli, and some stalks of chard arrived. Two hours later, I had dinner on, a vegetable menestra. 

Another day a small basketful of assorted peas was the bounty. The peas are confusing: seemingly on the same vine are snow peas or mange touts, perfect for stir-fries, and non-edible pods with tiny baby peas. Some I eat raw--those wee peas are ever so sweet. The remainder get tossed in hot oil with pieces of ibérico ham. There are hardly enough at one picking to be more than a starter.

"Menestra" means a vegetable mixture. Although the word is similar to Italian minestrone, this is not a soup but a stew that can be served as a starter or, with the addition of meat, ham or bacon, a sturdy main dish. 

The menestra from Tudela (Navarra, northern Spain) is classic. It consists only of white asparagus, artichokes, peas, and fava beans, all cooked separately and combined in a light sauce. Sometimes the sauce is slightly thickened with flour. In Bilbao (Euskadi/Basque Country) menestra often accompanies braised lamb. For the Basque version, some of the cooked vegetables (such as chard stems, cauliflower florets) are floured, dipped in beaten egg, fried, and served on top of the menestra.

Mixed vegetables in a light sauce.

Medley of Garden Vegetables

Menestra de Verduras

This menestra depends entirely on what late-winter/early-spring vegetables you’ve got in the garden or can find at the farmers' market. For example, if you’ve got a cache of wild mushrooms, use a pound or two of them and only a cupful of peas. 

I’ve used fava beans, peas, chard, artichokes, carrots, and potatoes. I included smoked panceta (pork belly) and pieces of leftover cooked lamb, but the menestra can just as well be vegetarian, an excellent Lenten dish. 

Each vegetable is cooked separately then combined in sauce to finish cooking.

Use a light stock made from chicken and/or ibérico ham bone or, for a vegetarian version, vegetable cooking water from carrots, peas, cauliflower or white asparagus. Don’t use the cooking water from artichokes, favas, or chard as it tends to darken the mixture. Although tomatoes are not in season in the winter-to-spring garden, it’s fine to add canned tomatoes or paste to the cooking liquid.

Choice of vegetables:

Artichokes

Asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch lengths

Broccoli, florets

Brussels sprouts

Cardoons, trimmed and cut into 1 ½ inch pieces

Carrots, peeled and sliced

Cauliflower, florets

Celery, sliced

Chard, stems cut into 2-inch lengths, greens shredded

Fava Beans, shelled

Garlic cloves or green garlic shoots, chopped

Lettuce hearts, sliced

Mushrooms, sliced

Onion or leek, chopped

Peas, shelled

Potatoes, cut in 1 ½ -inch chunks

Panceta (pork belly)

Extra virgin olive oil

Panceta or bacon, cut in strips

Canned crushed tomato (optional)

Light chicken stock or vegetable cooking water

Chopped parsley, fennel or mint to garnish

Hard-boiled egg to garnish

If you are using fresh artichokes, cut off the stems and trim off the tough outer leaves. Cut the artichokes in quarters. Cook them in boiling salted water with a squeeze of lemon juice until a leaf pulls off easily, about 12 minutes. Drain. Scrape out the fuzzy chokes. 

Cook each of the vegetables separately in boiling, salted water until tender. Asparagus and chard cook in 5 to 6 minutes. Tiny peas and baby favas need to be blanched only about 1 minute. Carrots and potatoes, which can cook together, take about 12 minutes. Drain and refresh the vegetables in cold water.

Heat the oil in a skillet or cazuela over medium heat. Add the pieces of panceta, the chopped onion, garlic, and mushrooms and sauté until onion is softened, about 5 minutes. Add the tomato, if using, and the stock. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes.

Return the cooked vegetables to the pan, saving a few to garnish the top. Simmer them all together for 5 minutes, adding additional stock if needed to keep the vegetables saucy. Serve hot garnished with reserved vegetables, chopped herb, and quartered eggs. 

Baby Peas with Ham

Guisantes Lágrimas con Jamón

Tiny peas sautéed with ham and a poached egg.

Lágrima means “teardrop.” These tiny baby peas, a seasonal delicacy in the Basque Country, are so-called for their delicate oval shape. They hardly need cooking at all. For this recipe use any variety of very small pea, preferably straight from the garden! 

Don’t cook the serrano or ibérico ham because heat toughens it. Add ham to the peas and immediately remove the pan from the heat.

