Frozen peas
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Discoveries | 7 comments
Every year we grow peas. With very limited success. Sometimes we crop more than 15 servings. Generally we don’t and I find myself flying down to Newmarket to buy frozen peas for 46 weeks of the year. I always bought petit pois.
My French is bad but I always felt good buying them as I actually understood what petit pois meant. I could also feel the tiny peas through the pack and imagined them, small and green and packed with flavour. Having been brought up on Birds Eye commercials with the only the smallest peas getting through, I believed that I was choosing the tastiest peas.
One horrific day there were no petit pois in the pea section of the supermarket. I had to buy Garden Peas. I slunk home expecting a polite complaint from the Rat Room. I shoved them quickly in the freezer and cooked fresh vegetables until it was Danny’s turn to cook.
A couple of days later he grabbed the bag and looked at me.
“I can only find Garden Peas.”
I discovered that they had run similar commercials in Ireland when he was growing up. I explained the problem. He cooked them. They were to accompany something rather good. Intrigued, we tasted the peas. The rather good something was immediately sidelined as we realised that Garden Peas are the God of frozen Peas. They have far more flavour.
I am now irritated if I can only find Petit Pois.
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Yes Richard, I have found the same with fresh peas from supermarket or greengrocers.
The best peas that we have grown were mangetout in a large pot, just outside the back door.
I too prefer garden peas – except the last bag I bought from Sainsburys had lots of bits of stalk in them. Quite irritating.
To be honest, I never buy fresh peas – they’re great if you grow them yourself and can get them from garden to pan in minutes, but when they’ve been hanging around in the greengrocers or supermarket for however many days… I’ll go with frozed!
Yes, Joanna, I felt a bit cheated too. I am pretty selective about the garden peas that I buy. Some own brands appear to be the peas discarded by everyone else.
There’s nothing better than young peas straight from pod to mouth, Ash. I must admit that I prefer strawberries.
I’m impressed Amanda! How did you know?
obviously I meant frozen and not frozed – I spend far too much time with a 2 year old!
Peas – yes please! I love them, so versatile, on their own, minty pea soup, mashed peas, yum yum. We tend to only have frozed peas of the garden variety. Petite ones when we’re feeling posh! Normally I’m a marketing persons dream and fall for it every time but somehow it didn’t happen with peas. Amanda
We buy frozen peas too, but most Dutch people prefer them in jars! Browny green and soggy! Ick!
I grew some pea plants and will grow more next year but they are really just for the boys to pick and eat at the allotment.
I have never seen so much enjoyment as those two little monkeys sitting in the pea bed eating fresh peas. They even prefer them to the strawberries!
Oh no … that is SO depressing – I thought I was making a free choice to eat petits pois all these years, and now I realise it was a bad choice influenced by advertising copywriters … Thank you for enlightening me. AND it’s just struck me that I could probably have been on an extravagent holiday with all the pennies I would have saved if I’d bought garden peas all this time!
Joanna
joannasfood.blogspot.com