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PEAS (a la Francaise)
Wash the peas, which may be rather old ones; put them into a stewpan with a piece of fresh butter the size of a walnut, a bunch of parsley and green onions, two cloves, a small slice of raw ham, a large white lettuce cut into slices, and a little salt. Put all on the fire to stew for a few minutes in its own liquor; then add a little boiling water, and allow it to stand for fifteen minutes. Add a lump of sugar and some small bits of butter rolled in flour; mix well, bring to boiling point again to thicken, and serve.
A classic French braise in which lettuce and peas cook down together into their own sauce. The original assumes you know how much peas to use and that you will fish out the aromatics before serving; neither is stated.
- QuantitiesNothing is given for the peas. Around 1 lb shelled peas (roughly 2-2 1/2 lb in the pod) suits the amount of butter, lettuce and ham described and serves four as a side dish.
- Butter the size of a walnutA standard Victorian measure for about 1 oz, or 2 tablespoons. The "small bits of butter rolled in flour" at the end are beurre manié — work an equal weight of soft butter and flour together, perhaps 1/2 oz of each.
- "Rather old ones"This is the hinge. The recipe is designed for mature, starchy shelled peas, which is why it survives fifteen minutes of stewing. Frozen peas or young petits pois will collapse to purée; add them in the last three or four minutes instead.
- Raw hamUncooked cured ham — a slice of prosciutto, unsmoked gammon or speck all work. It is there for salt and depth, so hold back on the added salt until the end.
- Green onionsSpring onions or scallions, not the tops of dry onions. Tie them with the parsley into a bundle so the whole thing lifts out cleanly, and stick the two cloves into a piece of the lettuce heart or a scrap of onion for the same reason.
- Stewing in its own liquorPeas and sliced lettuce release a good deal of water. The original does not mention a lid, but covering the pan and keeping the heat low helps; keep it barely sizzling for those first few minutes or the butter will brown and the dish loses its pale, sweet character.
- A lump of sugarLumps cut from a sugarloaf varied in size; a teaspoon or so of granulated is a reasonable modern stand-in. It is there to lift older peas, not to sweeten the dish.
- FinishingOnce the beurre manié goes in, bring it just to the boil for a minute so the flour cooks out, then remove the herb bundle, ham and cloves before serving.
Petits pois a la francaise is one of the most durable of French vegetable preparations, and the presence of lettuce is what makes it French rather than merely buttered: the leaves melt into the liquid and give body without stock. It reflects a kitchen economy in which lettuce was a cooked vegetable as readily as a salad, and in which peas were a seasonal glut that arrived in the pod and turned starchy within days of picking -- hence the blunt permission to use "rather old ones". The dish demonstrates sweating a vegetable in its own moisture and thickening with beurre manie, two techniques with wide application. The method is generally traced to seventeenth- and eighteenth-century French practice, when the first green peas of the year were a court delicacy written about at Versailles.