Garden Peas à la Française
This traditional French recipe for cooking fresh garden peas makes a wonderful accompaniment for meats.
Servings: 8
Ingredients
- 8 pounds fresh peas in the pod, OR 1 pound frozen French peas
- 2 medium butter lettuce
- 1 pound pearl onions
- 1.5 tablespoon sugar
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 small bouquet garni
- Water or stock enough to barely cover
- Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Soak the pearl onions into warm water before peeling. Shell the peas. Peel the onions and wash the lettuce and slice the leaves at about 1-inch intervals.
- Gently sweat the onions for a few minutes in the butter with the bouquet garni but do not golden or brown. Sprinkle with the sugar then add the peas and lettuce leaves in alternate layers seasoning the peas with pepper and salt each time. Pour in sufficient water or stock for the simmering liquid to cook the top layer of peas and cook gently for about 20 minutes or until tender. If using frozen peas, follow the same procedures as above.
- Presentation: To serve, remove the bouquet garni and present in a serving dish, but do not drain. The sweet cooking juices will blend very well with the gravies from the meat.
