peas

Posted by jgreghenry
Pea Gnocchi

Light as air these pea and ricotta gnocchi are easy to make. I finish them with bacon and mint so the flavors are full and diverse, making the airy texture all the more exciting. After a week of cooking my mother's recipes followed by a cocktail that took me a couple of days to recover from, I am happy to say I am back in the kitchen cooking my own stuff.

I say my own because I did not follow a recipe here. Instead I applied what I learned from my Tyler Florence cooking experience last month and adapted the process for this version of gnocchi. The notes I took during both excercises became the recipe you see here. I am particularly proud of this recipe. I also like the photo very much.

That's because I spent the weekend honing my blogging skills at CampBlogaway. This photo represents a few new food styling tricks I picked up from Denise Vivaldo. Most importantly I learned the importance of treating my garnishes with as much love and precision as I do the stars of the plate. Garnishes can also be used to artfully hide small flaws and even help guide your eye through the frame. Not that there are any small flaws on this plate... or at least any you can see! If you want to pick up some of these tricks yourself you can because Denise has a book on the art of food styling coming soon called The Food Stylists Handbook. You can pre-order it by CLICKING here. I plan to.

Sippity Sup Continues »
Posted by jgreghenry
perfect pea gnocchi with bacon and mint

Use the best whole-milk ricotta you can find for this recipe because the light texture depends on good cheese. Sheep's milk is the best choice but cows milk is just fine. The recipe also calls for fresh peas, but frozen can be adapted into it quite easily.

Sippity Sup Continues »
Posted by jgreghenry
fresh spring peas

I have been Mr. Springtime flavors here at Sippity Sup lately. Which means my fridge has quite a lot of half used bunches of gorgeous green stuff screaming to be used up while it's still, well– gorgeous and green!

So I am going to sauté the best of the best of my left overs into a really flavorful side dish. Now I warn you it's going to be very, very, (very) green. So if you stumbled over here hoping for something that would knock your socks off (maybe some sweet confection, or double chocolate snow cones with cherry LifeSaver sprinkles), you are going to be grandly disappointed. This isn't one of those BIG BANG "money" posts that people love to drool over. It's not a juicy burger, a rich and creamy pasta. It's not exotic, or particularly enviable. It's not even tied up with a curliqued ribbon.

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Posted by jgreghenry
Three Pea Saute with Green Garlic and Mint

This is a terrific spring side-dish because so many of these flavors only appear at that time of year. So stock up and enjoy these treats when they are fresh and aplenty!

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Posted by jgreghenry
fresh english spring peas

You know it's Spring when the peas peak.

I have had my eyes on sweet fresh English peas for the past few weeks. I knew they were going to be the subject of a Market Matters post from the Hollywood Farmers Market one of the sprigtime Sundays. I was just waiting for the peak of perfection. Well, this is the Sunday!

'Cuz like I said the peas peaked. If you don't believe me have a peek... please. Sorry, I realize alliteration is a dummy's last resort at clever writing, but I have trouble not swinging at that ball when it's lobbed so easily in my direction!

But as these peas peaked on Easter–I am going to be brief today. I have bonnets to wear and eggs to seek and chocolate bunnies to break. But before I get to all of that. Let's discuss peas.

Peas (Pisum sativum, L.) were among the first crops cultivated by man. Some say the word "pea" came from Sanskrit; however, it was more likely derived from the Latin word for the very same vegetable pisum, which in turn was derived from the older Greek name pisos. The Anglo-Saxon version became known as became pise, and later in Old English, pease. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, by 1600 the last two letters were dropped because people believed the word was plural, forming the singular "pea" that we know today. See what you can gleen from Google with very little effort!

But all that intellectual goo-ga means very little when compared to the way peas make me feel. They make me feel giddy!

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