Home › Company and Sunday Dinner Menus › Green Pea Fricassee
Green Pea Fricassee
Two quarts of shelled peas are put over low fire in stewpan with 1/2 cup boiling water, 2 tablespoons butter, three or four fresh whole green onions, two or three sprigs parsley, and a head of lettuce washed and leaves separated. Cover the saucepan tightly and cook vegetables slowly for an hour.
This is the French method of braising peas in their own moisture with butter, aromatics and a head of lettuce — a dish usually called petits pois à la française. Two things need attention: the seal on the pan and the cooking time.
- The tight lid is the whole techniqueOnly half a cup of water goes in; the peas cook in steam thrown off by the lettuce and onions. Use a heavy pan with a well-fitting lid, and keep the heat low enough that you hear no vigorous boiling, or the pan will scorch dry.
- An hour is far too longOlder recipes of this type often assumed larger, starchier peas that stood up to long stewing. Modern shelled or frozen peas are sweet and tender: 12 to 20 minutes gives bright green peas with body. At an hour they turn olive-drab and mealy.
- The lettuceA head of Boston, Bibb or butter lettuce is what is wanted. It supplies most of the liquid and collapses into the dish; the recipe calls only for it to be washed and the leaves separated. Iceberg is watery and adds little flavour.
- Onions and parsleyThe whole green onions and parsley sprigs are aromatics, not garnish. Tie them together or leave them whole so they can be pulled out before serving.
- SeasoningNo salt or sugar is listed. Salt the peas as they go in, and a pinch of sugar helps if the peas are not especially sweet. Finish with another spoonful of butter off the heat to bind the small amount of liquid.
- YieldServes six to eight as a side dish.
Peas braised under a lid with butter, spring onions and a head of lettuce is a long-established French vegetable preparation, later known as petits pois à la française; the lettuce is there to give up water so no stock is needed and the peas keep their own flavour. Calling it a "fricassee" is a looser American usage, the word having drifted from its stricter meaning of meat stewed in a white sauce to cover almost anything cooked gently in a covered pan with butter. Fresh peas were seasonal and labour-intensive to shell, which is part of why a dish of this sort could be thought fit for guests.