Snow peas, fresh peas, asparagus and chives are the stars of this bright green mix of spring vegetables bathed in a French-Asian fusion sauce. With the sun making timid appearances and the chestnut trees finally in bloom, it’s starting to feel like spring in Paris. I’ve been thinking about preparing this dish for a long time and it was finally the right season. So I headed to the market, where spring vegetables were available in abundance, with the exception of snow peas…
Pan-fried snow peas, peas and asparagus / Spring vegetable medley with snow peas
… And here is a story. But first, the recipe. The vegetables are cooked until tender and then dipped in a sauce of olive oil, sesame oil, soy sauce and balsamic vinegar, with chives trimmed at the end. The dish can be served hot as a side dish or at room temperature as a salad. For example, the other night I served this medley alongside lamb chops cooked by my daughter (who had the brilliant idea of coating the meat in cumin and Chinese bean sauce). The flavors complemented each other beautifully.
The dish was all the more special because I rarely use snow peas, for one simple reason. They are available in supermarkets, imported from Kenya or Guatemala, but are rarely seen at farmers’ markets. I asked the man at my veggie stand about it. He presided behind tables laden with every spring vegetable imaginable: artichokes, asparagus, peas in pods, beautiful bunches of young turnips and carrots, fresh garlic, etc., but no snow peas. Why? “They have become too expensive for our customers,” he said.
A few stalls away, I noticed some snow peas at a stand selling organic vegetables. They were local. Well. But the price! At 14 euros a kilo, or about $7.50 a pound, it was too much for me. So I went to the supermarket, hoping that a farmer in Guatemala would benefit in some way from my purchase.
Jackdaws – known in French as both snow peas (“delicious peas”) and how eat everything (“you can eat it all”) – have been problematic for me before. I got into trouble a couple of decades ago when I bet a friend that snow peas were actually just young peas. ‘Hand’, he replied, “it’s a separate vegetable.” We looked for it. I lost.
More recently, during lockdown, I started cooking a lot of Chinese home cooking (mainly Sichuan) as restaurants were closed and we felt deprived. Peas were sometimes present in these meals, the recipes of which I often found on Sichuan Chinese food, one of my favorite cooking sites. But snow peas are still a relative rarity on our table. So I was even happier when the snow peas mixture turned out well.
If you prefer, you can make a French version of this dish by simply omitting the sauce and briefly sautéing the vegetables in butter or olive oil once they are tender. Whichever method you choose, I have an overdue message for you. Happy spring!
And good food.
