Produce
Peas
Also called frozen peas, garden peas
Sweet seeds of Pisum sativum, fresh for a short season and frozen the rest of the year. Frozen peas are blanched within hours of picking, which is why they often taste sweeter than 'fresh' pods that have sat converting sugar back to starch.
Origin
Domesticated in the eastern Mediterranean and West Asia, then a European staple long before the freezer drawer.
Flavour
Sweet and green when they are good. Split dried peas are earthy and soupy — a different ingredient.
How to use it
Add from frozen at the end of fried rice, stews, pasta and omurice; they need heat through, not a boil. A minute in butter with a pinch of salt is a side. Do not thaw on the bench and then boil — you cook them twice and they go dull. Fresh podded peas are worth barely cooking for a few weeks a year. Edamame is a closer sweetness stand-in than broccoli.
Storage
Keep frozen peas frozen. Fresh pods fade in a few days; shell them close to cooking.
Recipes using it
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