Pea Puree

I went to the Midtown Farmer's Market last weekend and bought a lot of English peas. Somehow I've managed to get to now without ever having eaten English peas out of their pod before, and it was really delightful to sit at the market and eat pea after pea right from the shell, a pile of shells and strings collecting at my feet. It's maybe the only vegetable I've eaten more of in a frozen variety than fresh - and oh! How I've been missing out!

I called my mom and told her about my pea eating, and she was aghast. It turns out shelling peas at her grandparents farm is one of her sweetest memories - she would get to go stay with them for a week or two in the summer, all by herself, or maybe with just one other sister. In the late afternoons my great grandmother would hand out big mounds of pea pods to shell outside. My mom remembers using her thumb to scrape all the peas out, and then eating them each night for dinner.

I too shelled my peas in the late afternoon, sitting in the shade of a big oak tree looking out over the garden. I love shelling peas! You can't really rush, so you just get to sit there, shelling away. I also was a bit ridiculously excited to use the peas to make pea puree. The pea puree made quite the scene in a top chef episode a season or two ago, and I've sort of wondered about pea puree ever since. And wonder no more! It is as delicious and satisfying as I could have imagined - sweet and creamy and fresh. And shockingly simple so long as you have shelled peas. I ate mine alongside a lovely venison steak with the first green beans from the garden.

Pea Puree (from Tender, an aptly named cookbook stemming from the author's "vegetable patch")
3 cups shelled English peas
4 sprigs fresh mint
4 T butter or ghee, melted
pinch sea salt

Cook peas in lightly salted boiling water until tender. This took about 5-8 minutes for mine - I kept tasting because I didn't want them to get overly done. Immediately put peas, mint, melted butter and salt in food processor and process until smooth. It will be a bright green, creamy texture that is quite thick. Serve right away, or keep warm in covered bowl over boiling water. (I also ate some cold the next day, and that was delicious too!)