Speaking of Petite Pois

Petite Pois are a staple favorite at the French table. They are usually served in a sweetened butter and/or cream sauce. Small sweet onions are usually added, although i’ve had them with diced ham or (especially delicious) lamb.

The trick of course is the sauce, which should be the consistency of a very thick soup. The sauce should never be runny, or spread away from the peas. The peas should “swim” in the sauce, rather than just be covered by it.

Basic Ingredients and Preparation.

peas ---- (fresh shelled, alternatively freeze dried but in any event hard)

small onions ---- (alternatively equivalent amoutns of diced white onion)
sprig (or infusion) of parsley ---- (OK, if sprigs are available)
lettuce core ---- (for purists, but unnecessary)
butter ---- (preferably European style)
cream ---- (prefereably creme fraiche or crema mexicana )
egg yolk ----(lightly pre-beaten)
sugar
salt
pepper
hot water

1. Melt butter (3 TBS per 1/2 lb) in a pot. Use enough butter to insure that all peas will be liberally coated. Do not brown the butter. Immediately upon melting.... >

2. Toss in the peas and swirl around with a spoon. Then add enough very hot or pre-boiled water to not quite cover the peas (or just enough to prevent the peas from scorching on the bottom of the pan...see below).

3. Add in, salt, pepper, onions, parsely, [lettuce core], (and ham or lamb)

4. Simmer overly low flame with a dish of cold water placed over the pot.

5. While peas are cooking, whisk blend egg yolk and creme fraiche,

6. When peas are cooked, take out spring & lettuce core, and stir in the yolk & cream, adding sugar to sweeten very mildly. Serve.

Some recipes call for adding flour to the sauce. I do not like this approach. The flour masks the natural taste and sweetness of the peas and onions. But a very light sprinkle is ok, if needed to thicken.

Don’t over sweeten. Remember that onions contribute their own sweetness.

Meats should be previously cooked and diced, needing only that amout of re-heating that comes with steaming the peas.

Tips & Tricks

1. Steaming

The main trick to this dish is the amount of water used. Some recipes say 1/2 a cup or 6 TBS. Others omit reference to water at all, but that seems to me to have been omitting the obvious.

You do NOT want to fry the peas. You want to steam them with just enough water to make a “heavy”steam. On the other hand you do not want to use so much water that you end just boiling the peas. This will result in too watery a soup/sauce. If you end up having to boil off the water content of the sauce, you can end up with soggy peas.

The amount of water used also depends on whether the pot is covered. The covering dish of cold water seems too haute fussy to me (unless the dish is going to be the main course). When being cooked with other things, open pot or regular lid is sufficient.

Remember: The recipes (being French) assume one is using fresh shelled peas; however, if one uses frozen peas, they will already contain “ice” which becomes water, so less water needs to be added.

2. Saucing

The second trick is heating the sauce. If the yolk/cream sauce is just poured over the peas, it can unduly cool the dish down.

Solution #1. Pre-warm the sauce. Pre-blend yolk and cream in a bowl before you steam the peas. Add sauce to pre-steamed peas just before serving, and reheat the entire thing if needed Be prepared to add a little milk (and/or a little flower). Add sugar to taste at this point.

Solution #2: Use more water (enough to cover the peas). Before adding the sauce, pour off a likely excess into a cup. (It will be “butter-water”). Stir in the sauce. The remaining water will warm up the sauce, as will the low flame which is still on. If the sauce is too thick, pour back in some of the saved excess excess. The risk here is that one ends up boiling the peas.

Preferences.

I usually make this with diced onions in lieu of the small onions. I prefer this, actually, as the diced onions bleed more of their taste into the mixture. They also conform bite-wise with the peas. The lettuce core and parsely can be dispensed with. I don’t see that they add all that much, given the sauce.

The egg yolk is critical to the sauce. Without it, the sauce is just creme. The yolk seems to me to give the dish its unique texture and taste.

And no you cannot do Organi-Cal Cuisine stuff like using honey instead of sugar, or chicken and chorizo instead of ham or lamb. The only meats that work with this are ham or lamb which ideally have been previously cooked and cut from a bake or a roast.

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