Use the fresh pods to make a light caldo, or pea broth, to serve alongside the dish of peas with ham.

Use pea pods to make caldo, pea broth, to go with the peas.

For 1 or 2 servings

1 pound peas in the pods or 1 cup (about 4 ounces) shelled baby peas 

Salt 

Pea pods

2 cups light chicken broth

1 cup pea cooking water

Slice of onion

Freshly ground black pepper

Lemon juice

1 large egg

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons chopped spring onions

Diced or slivered serrano or ibérico ham

Shell the peas and save the pods. There should be about 1 cup of shelled peas. Bring a pan of salted water to a boil. Blanch the peas for 30 seconds if they are tiny, “teardrop” peas. For mature (or frozen) peas, cook until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain, saving the cooking water. 

Place 1 cup of the cooking water back in the pan with the chicken broth and onion slice. Add all of the reserved pea pods. Bring to a boil and simmer, uncovered, 20 minutes or until reduced by half. Pour through a fine strainer. Discard solids. Season the pea-pod broth with salt to taste, pepper and a few drops of lemon juice.

Egg in plastic wrap to poach.

Line a small cup with plastic wrap. Add a few drops of oil. Crack the egg and drop it into the cup. Gather the corners of the plastic wrap together and twist them to enclose the egg. Tie with kitchen twine. Bring a small pan of water to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and add the egg wrapped in plastic. Poach the egg 4 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to lift the egg out. Leave it enclosed until ready to serve.

Heat the oil in a small skillet and sauté the chopped onions on medium heat until softened, 5 minutes. Don’t let them brown. Add the blanched peas and sauté on medium-high for 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the diced ham and immediately remove the pan from the heat.

Reheat the pea broth and serve it into demitasse cups. Serve the peas with ham on a plate. Snip the plastic wrap to release the poached egg. Place it beside or on top of the peas.   

More recipes with fava beans and peas:

Fava Beans in Their "Britches"

Fava Bean Cream

Fava Bean Salad with Mint.

Tortilla with Fava Beans and Potatoes

Rice with Peas and Cuttlefish

Vegetarian Stew with Peas, Favas, and Dumplings (Pipeo)

PICNIC IN THE WILDFLOWERS

A field of dwarf irises in bloom.

The campo—countryside—is abloom. After spring rains, wildflowers spring up everywhere. On an embankment near my house, I pick 10 or more different wildflowers. In a nearby field, drawf irises cover the ground in a mauve carpet.

Pack up some lunch and let’s go on a picnic! A merienda campestre—“lunch in the country”—is a favorite diversion on fiesta days, such as May Day, coming up next week; the fiestas of San Isidro, mid-May in Madrid, and San Juan, the midsummer’s day holiday in June.

Tortilla de patatas, potato-egg tortilla, is probably the most favorite picnic food of all. In Madrid, a variation on the classic, tortilla de escabeche, with potatoes and escabeche tuna, is typical for a verbena or outing in the park. In Galicia (northwestern Spain), empanada, a thick-crusted pie filled with pork loin or sardines,  is essential for country outings.

Coques--flat breads--with two different toppings. (Photo by Sofie Koevoets)

In Catalonia, it is the coca, a flat bread with topping, that is considered picnic fare. The coca (plural is coques in Catalan or cocas in Spanish) is sort of a cross between pizza and focaccia. Made from bread dough, the coca is usually served room temperature, rather than hot from the oven. Barcelona bake shops sell it in huge slabs or in tiny, individual coques. Unlike pizza, coca rarely has cheese (although, I quite like slices of fresh goat cheese as a final embellishment). The toppings can be a simple as a few strips of red pepper and olives or as replete as the coca de recapte, provisioned with everything in the cupboard. Canned tuna or sardines in olive oil are often added to vegetable toppings.

Below I’ve given recipes for two favorite toppings, escalivada, of roasted eggplant and peppers, and menestra, a mélange of mushrooms and artichokes. Also good are pisto, also known as samfaina, stewed vegetables much like ratatouille (pisto recipe), and spinach or chard with raisins and pine nuts (recipe ).


