Stewed Peas

Ingredients

• a couple of ounces of butter
• a small sliced onion
• a bunch of parsley
• half a head of lettuce
• white pepper
• salt
• a small teaspoonful of sugar
• half a pint of water or stock
• a little white roux

Method

1. 1

   Melt butter with onion, parsley, and lettuce.

2. 2

   Add peas, sugar, and enough water or stock to float them.

3. 3

   Stew gently until tender, thicken with roux, and serve.

As published

This recipe was extracted from The "Queen" cookery books: Vegetables (1902) by S. Beaty-Pownall, page 49. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

white pepper, salt, and a pinch of caster sugar till quite cooked. Serve plain, or with maitre d'hdtel, fines herbes, or any other nice white sauce to taste. The parsnips must be quite young for this way of cooking. Young carrots or turnips also are very nice prepared thus. fried. — Wash and three parts cook the parsnips, then peel and cut them into shreds length- ways, and fry a delicate golden brown in a little butter. (jarnish. — Wash and three parts cook the parsnips, then peel and shred them as in the previous recipe ; put them on in boiling water, with salt and the juice of a lemon, and finish cooking them ; then strain off the water, mix in a pat of warm butter and a good spoonful of minced parsley, toss it all lightly together over the fire, add a squeeze of lemon H 98 VEGETABLES. juice and use. Parsnips may be mashed after boiling them till tender enough to sieve, when you work in a little butter, milk, or cream, with white pepper and salt, over the fire, till brought to a nice consistency. They may also be scalloped thus : Take two cupfuls of mashed parsnip, as for parsnip balls, and pile this in a well-buttered fireproof dish ; sprinkle thickly with breadcrumbs, and some morsels of butter, or clarified dripping, dust with coralline pepper, and bake till nicely browned on the top. A few drops of essence of anchovy, or two or three spoonfuls of rich shrimp sauce laid over the bottom of the dish before putting in the parsnip, make a particularly good scallop. Parsnips may also be used as salad thus : Slice, or quarter, the cold cooked parsnips, and toss them lightly in sufficient French salad dres- sing to coat them well ; then dish with a garnish of spring onions, or onion threads, and some cold, hard-boiled eggs, halved and filled with anchovy, ham, or shrimp butter. Pea {Petits pois) to boil. — Put the peas on in plenty of salted water, with a spray or two of mint, and cook them as fast as possible with the lid off ; when cooked, drain them, lift out the mint, strain the peas, and put half of them into a hot vegetable dish, putting a small pat of butter in the centre, gathering the est of the peas well over it, and serve hot. These are known as Petits Pois d V Anglaise, and are immensely improved by adding a pinch of sugar when putting in the butter. The other and best way, to my mind, is to put tlie freshly-shelled peas into sufficient fast boiling water to cover them nicely, adding a dessert- VEGETABLES. 99 Spoonful each of salt and caster sugar for each quart of water used ; boil the peas very fast with the cover off, for ten to twelve minutes, then drain the peas in a colander, and serve at once on a hot dish. A small spray of mint may be added this way if liked, but remember never to put any soda with peas, as it utterly ruins the young ones. Half an ounce of mint is required for each quart of water, which quantity is sufficient for one pint of peas (do not cook peas in a tinned saucepan). Abroad a kind of pea is often used of which the shell is served with the peas ; these pods are rather flat and broad, and are cooked thus : Partly cook them in a little salted water, and when nearly tender, drain them and lay them in a pan with a pat of butter, some finely chopped parsley and young green onions, with, if liked, a stewed lettuce, strained and shred rather fine ; season with white pepper and salt, and a dust of flour, and moisten with a little good stock. Cook this all together till quite tender, then stir in a tablespoonful of cream, and serve very hot. This is an excellent way of using the after crop which often appears on the pea vines too late to ripen properly, but of course the peas must be of a really good kind. It may be added that many foreign housewives consider old peas are improved if the shells are strung and clipped like French beans, and then put on in water with 2oz. of mint, a dessertspoonful of salt, and a little less of sugar, and boiled very fast for half an hour ; this pea- pod water is, then carefully strained, and allowed to boil up again, when the peas are put in, and are allowed to cook for half an hour. Remember when peas are H 2 100 VEGETABLES. shelled and have to wait, they slionld be put into a dry basin, and lightly covered with a damp cloth. Peas, jugged. — Shell a pint of green peas, and put them into a jar with a tight closing lid, la}dng in with them a tablespoonful of butter, a saltspoonful of salt, a teaspoonful of powdered sugar, a spray of mint, and a dust of freshly ground black pepper ; cover the jar down very tightly, and put it in a stew- pan or bain-marie half full of boiling water, cover down the pan, and let the water boil sharply, examin- ing them from time to time to see if they are done ; young peas will take from thirty to thirty-five minutes in this way, older ones of course needing longer cooking. This method is a particularly good one for tinned peas. The peas should be turned into a colander or strainer, and held under running water till any “ tinny ” taste is entirely removed, finishing them as before ; twelve to fifteen minutes will be ample in this case. Peas cooked in this way, or eA^en if freshly boiled, can be diversified in many ways. For instance, ham, or bacon, cut into small dice, fried crisp, and stirred into the peas as you dish them, give the well known petiis pois au lard, or au jambon ; or, when you pour them into the dish, mix in a few spoonfuls of bichamel or veloutc sau'^^. or cream, or butter, as you please. These are excellent as a garnish, and take their name from the sauce, c^’;c., added at the last. steived.—Th\s is the best method of cooking old peas, though abroad it is often used for young ones. Melt a couple of ounces of butter with a small sliced onion, a bunch of parsley, and either some VEGETABLES. 101 sprays of mint, or half a head of lettuce tied up together ; add white pepper and salt to taste ; let this cook till the onion is very faintly coloured, when you add the peas, a small teaspoonful of sugar, and as much water, or stock, as will float them ; half a pint is suthcient for one and a half pints of peas. Now let them stew very gently till the peas are perfectly tender (young peas take half an hour thus), then remove the lettuce, onions, and parsley, thicken the liquid with a little white roux

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.