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New Carrots and Peas
Cut the stems off and scrape twelve small new carrots. Heat a tablespoon melted butter in a saucepan, add one finely sliced onion and brown four minutes, then add the carrots, one pint fresh peas, a small head lettuce finely sliced, one chopped bean garlic, a teaspoon freshly chopped parsley, a half pint broth, a teaspoon salt, a teaspoon sugar and a half teaspoon pepper. Mix well, cover pan and boil fifteen minutes, then set in oven thirty-five minutes. Remove, add a half ounce butter, mix well, pour into a vegetable dish and serve.
A French-style braise of spring vegetables, written when peas and carrots were expected to be cooked soft. The method works, but the timings assume larger, starchier peas than most cooks buy now.
- "One chopped bean garlic"This is a clove of garlic; "bean" here appears to stand for the individual segment of the bulb. One clove, finely chopped.
- A pint of peasMeasured shelled, so about 2 cups or 10-12 oz, which takes roughly 2 lb of pods. Frozen petits pois substitute directly and need only the last few minutes of cooking.
- Half pint brothOne cup. It should barely cover the bottom of the pan; the vegetables and lettuce release a good deal of liquid of their own.
- The oven temperatureNone is given. Treat it as a moderate oven, 350F, with the pan still covered — this stage is a gentle braise, not a roast.
- Fifty minutes is too long for modern peasFifteen minutes on the stove plus thirty-five in the oven will reduce today's tender, sweet varieties to grey purée. Braise the carrots, onion and lettuce for the full time and add the peas for the last 8-10 minutes.
- New carrotsGenuine new carrots are finger-sized and need only scraping. Anything thicker than a thumb should be halved lengthwise or it will still be firm when the rest is done.
- The lettuceA soft round or butterhead, shredded, is most likely what is meant. It melts into the sauce and gives it body; romaine or iceberg will not break down the same way.
- Finishing butterThe half ounce (1 tablespoon) stirred in off the heat is what pulls the pan liquid into a glaze. Add it away from the flame and swirl rather than boil.
- YieldServes four to six as a side dish.
This is a version of the French petits pois à la française, in which peas are braised with shredded lettuce, spring onions and butter rather than boiled in water — the lettuce supplies moisture and body, and the sugar underlines the sweetness of young peas. Carrots are an addition, giving the dish the pairing that English and American cooks came to treat as inseparable. The insistence on new carrots and fresh peas marks it as a seasonal recipe from a period before frozen vegetables, when it would have been made in the weeks when both were young.