PEAS AND PODS

Peas and Pods

            Shelling a large quantity of fresh peas can become an almost zen like experience as I discovered recently. You push the pod at one end, hear a slight pop as it opens, your thumb pushes a row of fresh peas in the bowl, the pod gets discarded in a bucket and you repeat the process again and again until it develops a rhythm of it’s own. This time there were no visiting grandchildren to enlist for this fun activity. with full expectations of reduced yield as they discover how delicious a snack these peas make right out of the shell. They don’t even notice that it is a ‘healthy’ snack.

 Last week the garden decided to give me a bountiful crop of peas after all the rain -  all at once! There were shelling peas, snow peas and snap peas, all clamoring to be picked and utilized, since they had done their part so dutifully by being abundantly productive. Peas grow well in my garden and the cool spring this year was more favorable to them than the rest of the vegetables that still seem to be behind their annual schedule.

Once shelled, the peas require only five minutes of cooking in water with a dash of salt or chicken broth to be ready to serve for dinner. If you want to dress them up, add tiny onions or make a cream or cheese sauce, but fresh peas have delightful flavor of their own, possibly enhanced with a small dab of butter.  Like corn, peas will taste best soon after harvest.  They will keep in the shell in the refrigerator for a day or so, but once shelled should be cooked reasonably quickly. Snow and snap pea pods will keep refrigerated for a week in a closed container.

Fresh peas always remind me of the ‘spring soup’ my mother used to make with seasons first vegetables.

                        Spring creamy vegetable soup

Sautè a medium sized onion finely chopped with 1 Tblp. butter for 5 minutes. Add 3 cups chicken or vegetable stock and bring to boil. Add 1 cup sliced new carrots and 2 cups of scrubbed and cubed new potatoes. Cook vegetables for 8 minutes, then add 1 cup of freshly shelled peas and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Stir in 1 cup whole milk or half and half. Heat just to boil and serve in bowls garnished with chopped dill or parsley.

Snap peas make a delicious snack just raw with or without a dip. Both snow and snap peas can be sliced and added to salads for extra crunch.  They also are a great addition to any stir fry and like shrimp require only minimal cooking of 2 or 3 minutes. For a more spicy version, snap peas taste wonderfully in a curry and mint rendition as an accompaniment to grilled meat dishes.

                        Curried snap peas with mint

Stir together ¼ tsp. red Thai curry paste with 2 Tblsp. water and 1 Tblsp. soy sauce in a small dish. Heat 1 Tblsp. vegetable oil in a large pan and sauté ¼ cup sliced shallots or white part of scallions for 2 minutes until softened. Add 1 lb. snap peas trimmed and sliced crosswise in half.  Continue to stir fry for 2 minutes, then stir in curry paste mix and continue to cook for 3 minutes. Stir in 1 tsp. sesame oil, 1-2 Tblsp. lime juice and ¼ cup finely sliced fresh mint. Serve warm or at room temperature.

A hundred years or more ago, shelling peas was a social occasion for family members and sometimes even neighbors in the afternoon. It was a relaxing time where news and gossip were exchanged.  Fortunately the relaxing quality of this activity has remained even now, so one can contemplate with equanimity the ripening of another 6 ft. row of late peas for the future.

(I. Winicov Harrington lives in Waldoboro and is the author of “How to Eat Healthy and Well for Less than $5.00 a Day: the Smart-Frugal Food Plan”; website: www.winicov-harrington.com)

FISH - TALES

Fish-tales!

            Saturday morning, as I was planning my dinner menu and a trip to Delano’s Seafood in Waldoboro for some fish, the fish came to me! This is not to imply some fanciful scenario, where a fish hopped up our front steps and announced itself with a tap of a fin. Hallucinations do not manifest themselves on beautiful sunny June mornings. Rather our friend Alfred, who takes good care of our lawn and is an accomplished fisherman, arrived on our doorstep to generously share a fish from his bounty.

            It was a beautiful lake salmon, which unfortunately reminded of my own love-hate relationship with fishing. The problem is, I am seriously ‘challenged’ in this endeavor. I love to go fishing, with the fresh air, interesting scenery and the lack of guilty feeling for not doing something strenuous, since fishing is an active verb. But to be honest, I have only caught 3 things in my entire life.

            Years ago in Pennsylvania, fishing with my sons, I managed to catch a catfish so large, I was afraid to dislodge the hook from it’s mouth. Good to have sons that are not so squeamish. The second incident occurred near the mouth of a river in Oregon, I was standing on a large rock in the river, when with a mighty yank I pulled up next to me on the rock – a large Dungeness crab, which was waving his claws dangerously in my direction. While I contemplated wading or leaping ashore, the crab sensibly let go of the hook and went back home. Yes, I did catch a mountain lake trout in the Sierra’s once, but on closer inspection it turned out that I had hooked the leader of another line that the trout had managed to break. The salmon I caught in Katmai, Alaska don’t count. They were running so thick that if you snagged one with a cast hook anywhere above the gills, it was a legal keeper.

            When we moved to Maine many years ago and bought a house on tidal Medomak, I had high hopes for changing my fishing record. My husband obligingly would take out our small boat at high tide and I would fish. The typical results of a morning’s endeavor were 4 for the two ospreys fishing in the same area and 0 for me. At that point I gave up fishing and concentrated on recipes suited to what was available locally at the fish store, or on the kindness of good fishermen like Alfred.

                                    Baked or grilled whole fish

            This recipe can be used for 1- 1 ½ lb cleaned fish like lake salmon or trout or a smaller middle section of a large fish. If the fish is frozen, thaw it first in the refrigerator. Rinse the fish inside and out and dry with paper towels. Rub inside with salt and a little pepper. Line the cavity with: 1 thinly sliced lemon, and sprigs of thyme, parsley, chives, oregano and celery tops. Use skewers to pin the two halves partially closed. Place the fish on an oiled pan with sides and lay the fish on several pieces of celery as a rack. Baste the fish with 2-3 Tblsp. melted butter and bake at 400 degrees for about 12 - 15 minutes, or until the flesh is barely opaque. Remove from oven and allow to sit for 5-10 minutes before removing the herbs. Serve whole with lemon slices on top.

            The fish can also be baked at lower temperature, like 300 degrees for 25 minutes, but in that case carefully pour in the pan around the fish ¼ cup orange juice mixed with some chopped thyme, pepper and orange zest and cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil.

            The fish served with basmati rice and some grilled asparagus is bound to please even a person accomplished in fishing.