Home › Vegetables › Stewed Peas in Turnip Cups
Stewed Peas in Turnip Cups
Select small or medium-sized turnips; pare and cook them in slightly salted water until tender, then with a spoon or vegetable scoop hollow out the centre, leaving a wall half an inch or more in thickness. Put these in a shallow baking-dish or pie-plate to keep hot, with a bit of butter and pepper in the bottom of each cup.
While these are cooking have also 1 pint of shelled fresh peas, pour over them sufficient boiling water to cover and boil until tender-from twenty to thirty minutes. If the peas are not very sweet, add 1 teaspoonful of sugar while boiling. Let the water evaporate until the peas are nearly dry. When done, season with salt and pepper, add 1 tablespoonful of butter rubbed smooth with 1 rounded teaspoonful of flour and 2 tablespoonfuls of cream; stir until it thickens, and fill the turnip cups.
Have a hot platter ready, and when ready to serve them lift the cups carefully on to the platter with a spatula, taking care that they are not broken. Garnish with springs of parsley, and serve.
Canned peas may be used instead of the fresh ones.
A vegetable course built on presentation: hollowed turnips as edible cups for creamed peas. Everything hinges on not overcooking the turnip shells, which collapse if left in the water past tender.
- The peas cook far too longTwenty to thirty minutes reflects mature, starchy shelled peas of the period. Modern shelled garden peas need 3-5 minutes and frozen peas 2-3; boiled half an hour they turn grey and mealy.
- Turnip size and donenessChoose turnips 2-2.5 inches across, roughly 4 to 6 oz each, one per person. Test with a skewer at 15-20 minutes and pull them the moment the centre yields, or the walls will tear when you scoop.
- HollowingA melon baller or a metal teaspoon works better than a paring knife. Leave the half-inch wall the recipe specifies; anything thinner will not survive the transfer to the platter. The scooped centres can be mashed and added to the peas or saved for soup.
- Keeping them hotThe original does not say where the dish is to be kept hot. Hold the filled dish in a 200F oven, loosely covered, for no more than 20 minutes.
- The thickeningButter rubbed smooth with flour is a beurre manie rather than a cooked roux; it should simmer a minute or two after the peas thicken to lose the raw flour taste. Two tablespoons of cream and one of butter make a very light coating sauce, not a heavy cream sauce.
- SugarThe teaspoon of sugar compensates for peas past their prime. Fresh spring peas or good frozen ones do not need it.
- Canned peasIf substituting, drain and rinse them and add them only at the thickening stage; they are already fully cooked and will disintegrate with further boiling. Frozen peas are the better modern stand-in.
- YieldOne pint of shelled peas is about 10 oz, roughly enough to fill six medium turnip cups as a side dish.