From side dish to star attraction
Sugar snap peas have always frustrated me -- not because they don’t taste good, but because there never seemed to be anything I could do to make them taste better.
Eaten straight out of hand, they’re like some miracle vegetable: crisp as romaine, sweet as fruit and explosively green in flavor. But whenever I cooked them I always seemed to wind up with something less, not more.
In that way, they’re representative of the entire spring vegetable crop: The best cook is the one who chooses ingredients carefully and then treats them simply. Need specifics? Let’s look at three of the most popular spring vegetables, starting with those vexing peas.
The most important lesson in cooking sugar snaps is not to overdo it. A brief blanching in boiling water -- only a minute or two at the most -- will improve the color and deepen the flavor slightly. Any more than that, though, and you’ll lose the crispness and the sweetness.
The best thing I’ve found to do with sugar snaps is folding them into a rice salad, where the soft texture and subtle flavor and color highlight all of the pea’s best qualities.
Though there are things to look for when buying sugar snaps, the simplest way to pick out the best is a quick (if surreptitious) munch. If they taste good, what more do you really need to know?
Beyond that, you want pods that are firm and well filled out with peas. The skin should be taut with no nicks or dents. You’ll frequently see a sugar snap with some white streaking; that’s fine -- the bright green color will even out during a brief blanching.
The biggest variable with sugar snaps is stringiness. There are several varieties that are grown now and some of them need de-stringing more than others.
This is another case in which snacking pays off. If you try one and you’re left with a mouth full of fiber, you’d better plan on spending a few minutes stringing the rest.
That’s easy enough to do. Grab the stem and snap it back toward the flower end. The stem will break off, staying attached only by the string. Unzip the string along the seam and you’re done.
Worth the hassle
Artichokes are at the opposite end of the cook-ability spectrum. In fact, it is rare that you’ll find them served raw at all -- the currently trendy shaved artichoke heart carpaccio being the man-bites-dog exception.
Even the simplest of artichoke dishes takes a lot of preparation, the exact nature of which depends on how you’re going to use them.
Normally, I’m a firm believer in leaving the stems intact -- they’ve got just as much flavor as the hearts. But sometimes you need a flat base, as in these stuffed artichokes, and so the stems have to go.
An old nonna technique is to stick the trimmed stems between the stuffed artichokes, both to help prop the artichokes upright and so they will be cooked and not wasted.
There are two schools of stuffing artichokes. Which you choose will depend in large part on the kind of artichoke you buy.
In the first, which works best with the really big artichokes that are usually used for steaming and dipping, the leaves are spread and little dabs of stuffing are sandwiched in between them. After cooking, you eat these as you would steamed ‘chokes: Pull off a leaf (hopefully, with some stuffing) and scrape it between your teeth to remove the soft edible part.
I like the knife-and-fork approach to stuffed artichokes, the kind you find in spring antipasto platters in central Italy. Prepared this way, the artichoke is really more of an edible cup holding a light, savory filling.
Medium artichokes work best for these and cleaning them requires a certain ruthlessness. It’s hard to throw away that much vegetable. The only way to look at it is that every tough scrap of peel you don’t remove, one of your guests will have to. And a plate that looks like it’s been through the mulcher is so unattractive.
The cleaning technique I prefer for these is the one recommended by Marcella Hazan. I can offer no better instruction than to quote her:
“Begin bending back and snapping off the outer green part of the leaves, letting only the whitish, tender bottom of each leaf remain -- the edible portion. Use a lemon half to squeeze juice over the cut portions so they won’t discolor.
“As you get deeper into the artichoke, the leaves will snap off farther from the base. Keep snapping off leaves until you expose a central cone of leaves that are green only at the tips. Slice about an inch off the top of the central cone, enough to eliminate all of the green part.
“In the center of the artichoke you will see at the bottom some very small, pale leaves with purple, prickly tips curving inward.... Cut all of these little leaves and scrape away the fuzzy ‘choke beneath them.
“Pare away the green outer parts of the leaves at the base of the artichoke, leaving the white and continuing to rub the cut portions with the lemon half.”
When shopping for artichokes, don’t pay too much attention to looks -- artichokes almost inevitably get a bit beaten up and you’re going to throw away most of the visible surface anyway. Instead, focus on weight (artichokes should be heavy for their size) and sound (fresh artichokes will be firm enough to squeak when their leaves are rubbed together).
Choosing asparagus, on the other hand, is all about looks. Asparagus is as fragile as a hothouse flower and betrays bad handling almost instantly. Choose asparagus spears with tightly furled tops, smooth, unwrinkled middles and moist cut-ends. The best shippers these days are packaging their asparagus upright in cases, with wet pads underneath. Good groceries will display them the same way.
A standout spear
It’s hard to imagine something as simple and good as asparagus causing controversy, yet there is a never-ending argument among those who love the vegetable best. Thick or thin? Like most never-ending arguments, this one is almost entirely a matter of aesthetics. Thin asparagus doesn’t have to be peeled and tends to seem a little crisper. And there is certainly something beautiful about the way the grass-like spears bend and flow on the platter.
On the other hand, big fat spears have a juicy, almost mousse-like voluptuousness that is hard to beat. Pretty as thin spears may be, there is little that gets me salivating in the way a mound of fat spears can, simply cooked through and perfumed with the best olive oil and a squeeze of lemon.
And while asparagus served by itself is best left whole, when you’re mixing it into a dish, chop it into short sections and its flavor will spread better. That’s especially true for pastas, risottos and egg dishes, such as this frittata.
Just remember, this is spring. The less you do to it, the better.
