Pleased with peas
MOST of you will have the plans for this your Valentines weekend completely sorted and will be in the throws of it come Saturday evening, (cooking that is). So moving on, here’s some great ideas for the humble pea. Granted, you may not all like at once but do give them a try as the ease of preparation is only beaten by the taste the final dish gives.
Chilled Pea Vichyssoise
WHAT YOU NEED
400g frozen petit pois
1 leek roughly sliced, washed to remove all grit
2 spring onions
2tbsp butter
1 litre good vegetable stock
280ml double cream
75ml crème fraiche
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Optional garnish: 4 slices prosciutto roughly chopped Chopped chives
WHAT TO DO
Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add spring onion and leek, cover and cook for 4 minutes. Add petit pois and stock. Bring to the boil and simmer uncovered for approximately 5 minutes. Add the cream and pour the soup into a blender and process until smooth. Adjust seasoning. Chill for 2-3 hours.
To serve: ladle soup into bowls and garnish with a good dollop of crème fraiche.
Optional: scatter over the chopped prosciutto ham and garnish with chopped chives.
Seafood and pea Paella
WHAT YO NEED
300g frozen garden peas
1 tbsp olive oil
½ fennel, sliced thinly
1 leek, chopped
2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 courgette, diced
600g mixed fish (e.g.: squid, haddock, monkfish, hake) 10 king prawns
24 mussels
4 large tomatoes, skinned and chopped
300g brown rice
½ tbsp paprika
A few strands of saffron soaked in 50ml warm water
1 tbsp flat leaf parsley
750 ml vegetable stock
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
WHAT TO DO
Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Add the garlic, fennel and leek and fry gently for 1 minute. Sprinkle in the paprika add the tomatoes and stir well.
Add the rice, saffron liquid, stock and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer gently for about 25 mins until the rice is nearly cooked then add the fish and diced courgette stirring into the rice and cooking for three minutes then add the peas, mussels.
Add the Tiger prawns, half of the parsley and a little more stock if necessary.
Bubble gently until the liquid has been absorbed and all the fish is cooked. Serve with wedges of lemon and black pepper and garnish with the remaining parsley.
Pea Ice Cream
AT first I wasn’t too sure about this until I tried it but the surprise that I got when I tasted the surprisingly sweet peas was worth offering it to you to try.
Good quality vanilla ice-cream, drizzled with mint flavour honey (or honey with fresh mint chopped through it), and topped with blanched peas refreshed in cold water.
