Ingredient: Peas
Category: Vegetables
Season: June and July
A pea, although treated as a vegetable in cooking, is botanically a fruit; the term is most commonly used to describe the small spherical seeds or the pods of the legume Pisum sativum.
The name is also used to describe other edible seeds from the Fabaceae like the pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan), the cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) and the seeds from several species of Lathyrus.
Pisum sativum is an annual plant , with a lifecycle of one year. It is a cool season crop grown in many parts of the world, planting can take place from winter through to early summer depending on location. The average pea weighs between 0.1 and 0.36 grams.
The species is used as a fresh vegetable, frozen or canned, but is also grown to produce dry peas like the split pea. These varieties are typically called field peas.
Culinary use
In early times peas were grown mostly for their dry seeds.
In modern times however peas are usually boiled or steamed which breaks down the cell walls and makes the taste sweeter and the nutrients more bio-available.
Along with broad beans and lentils these formed an important part of the diet of most people in Europe during the Middle ages.
By the 1600s and 1700s it became popular to eat peas "green", that is, while they are immature and right after they are picked.
This was especially true in France and England, where the eating of green peas was said to be "both a fashion and a madness" (OSU 2006).
The English developed new cultivars of peas during this time, which became known as "garden peas" and "English peas."
The popularity of green peas spread to North America. Thomas Jefferson grew more than 30 cultivars of peas on his estate (Kafka 2005 p 297).
With the invention of canning and freezing of foods, green peas became available year-round, not just in spring as before.
Fresh peas are often eaten boiled and flavoured with butter and/or spearmint as a side dish vegetable.
Salt and pepper is also commonly added to peas when served.
Fresh peas are also used in potpies, salads and casseroles.
Pod peas (particularly sweet cultivars called mange tout and sugar peas, or the flatter "snow peas," called hé lán dòu, in Chinese) are used in stir-fried dishes, particularly those in American Chinese cuisine.
Pea pods do not keep well once picked, and if not used quickly are, best preserved by drying, canning or freezing within a few hours of harvest.
In India, fresh peas are used in various dishes such as aloo matar (curried potatoes with peas) or matar paneer (paneer cheese with peas), though they can be substituted with frozen peas as well.
Peas are also eaten raw as they are sweet when fresh off the bush.
Dried peas are often made into a soup or simply eaten on their own.
In Japan, China, and other Southeast Asian countries including Thailand, Taiwan and Malaysia, the peas are roasted and salted, and eaten as snacks.
In the UK, dried yellow split peas are used to make pease pudding (or "pease porridge"), a traditional dish.
In North America a similarly traditional dish is split pea soup.
Ärtsoppa is a traditional Scandinavian food, which predates the Viking era.
This food was made from a fast-growing pea that would mature in a short growing season.
Ärtsoppa was especially popular among the many poor, who traditionally only had one pot and everything was cooked together for a dinner using a tripod to hold the pot over the fire.
When pork was available it was known asÄrtsoppa och fläsk and this tradition has continued until the present time.
After the Christian conversion this soup was served on Thursday evening because Friday was a fasting day.
In Chinese cuisine, pea sprouts (dòu miáo) are commonly used in stir-fries and its price is relatively high due to its agreeable taste.
Pea leaves are often considered a delicacy as well.
In the United Kingdom, dried, re-hydrated and mashed marrowfat peas, known by the public as “mushy peas”, are popular, originally in the north of England but now ubiquitously, and especially as an accompaniment to fish and chips or meat pies, particular in fish and chip shops.
Sodium bicarbonate is sometimes added to soften the peas.
In 2005, a poll of 2,000 people revealed the pea to be Britain's 7th favourite culinary vegetable.
Processed peas are mature peas, which have been dried, soaked and then heat treated (processed) to prevent spoilage, in the same manner as pasteurising.
Cooked peas are sometimes sold dried and coated with wasabi, as a spicy snack.
Some forms of etiquette, require that peas be only eaten with a fork and not pushed onto the fork with a knife
Fresh-shelled peas are a delightful vegetables, young and tender, they melt in the mouth when cooked and taste wonderful raw.
It takes a bit of time to shell them, sitting in the garden on a bright summer's day, shelling peas can be wonderful therapy.
When they first arrive they are incredibly sweet and tender, but later on they get bigger and have quite a different character and flavour.
To cook young, fresh-shelled peas, buy 8 oz (225 g) in the pod per person.
After shelling, pop them in a steamer with some salt and
give them 1 minute before you bite one;
they shouldn't take any longer than 2 minutes in all.
If they are a bit older, they may need 3-4 minutes |