Russ Parsons can be reached at [email protected]
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Rice salad with ham, sugar snap peas and provolone
Total time: 45 minutes
Servings: 6 to 8
Note: In this recipe, the rice is cooked almost like pasta, in plenty of water. That keeps the starch from coating the kernels after it is drained. Do start it in cold water though, so the starch will soften gradually. And make sure the rice is pretty well cooked; it will firm up as it cools.
2 cups rice
Salt
1 pound ham, cut in 1/2-inch dice
3/4 pound sugar snap peas (trim and string if necessary)
2 tablespoons Sherry vinegar, divided
3/4 cup chopped green onions
1 tablespoon olive oil
6 ounces sharp provolone, cut in 1/2-inch dice
1. Place the rice in a large saucepan, cover generously with water and add 1 teaspoon of salt. Bring to a boil, add the ham and reduce the heat to cook at a simmer. When the rice is tender, about 15 to 20 minutes, add the sugar snap peas, then immediately drain the rice, ham and peas and rinse them lightly in running water.
2. Empty the mixture into a bowl and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon vinegar. Add the green onions and mix well. Spread as thin as possible across the bottom of the bowl to cool and dry.
3. Just before serving, mix together the remaining tablespoon of vinegar and the olive oil. Add this dressing to the rice along with the provolone and mix everything together well. Taste and adjust the seasoning for salt. Serve at room temperature.
Each serving: 415 calories; 784 mg. sodium; 56 mg. cholesterol; 18 grams fat; 7 grams saturated fat; 42 grams carbohydrates; 22 grams protein; 2 grams fiber.
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Asparagus and ham frittata
Total time: 45 minutes
Servings: 6 to 8
6 ounces ham, cut in 1/4-inch dice
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
2 tablespoons butter, divided
3/4 pound asparagus, trimmed and peeled if thicker than a pencil
12 eggs
1 ounce Parmesan, grated (about 1/3 cup)
1. Heat the broiler.
2. Cook the ham, parsley and 1 tablespoon butter in a skillet over low heat until ham renders its fat and begins to shrivel, 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, cut up the asparagus. Start cutting from the base in 1/4- to 1/2-inch crosswise slices. Cut up to the tips, but leave the last inch of the tips whole. Add to the ham and continue cooking another 5 minutes.
4. Melt the remaining tablespoon of butter over medium-low heat in a 10-inch nonstick skillet or omelet pan. Beat the eggs in a large bowl with a fork to break up the yolks. Do not whisk -- you don’t want to beat air into the eggs. Stir in the asparagus, ham and parsley.
5. Pour into the skillet and cook, stirring gently, just until the eggs start to form curds, about 5 minutes. Be careful to scrape the bottom of the pan while you’re stirring to keep the eggs from setting up too quickly. Cover and reduce the heat to low. Cook until the top is almost set, another 5 to 10 minutes.
6. Sprinkle the top with the Parmesan and place the pan 4 or 5 inches under the broiler. Cook just until the cheese begins to brown, about 1 1/2 minutes. Remove the frittata from the broiler and loosen the sides with a thin spatula. Set aside to cool to room temperature. When ready to serve, remove the frittata from the pan and cut it into wedges. Or, cut it in 1-inch squares and place a toothpick in the center of each to serve as an appetizer.
Each serving: 211 calories; 362 mg. sodium; 342 mg. cholesterol; 15 grams fat; 6 grams saturated fat; 2 grams carbohydrates; 16 grams protein; 0 fiber.
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Artichokes stuffed with ham and pine nuts
Total time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
Servings: 4 to 6
1/2 lemon
12 medium artichokes (about 4 pounds)
1 clove garlic
1/4 baguette, crust trimmed and cubed (about 2 ounces)
2 ounces ham, cubed
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup white wine
Water
1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Fill a bowl with water and squeeze the lemon over it. Set aside the squeezed-out lemon.
2. Remove the tough parts of the outer leaves from an artichoke. This is best done by bending the leaf flat back and then pulling straight down, taking the tips of the leaves and much of the stringy fiber, but leaving the meaty bases. Work your way around the artichoke, until you come to leaves where the bases are tender and pale green. Use a large knife to cut off the dark green top by one-third.
3. Trim the stem of the artichoke with a paring knife, making a flat base and carefully peel away any tough dark green peel, exposing the tender pale surface. Rub the cut surfaces with the lemon half.
4. Place the artichoke upside down on a work surface and press down firmly to begin to spread the leaves. Turn the artichoke right-side up and use your fingers to spread the leaves as much as possible. Use a melon baller or grapefruit spoon to remove the innermost purple-tipped leaves and scrape the fuzzy choke from the base.
5. Place the cleaned artichoke in the bowl of lemon water and repeat with the remaining artichokes.
6. Mince the garlic by dropping it down the feed tube of a food processor while it’s running. Stop the machine and add the bread cubes. Pulse 2 or 3 times. Add the ham and the parsley and pulse until both the bread and ham are in large crumbs, about 4 or 5 times. Remove the blade and stir in the lemon zest, pine nuts and salt.
7. Drain the artichokes (turn them upside down and spread the leaves) and fill the central cavity of each with some of the stuffing mixture, mounding it over the top and working a bit of it between the leaves. Arrange the artichokes in an oiled baking dish just large enough to hold them in a single layer.
8. Pour the wine into the bottom of the dish and add just enough water to come to a depth of about 3/4 inch. Cover the dish with foil and bake until the artichokes are tender enough that you can easily pull out one of the interior leaves (a knife will pierce the base easily as well), about 45 minutes.
9. Remove the dish from the oven and carefully pour the leftover liquid into a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat and reduce to a thin syrup. Pour over the cooked artichokes and serve warm or set aside to cool to room temperature before serving.
Each serving: 148 calories; 452 mg. sodium; 6 mg. cholesterol; 3 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 18 grams carbohydrates; 8 grams protein; 7 grams fiber.
