"Eat your peas!" you can imagine someone saying that, a parent, or more stereotypically an evil boarding school headmaster. I don't like peas. It's a basic preference. I just don't like the taste. Although, I do cook with peas from time to time. I included them tonight in a gnocchi dish I make with a vodka sauce, bacon and onions. The peas add color, and a little crunch, but you can't taste them. That is the key. Peas for me are one of those things that are fine if I can't taste them. Mushrooms are like that for many people. They think they don't like them (although I do), but will eat dishes that include them because they blend into the background. I also make a pea puree that I serve with scallops. But there, the pea taste is reduced significantly in the puree with chicken stock and sauteed onion.
So, why am I suggesting a recipe for a side of peas? Because this recipe for peas is a metaphor for life. Part of it is "if life gives you lemons, make lemonade." Part is turning beef stew into Beef Bourguignon. There are many things we can do to make the best out of what life gives us, and to make life more interesting. The French connection is also relevant here. From time to time, I am working my way through the Le Cordon Bleu at Home cookbook. It offers a series of meals, which are lessons in French cooking. It starts from the beginning, roast chicken, and builds from there, through the basic sauces to all of the classics of French cooking. Is their recipe for peas a French classic? I have no idea. But it is a wonderful example of how with simple ingredients and thoughtful preparation, we can make even peas more than edible, we can make them wonderful.
This is a lesson for every meal. Don't just prepare a tomato sauce for your pasta, combine your tomato sauce with wine, and perhaps the liquid from reconstituted mushrooms. In this case, don't just boil your peas, saute them with onions and butter, add an herb such as chervil. And in a truly special, yet simple twist, cook with a chiffonade of lettuce. That and a little sugar will give you the peas of your life. Who knew little peas could take on such character? They have taken on the character of you, the interesting you, the one who has cooked from a recipe, cooked in the French way, added flavor, no, added perfume to your dish. The one who has given beauty even to peas.
That said, should you ever serve this dish to your family or friends? No, of course not. No one likes peas. But make this for yourself, on that cold day when you roast a chicken, and you want to take care of yourself, and show yourself that you are special. You will enjoy these peas, and you will enjoy yourself even more because you made them. Remember that feeling, and transport these techniques, cooking with pearl onions, adding an infrequently used, delicate herb, maybe even sauteeing with lettuce. Remember how you have the power to turn the ordinary into the sublime.
Ingredients:
Several leafs of green lettuce
3 tbsp butter
1 cup peas
8 pearl onions, peeled
1/2 tsp chervil
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
Directions:
Cut the lettuce into thin chiffonade strips. In a heavy sauce pan over medium heat, melt the butter and add the lettuce, peas, onions and chervil. Stir until the lettuce wilts. Add 1/3 cup of water, the sugar and salt. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook gently until the peas are tender, about 15 minutes. Serve.
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