Cooking with Mollie #12: Wasabi Peas

Wasabi Peas

I'm making progress getting through Mollie Katzen's magical vegetable book, "The Vegetable Dishes I Can't Live Without." This is recipe 12, so I figure I'm about 1/10 of the way through. It has been a tasty, delightful, palate-enlightening pleasure so far (mostly).

The recipe is for Wasabi Peas. No, not the crunchy kind in the can, though I love those, too. I especially love when you get a can where the wasabi is very unevenly distributed, so you eat them and 9 peas are mildly spicy and the tenth is OH MY GOD MY BRAIN IS ON FIRE WOW MY SINUSES, WAIT, IS THAT JESUS?

That's fun.

But I have to admit I've never been much on regular peas. I grew up on mushy, canned, grey-green peas, or overcooked frozen peas, so as a kid, I couldn't imagine anything worse. As an adult, I just tend to forget they exist. Too many other vegetables.

The hardest part about this recipe is finding fresh peas. Mine came from Guatemala (well, actually from Trader Joe's, but they started out in Guatemala). Mollie says you can use frozen. I say "No, thank you."

Then it's pretty simple. One might even be tempted to say easy PEAsy, if one had a sick, punny sense of humor. Ahem.

Saute some onions. I used shallots - I'm a rebel. And I had some shallots that were about to go bad. Meanwhile, make a sauce of wasabi paste, olive oil, and water. Mix with the peas. Put the whole mess in with the shallots and cook. That's it. Oh, and let it sit 15 minutes before serving.

Did I like it? Not at first, but then again, I didn't wait 15 minutes. It really did help the flavors to combine. I don't think I used enough wasabi paste, and I think the stuff I bought was a little old. I got it at an Asian market that is really more a liquor store with some Asian stuff. So it was a little funky to me.

I'd like to try it again, either with real fresh Wasabi (which is rare and about $40 per pound when you can find it) or at least fresher wasabi paste.

But yeah, it's a nice way to zip up peas. I ate it cold at lunch, and I can't say that was bad, either. Thumbs up! Bon appetit.

Cooking with Mollie #3: Spicy Brussels Sprouts Pickles

You either love Brussels Sprouts or hate them. If you're in the second category, it is my life mission to convert you to the Cult of the Sprout. I love them. I love them steamed, boiled, roasted, shredded into confetti and sauteed...but until this week, I had never loved them pickled. It's simple. You start with about half a pound of fresh sprouts. Peel off the ugly outside leaves. I always peel the outside leaves even if they aren't ugly, because that's where dirt and aphids hide. Cut them in half if they are large (and most sprouts that I can find lately are large). Then you cook them for just a couple minutes in a large pot of boiling, salted water. I always cook vegetables in heavily salted water because Thomas Keller does, and well, THOMAS KELLER. Drain and rinse them in cold water: They will be a beautiful bright green. Enjoy that color now, because it's about to change. Ah well, c'est la vie. Then you submerge them in a pickling liquid that is made of 2/3 of a cup of hot water with 1 tbsp of honey mixed in (you could use sugar, too) and 1 tsp of salt. Mollie says to use seasoned rice vinegar, but I had a better idea! I used my spicy peppered vinegar from the Asian market. The spicy vinegar (the one on the left) was perfect. It added a nice zippiness. Someone suggested you could include these sprouts in a Bloody Mary and to that I say yay, yes you could. If you can't find spicy vinegar, you could probably just toss in a teaspoon or two of red pepper flakes, depending on how spicy you wanted them. I put a plate on top of the sprouts to ensure they stayed submerged in the pickling liquid. A few hours later, they looked like this: They are a great little snack. You don't want to eat too many at once, just one or two with a sandwich or cheese plate. Store them in their liquid in the fridge in a glass or ceramic container. Recipe adapted from Mollie Katzen's "Vegetable Dishes I Can't Live Without."