Shelling peas

[jadelennox]

Does anyone have any tips for shelling peas? Now that it's early summer where I live, we have a few weeks of shelling peas available in the farmers' markets. I can't resist them, and you can only get them for a few weeks a year here, but shelling them by hand is a massive pain trigger. You can't get fresh english peas pre-shelled anywhere that I've ever seen, and I like fresh miles more than frozen.

(Though the improvised and delicious-if-pain-inducing dinner was worth sharing, because if you use frozen peas, the only part I can't figure out how to make easy is the onion chopping. I don't think it would work diary-free, though I made it with gluten-free pasta and it was lovely.)

• 8 oz pasta of your choice
• 1/2 chopped onion
• 3 cloves of garlic. pre-chopped should work, or garlic scapes which are easier to chop than garlic.
• 1 cup tomato puree
• spices to taste. We used dill, thyme, and tarragon because it's what I had growing out the kitchen window, but other combos would work.
• Optionally, half a chopped yellow or red pepper. (I had one I'd chopped and frozen last summer so it was trivial; I don't know why you can't buy frozen peppers because they freeze beautifully)
• a cup of frozen peas, or fresh ones you get someone else to shell

1. Put on the pasta to cook.
2. Heat some oil in a pan
3. Sautee the onions and garlic
4. While they cook, put on the peas to boil
5. When the onions are transluscent, add the peppers to the onion and garlic
6. After a few minutes, add the tomato sauce
7. By this point, your peas should be tender. Drain them, and you can use the same pot to warm the cream. (I have read that warming cream before adding it to tomatoes is how you keep it from curdling; in any case it worked this time.)
8. Add any chopped herbs to the cream as it warms.
9. When the cream is warm, add to the tomato and veggie mixture
10. add the peas.
11. Salt to taste, pour over the pasta.

Comments

One possibility for not chopping onion.

[fred_mouse]

Where I am, food stores aimed at the Indian/Pakistani/similar cultural groupings section of the population have frozen chopped onion in either 500g or 1kg bags, which I find incredibly useful when onions are called for. They do need to be left to thaw, and then dried out a bit before frying, and the chunks are quite large, but it beats chopping them most of the time.

Re: One possibility for not chopping onion.

[jadelennox]

That's brilliant! I pass one of those stores every day on my way to work; I'll check it out. Thanks!

Re: One possibility for not chopping onion.

[fred_mouse]

You're welcome.

[melannen]

I've never shelled peas (we tend to just eat a *lot* of snap beans all summer, instead) but I can tell you that my local produce stand does (while we're at the height of the season, anyway) sell a limited number of their peas fresh and pre-shelled? So you might be able to find some, if you get lucky - probably not at a farmers' market, but maybe at a semi-permanent farm stand a little bit out in the country.

[jadelennox]

Huh. I can't get out to farm stands but I wonder if the huge downtown market has some shelled. That's worth checking. Thanks!

Ooh or maybe Russo's.

[melannen]

Yeah, the farm stand we go to is one of the really substantial and tightly-run places, with a big permanent building; it's set up so that they can shell 'em in the back room right off the back of the truck, and then bring them into the building and keep them refrigerated until sold, so you'd probably want to look at something *like* a farmer's market, with a big emphasis on Very Fresh And Very Personal, but substantial enough to have permanent refrigerated cases in the sales area.

[birke]

Yeah, that "fresh, personal, but substantial" description kind of describes the place I get shelled peas -- it's a small grocery cooperative with a weekly farmer's market and local farmers sell directly to it.

[birke]

Hm. I don't know what your pain triggers are exactly, but I just paused to think about what would make shelling peas easier on me, and it's using a knife to slit the pod and cut out the peas, rather than doing it all with finger pressure.

[jadelennox]

Nod, that does help, actually; the pinching is the worst. I cut myself sometimes when I do it with a knife, because also clumsy, but that is why my mother bought me those gloves you can't cut through. I should try it again.

Thanks!

[birke]

You're welcome!

[shannnon_foraker]

If you have the funds/something nice to give them, you could try to hire *someone* local, like a kid, maybe?

[tedeisenstein]

I don't suppose using sugar-snap peas, still in their pod, would be a good substitute? Or using them (the peas still in the pods) diagonally sliced?