There is nothing more summery than shelling peas outside on a warm evening. I've never been particularly fond of frozen peas, but freshly podded peas are another thing entirely. It amuses me that here in the US they are called 'English peas' - for yes, there is nothing more quintessentially English, even though nowadays it's really difficult to get fresh peas in an English supermarket.
Yesterday evening we fired up the outside grill, roasted a chicken, baked some potatoes and whipped up this salad from Nigella's seminal How to Eat.
The recipe makes it sound it sound more complicated than it is. All you do is take some shelled peas, boil them briefly until the cooked but still firm to the bite (2 -3 minutes for mine) and then marinade them while still warm in a goodly slurp of olive oil, a couple of teaspoons of white wine vinegar, lots and lots of chopped mint and a teaspoon of sugar. I forgot to put the sugar in last night but my peas were so sweet they didn't really need it.
If possible, marinade the peas for at least an hour. Then separate the leaves from a couple of endives, add chunks of the butteriest avocado you can find (don't even bother if you haven't got ripe avocados) and spoon the dressed peas over the top. The bitterness and crunch of the endive marries fabulously with the creaminess of the avocado and the sweetness of the peas and mint.
And there you have it. June on a plate.
Oh, I forgot to add that I've made this before with frozen peas and it's still really delicious.
a proper june activity, much better than rain rain rain.
Posted by: cally | June 22, 2007 at 02:16 AM