Here I am, with a pile of work to do (hooray!), and I pull the bring-a-vegetable-besides-asparagus straw for a gathering Saturday night. I figured I’ll trundle down to the Farmer’s Market on Saturday morning and hope for the best. Then-lo and behold!-the Farmers Market newsletter arrives with a gorgeous picture of sugar snap peas across the top. This is a very good sign indeed (although it’s also an alert that I’d better be in the 7 or 8 a.m. crowd, not the 10 a.m. crowd at the market).
Why? Well sugar snap peas are about the easiest, most delicious little vegetable you could hope to find this time of year. They don’t seem to be familiar to a wide audience, however. I assume this is because the darlings are so tender and with so brief a harvest that lots of people never see them. But it could also be because this cross between snow peas and English peas has only been around since the 1970s. They’re making headway, though, as they’re now available in the freezer section of the supermarket (though not nearly as good).
Here’s a photo thoughtfully provided by Mercedes Taylor-Puckett of the Lawrence Farmers Market:
Sugar snaps are more substantial than snow peas-the pods do have peas inside-but tender enough to eat the pod and all.
You can find assorted recipes for the peas, but I think I’ll probably prepare them by the easiest possible, and possibly tastiest, method of all.
Divine Sugar Snap Peas
Wash and pull strings from peas. (Just snap at the stem and pull toward the concave side of the pod.)
Heat oil and butter in a skillet over medium-high heat until butter has melted and has stopped foaming. Add peas and toss until bright green, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat, toss with seeds, and serve. Serves 4-6.
What could be easier?
The Lawrence Farmers Market newsletter, by the way, is a fine email publication. I believe you can subscribe by sending a message to farmersmarket [@] sunflower dot com.
Joanne // May 19, 2007 at 3:30 pm
I love snap peas too! Some are growing in our garden right now! Another adjustment to the recipe might be to use olive oil rather than canola-I’ve read that canola oil might not be the best thing health-wise. What are your thoughts on that?
Janet Majure // May 20, 2007 at 10:04 am
Well, Joanne, on that question I turn to Nutrition Action Healthletter and its detailed article on cooking oils a few years ago. Although the word on what’s good and bad seems highly changeable, I feel reasonably comfortable with its recommendation of canola over olive oil for most uses. I use olive oil, too, especially for its flavor, but for day-to-day cooking, I use more canola.
In this recipe, by the way, I used oil in place of more butter, which the original recipe called for and which tastes great. I used the fat combo to get the real butter flavor and a little less of the saturate fat.
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