"pea salad" news and stories

In this weekly series, home cook Bruce Watson works his way through a decades-old family cookbook, adapting the best recipes exclusively for Slashfood.

When I was a kid, pea season was a mixed blessing. On the bright side, it meant that we would get fresh sweet peas on the table. Whether from our family garden or from a local farmers' market, the just-harvested peas were invariably sweet, crunchy and delicious. On the other hand, our regular servings of fresh peas translated into hours spent on the porch shelling the bright green pods. Even under the best circumstances, it was dull, tedious work.

My mother's pea salad recipe, which combines the sweetness of peas with the light flavor of dill, tended to overshadow the peas with a heavy helping of sour cream, mayonnaise and scallions. My modified version, included below, lets the flavor of the peas shine through, but retains the original's cool summer flavors.

Get the recipe for dilled pea salad after the jump.

I only like peas in one form: whole. I can't take them smashed or mushed in any way, and I can't even stomach smelling pea soup (though my mom used to love it - I'd usually hide in my room when she made it). I'm always looking for something interesting to do with peas. I've never had them in a salad before, and I certainly have never had them be the salad before.

But the fun Rookie Cookery site has a recipe for Pea Salad. She makes them with frozen peas (just running cool water over them to thaw), mayonnaise, red wine vinegar, mustard, salt, and pepper. Add a couple of chopped green onions, chill for a bit, and you have your lunch. Here's the full recipe. I'm sure it's better than the pic makes it look, and it sounds like the perfect light meal for the summer.