Monday, June 23, 2014

A Pea Salad Luncheon


Chronica Domus
A salad of Prince Albert peas, pencil thin asparagus, and pea shoots served on a botanically themed platter
Photo: Chronica Domus


On June 15, which happened to fall on Father's Day this year, our second harvest of heirloom Prince Albert peas was ready to be picked.  Out to the garden my daughter ran, basket in hand, to retrieve one hundred and seventy-two bright green and plump pea pods.  I was astonished she had found so many pods that were ripe for the picking, so soon after our initial bounty twelve days earlier.

I received an email from the editor of Lindaraxa, a blog revolving around the writer's passion for entertaining and cooking, with a suggested recipe for using any further peas I might harvest.  The recipe, which can be found here, included an ingredient that was already growing in the garden, but it was one I had not actually considered eating. As it turns out, the young and tender shoots of pea plants, along with their white blossoms and curly tendrils, are edible.  There they were, right under my nose in my very own garden, yet I had not given them more than a passing glance during the entire growing season as I admired their botanical beauty. Ultimately, it was the suggestion of using pea shoots as a component of the salad that swayed me to try Lindaraxa's deliciously fresh and spring-like recipe.  And, I am delighted I did.

Chronica Domus
Impeccably fresh ingredients for our pea and asparagus salad include freshly shelled peas and their shoots, and Eureka lemons from our tree
Photo: Chronica Domus


The recipe turned out to be one of the easiest ways of preparing fresh peas and asparagus that I had ever attempted.  Aside from the pea shelling, always an agreeable activity for my daughter who treats it more like the unwrapping of Christmas gifts, the entire preparation took less than fifteen minutes.  As the asparagus was already pencil thin, I did not even bother to slice the stalks in half.  I also substituted Eureka lemons freshly picked from Old Faithful, our lemon tree (a subject for a future post, I think), Meyer lemons not being on hand. The salad was so fresh and spring-like in taste, thanks to the addition of the zingy lemon juice and zest, that I dispensed with adding sugar as suggested by the recipe. And what of the pea shoots you might ask?  Well, surprisingly they too were deliciously tender and grass-like, and an unexpected culinary discovery that I shall attempt to incorporate into our cooking whenever we are fortunate enough to have them growing in our garden.

Our Father's Day luncheon, served casually at the kitchen table, was all the more special because not only did my daughter pick the peas for the salad herself, but Lindaraxa made it all possible by reaching out to me with her recipe, and for that I am most thankful.

Can you recall a time you ventured forth and discovered something new and tasty in the culinary world?

12 comments:

  1. Your pea salad is a visual delight, and I'm sure a gustatory one as well. Pea shoots are a staple in any Taiwan market; fresh peas (or even frozen ones) much harder to come by. The pea tips are often stir-fried or otherwise lightly cooked.
    --Jim

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    1. Hello Jim, thank you for your comment, and yes, the salad was certainly a delight all round. I find it ironic that pea shoots are so prevalent in Taiwan yet peas are difficult to source. I think picking the shoots (and blossoms) so young is probably part of the issue as it will prevent future peas from developing.

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  2. When I read your first post I knew I had to alert you to save those shoots and use them in this delightful salad. Unfortunately, for me, it is hard to get them but next year I will make sure peas are an integral part of our garden. I am so glad you and your family enjoyed them on Father's Day.

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    1. Hello Lindaraxa,

      Thank you again for your delightful suggestion of using this recipe. My daughter has recently started complaining that she doesn't like asparagus (I roast it a lot during the spring). However, she has now had a change of heart upon sampling this salad and even asked for the leftovers to eat the following day.

      Thank you again for reaching out. You certainly are the last word on good food in the blogosphere.

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  3. I just love love love the colours! So vibrant, so fresh... And I can even imagine the flavours because I love everything here, especially fresh peas, straight off the stem and into my mouth. :) it was the only way I ate them back at home where we had our own garden. x

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    1. Hello Natalia, and welcome back! You should certainly try this salad for yourself, especially as there are only a few key ingredients required to do so. I just know you'll like it as much as I did.

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  4. This salad sounds quite delicious and given my love of salad's in general, it is always interesting to hear new variations on the theme. It must also be deeply satisfying to eat that which you have grown, sadly not an experience I have had the good fortune to enjoy. (Certainly I've enjoyed those grown by others in the family who do so, but living the majority of my adult life in an apartment building has curtailed that.) Lemon on any vegetable is a great treat, and although an expensive one here, we have an abundance of limes, which can almost substitute.

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    1. Yes, how right you are Columnist. It gives me deep pleasure and joy to run about the garden gathering here and there in hopes of bringing something to the table. Too bad you live so far away as I'd invite you to gather lemons to your heart's content from our tree which is loaded with fruits year round. As for limes, in this part of the world, they are in short supply currently. As you can imagine this has not gone down well with the gee and tee drinking set, myself included.

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  5. This recipe sounds delicious. I've never bought, let alone grow, peas. I know I'd love them but our yard just doesn't have the 6-8 hours of sun necessary. I may have to hit the farmers market while they are still in season...they are still in season, aren't they?
    I'm so happy you left a comment, which afforded me the opportunity to find your wonderful blog.
    Karen

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    1. Hello Karen, thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment.

      Peas at farmers' markets may still be in season, although it is very late for such things (only a few pods remain on my plants today). I do wish you luck in finding them. It is a special joy to sit around and shell them, at least I've found this to be the case with my daughter's assistance.

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  6. That looks amazing (beautiful photography by the way). Mouth-wateringly delicious - am hungry just looking at it.

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    1. Thank you so much, Lord Cowell. I am ready to make it all over again. Do give it a try yourself as you too will enjoy it.

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