Tuesday 30 July 2013

Minted Spring Vegetables


From 101 Veggie Dishes, BBC Worldwide, 2003.
It was not spring but winter, however the vegetables for this dish were readily available—except for baby onions. To make up for this I bought a jar of pickled onions. I rather fancied the idea of using them.

To begin, I heated some butter and olive oil in a pan and when it was ready I added some pickled onions and let them warm through for a couple of minutes. Then I poured in a little white wine and also added a leek finely sliced, brought it all to the boil and let it simmer for about 5 minutes.

A cup of frozen peas was now added and let simmer for a few minutes more. Then a baby cos lettuce was cut into slices and added, stirring until it had wilted. It was let cook for 2 more minutes after which 2 heaped tablespoons crème fraîche were stirred in with a tablespoon each of chopped fresh mint and parsley. When it had all heated through it was served over some soaked and warmed bulghar wheat.
I didn’t enjoy this as much as I thought I would. The flavour of the vegetables came through, the sweetness of the peas popped through the bitter lettuce leaves and the pickled onions worked really well to give a spicy crunchy contrast. The bulghar wheat was wrong though. Indeed, I think it would have worked much better as just a plate of creamy mixed green vegetables.
Taste: ✔✔✔
Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

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