Coques
Catalan Flatbread with Two Toppings

Makes 14 (5-inch) mini-cocas or 2 (14-inch) cocas

For the coques:
1 recipe Basic Bread Dough, risen once
Olive oil to brush the coques
Escalivada (roasted eggplant and peppers)
7 anchovy fillets from a can
7 olives, preferably Arbequina
Oregano
Menestra (mushroom and artichoke mélange)

Basic Dough for Coques

This basic bread dough recipe can be used for coques, for empanadas, for pizza or for making bread rolls. After rising once, the dough is kneaded again with additional olive oil.

2 ½  teaspoons active dry yeast (1 envelope)
½ teaspoon sugar
1/3 cup + ¾ cup very warm water (100º-110ºF)
4 cups flour plus additional for dusting baking sheets
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons olive oil plus additional for the bowl and dough


Place the yeast and sugar in a small bowl and add 1/3 cup warm water. Stir to dissolve. Allow it to stand 10 minutes until bubbly.

Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the center and add the yeast mixture, remaining ¾ cup of warm water and 2 tablespoons of the oil. Stir to combine the ingredients into a ball. Turn out on a board and knead the dough until smooth and glossy, 3 minutes. Dough will gradually become less sticky with kneading.

Clean out the mixing bowl and oil it lightly. Gather the dough into a ball and turn it in the bowl to coat on all sides with oil. Cover with a dampened cloth and leave in a warm place to rise until doubled in bulk, one to two hours.

Before rising--

after--dough doubles in bulk.

To assemble the coques

Preheat oven to 425ºF.

Punch down the dough and turn it out onto the board. Press the dough out flat and sprinkle it with 1 tablespoon of oil. Fold the dough over several times, then knead until the oil is incorporated. Knead in 1 tablespoon more of oil in the same manner.

Divide the dough in half. Roll, pat and stretch each ball of dough into a rectangle or oval, approximately 14 inches X 8 ½ inches. Place each sheet of dough on a baking sheet. Brush the dough with olive oil and prick it all over with a fork.

Spread one coca with the roasted eggplant, peppers, onions and garlic. Lay strips of anchovy fillet across the eggplant and peppers. Scatter olives on top and sprinkle with oregano. Drizzle with additional olive oil.

Spread remaining coca dough with wild mushroom and artichoke mélange. Drizzle with olive oil.

Bake the cocques until edges are lightly browned, 15 to 20 minutes. Serve hot or room temperature.

Menestra con Setas y Alcachofas
Mushroom and Artichoke Mélange

Coca with topping of menestra--mushrooms and artichokes.

Menestra can be made with all manner of seasonal vegetables. For this version, use wild mushrooms, if available, or any cultivated mushroom. I used fresh artichokes, quartered, and cooked in olive oil. You could substitute a jar of oil-packed artichoke hearts.

Use half of the mushroom and artichoke mélange as a topping for 1 coca.

12 ounces mushrooms
4 tablespoons olive oil
½ onion, sliced crosswise
2 cloves garlic, sliced crosswise
1 ounce chopped serrano ham
Salt and pepper
Pinch of thyme
1 (15-ounce) jar artichoke hearts, drained (about 1 cup)

Clean the mushrooms carefully. Slice them crosswise.

Heat the oil in a skillet and sauté the onion and garlic on medium heat for 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and ham and continue sautéing on high heat until mushrooms release liquid and begin to brown. Add the salt, pepper, thyme and artichokes. Cook gently until most of the liquid has cooked away.


Escalivada
Roasted Aubergines and Peppers

Coca with escalivada--roasted eggplant, peppers and onions.

You can roast the eggplant and peppers under the broiler or on a grill. Use half the recipe as a topping for 1 coca.

1 small eggplant, about 10 ounces
1 red bell pepper, 8 ounces
1 medium onion
1 small head garlic
1 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil

Preheat broiler.

Arrange the eggplant, pepper and onion in a shallow oven pan. Pierce the eggplant and pepper with a sharp knife in 3 or 4 places (to prevent steam from building up inside the skin). Slice the top off the head of garlic and add to the pan. Place the pan under the broiler. Grill until eggplant and pepper are charred on one side, about 10 minutes. Use tongs to turn the vegetables. Return and grill until charred on all sides. Remove them to a bowl.

Cover the vegetables and let them set until cool enough to handle. Peel the eggplant. Pull the flesh into strips and place in a bowl. Peel and cut pepper in strips and add to the eggplant. Peel onion and cut in lengthwise slivers. Squeeze the softened cloves of garlic from the skins. Season the vegetables with salt and pepper, vinegar and olive oil.

Wildflowers galore.