Seasons by the Sea: Peas, Springtime Zen

Fresh peas are my favorite springtime vegetables. Asparagus, morels, and fiddlehead ferns are also fleeting and early spring treats, and I love them all, but there’s just something extra special about fresh green peas. Even shucking them is a Zen-like pastime on the porch. It’s slow, and you don’t have a great yield for your work, but it is so worth it.

In other words, don’t plan on shucking peas for a dinner party of eight. This will make the process feel more like a Sisyphean exercise than a little dinner-prep. You would need to start with about six pounds of peapods to get four cups of shelled peas. So save the work for smaller gatherings of two or four, or stretch the peas by incorporating them into a risotto or pasta primavera with asparagus, mushrooms, and fava beans.

Peas will be available locally soon, so keep your eyes peeled when you go to the farmers markets. I found some pea vine shoots at Quail Hill Farm this past weekend, and they are another delicacy, either tossed as a salad when super-young or quickly stir-fried as a side dish. Alice Waters, in her “Chez Panisse Vegetables” cookbook, suggests sauteing the vine shoots in duck fat for no more than a minute.

There are basically three types of peas you can eat raw or barely cooked. English peas, also called shelling or garden peas, should have large shiny pods. These peas are like corn; they begin to convert their sugar into starch within hours of harvest, so freshness is key. This is also a reason why frozen peas are not such a bad alternative in a pinch, or in winter. These peas must be shucked (the pod is not edible); one and a half pounds of peapods will yield about one cup of peas.  

Snow peas are flat pods that are picked before the seeds, or peas, begin to grow large. They are also called Chinese peas, because they are ubiquitous in so many Asian stir-fried dishes.

Sugar snap peas are tender, crunchy, and sweet, and don’t need to be topped and tailed like snow peas, or shucked like garden peas. They are called mange tout in France because you can, in fact, “eat all.” Pea greens or pea shoots should come from a particular cultivar of snow pea that is grown for its tender shoots.

There are hundreds of varieties of peas. Thomas Jefferson was obsessed with them and grew over 30 kinds. Here are a few more familiar types: Green Arrow has slim pods and small peas. Lincoln can tolerate warmer weather and bears a lot of pea pods. Champion of England is an heirloom variety with impressive yield, and Canoe packs as many as 12 peas per pod.

Look out for toughness and dryness when buying or harvesting peas. They should look moist and succulent. In the case of sugar snaps or snow peas, bruising or scars are okay, just not yellowing or dried tips. Chives, parsley, mint, dill, chervil, and lemon are perfect and delicate accompaniments to fresh peas. And, of course, your best butter!

In the 16th century, it was Italian gardeners who developed the more tender varieties of peas for eating raw or barely cooked. They became a huge fad, but were still a luxury item in France by the 17th century. They were grown in manure under glass globes and were presented to kings and queens, then shucked and cooked. It was referred to by Madame de Maintenon as “a fashion, a craze, a madness!” Apparently, the ladies of those times would eat peas before going to bed, thinking they would aid digestion after a rich feast.

Peas were one of the first vegetables to be offered frozen by Clarence Birdseye in the 1920s. Do not even think of eating canned peas, they are gray and mushy and gross. Stick with fresh, in season, or frozen.

Here are some recipes to inspire you for the upcoming pea season!

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