Tag Results

Search this site:

6 Tag Results from Harvest to Table

Pagination: 1

6 result(s) displayed (1 - 6):

English Peas, Spring Onions and Roasted Almonds

 

Just cooked English peas, sautéd spring onions and roasted, salted almonds are a delicious combination of tender sweet, sweet pungent, and crunchy just salty. You can set this side dish next to grilled fish or chicken or mashed potatoes and a roast. It's not too filling yet will holds its own.

English peas and spring onions are easy picking in spring. You'll find them plentiful at the farm market if you don't have them in your own garden. Both are sweetest and most tender early in the season.

English peas are the best eating when the pods turn bright green and just begin to bulge. To harvest the pes just split the pod open with your thumb and roll the peas out. Spring onions have just formed small bulbs. They're sweeter than mature onion but more pungent than a green onion. Spring onions don't require much cooking to be ready for the plate.

Continue reading "English Peas, Spring Onions and Roasted Almonds" »

Permalink | Comments (0) | Email to a friend | Print

English Peas: Harvest and Cooking

  

How do you cook peas? Peas are cooked in the least possible amount of water and in just the time for them to become just tender. The French cook peas in the water it takes to moisten lettuce leaves. Line a saucepan with damp greens and a few pea pods, pour in the shelled peas and cover them with moist lettuce. Steam the peas over a high heat for about 3 minutes or until they are al denté, just tender.

Be careful not to overcook peas. Boiling or long steaming will increase water absorption and cause the peas to become soggy and mushy. Both flavor and nutrients are sacrificed when peas are overcooked.

When the peas are ready, the simplest way to enjoy them is with butter, salt, and pepper.

Pea, garden pea, English pea are all the same. The pea is traditionally the first kitchen garden crop planted each year. It goes in the ground as soon as the soil can be worked. So—depending upon where you live—you are either sowing peas now or harvesting them.

Continue reading "English Peas: Harvest and Cooking" »

Permalink | Comments (0) | Email to a friend | Print

Baby Beets and Sugar Snap Peas with Orange Butter

  

Sweet and smooth baby beets—red, yellow, and orange—added to sugary sugar snap peas tossed with a tangy orange zest dressing and you have a seasonal salad that says Spring! You’ll have to search to find someone who doesn’t like this salad.

Baby beets and sugar snap peas are just hitting their peak in the garden. If you don’t grow these, head to the farmers’ market where they will be easy pickin’ this time of year.

We had our first supper club meeting of the season this past Saturday evening, so Becky was at the Ferry Building farmers’ market about mid-morning to pick up the beets and sugar snaps. These were fresh picked the day before.

Baby beets—about the size of a walnut—are tender, sweet, and juicy--better tasting than large ones. Choose a bunch—6 or 8 will do--all about the same size for even cooking. For this salad, the beets were individually wrapped in foil and roasted in the oven at 400ºF for about 45 minutes and then cooled in advance.

Sugar snap peas—you eat the entire pod, no shelling required—are perfect when the pods have just plumped. You’ll want to serve these within a day of harvest to enjoy the pods’ natural sweetness. About a half-pound or two cups of sugar peas will do.

Our friends Lonnie and Bruce supplied a navel orange from their backyard tree for our orange zesty dressing. You’ll only need a few slivers of zest and a tablespoon of juice, so the sections are sweet snacking while preparing the salad.

Continue reading "Baby Beets and Sugar Snap Peas with Orange Butter" »

Permalink | Comments (0) | Email to a friend | Print

Pea Planting

  

 

When the soil in your garden warms to 45ºF (7ºC), you can plant peas—snap, snow, and shell.

 

Peas are tasty shelled from the pods and used raw in salads. You can steam peas as a vegetable, or cook them in soups and stews.

 

Peas prefer cool weather. They mature in about 60 days. So time your pea planting so your pea harvest comes before the weather turns warm. That means plant peas in late winter and very early spring (February and March in the northern hemisphere) in regions where there is seldom snow. In snowy winter regions, pea planting can start in mid spring (April in the northern hemisphere). As a general rule, peas can be planted six weeks before your last spring frost date.

Site. Peas also like full sun. The only reason to plant peas in part shade is if you live in a region where the weather turns hot quickly. Afternoon shade in hot and arid regions will give peas the cool air temperatures they prefer at harvest time. Peas do not do well when the daytime temperature rises above 80ºF (27ºC), The sugar levels of peas are higher in cool weather.

 

Continue reading "Pea Planting" »

Permalink | Comments (0) | Email to a friend | Print

English Peas

“Come tonight, the peas are ready!”

So started the invitation sent each spring in the first fresh peas of the year competition held by Thomas Jefferson and his neighbors.

Most gardeners say that it is impossible to buy peas that taste like those that come straight from the garden.

Garden peas—also commonly called English peas or green peas—are one of the first vegetables harvested in spring. They are best picked as soon as the pods fill out and the peas inside are fat and round.

Continue reading "English Peas" »

Permalink | Comments (0) | Email to a friend | Print

Peas

 

There are three kinds of peas. Peas that are shelled and the seeds are eaten either fresh or dried. Peas that have edible pods—the seeds and pod are eaten together whole. And peas that can either be shelled or eaten whole.

Shelling peas are valued for their seeds. Shelling peas are also called garden pea, green pea, baby pea, early pea, English pea, June pea, and by the French name petit pois. The seeds of the shelled pea are best eaten fresh shortly after they have been picked and shelled.

Continue reading "Peas" »

Permalink | Comments (0) | Email to a friend | Print

Pagination: 1