Tuesday, 28 August 2007

Two Posts in One Day, with peas and roast veg.

I stumbled-upon this recipe for baked peas with tarragon, yoghurt and pistachios, and have been meaning to try it, especially since the new tarragon is just coming in for spring. And I've also been meaning to try to upload an image. Both seem to have worked.

Since I worked from home today, I could start the oven early and get back to work for a while. I put a mix of potato, pumpkin, sweet potato and onion on to bake, with no extra herbs or spices. When nearly done, the peas went in the oven, and the pork chops went on the grill. I also left the chops plain, so as not to muddle the tarragon and pistachio flavours. Though I did warm up the apple compote as an extra side dish. Pork and apple are such a classic.

Cooking today:
Pork chops with baked peas and roast veggies.
Recipe: Baked Peas with Tarragon, Yogurt, and Pistachios

450g frozen baby peas
1/4 cup loosely packed fresh tarragon leaves
2 spring onions, white and green parts, chopped
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup Greek yogurt
1/2 cup chopped pistachios
1/2 teaspoon sea salt (or to taste)

Preheat oven to 200C.

Put the peas in a casserole dish and thaw (microwave is fine), stirring occasionally.
Puree the tarragon, spring onions, olive oil, yoghurt, salt, and 1/4 cup of the pistachios in a blender.
Mix the puree into the peas, and sprinkle the top with the remaining pistachios.
Bake for about 15 minutes - about the time the top will begin to brown.

Notes: If you don't have Greek yoghurt, pop 1/2 cup regular natural yoghurt in a kitchen paper lined sieve over a bowl for a couple of hours. I used Vaalia low fat, which is very mild; I think a nice sharp Attiki would work better. My version looked creamier than the image.

Recipe and image taken from 101Cookbooks - but I reduced the tarragon, as I find it very strong, and there wasn't that much in the garden yet. Also, it said 500F, which is ridiculous; it must have been a typo. The nuts would burn in 5 minutes at that heat.

1 comment:

Cath said...

Hah, Blogger time is when you created the post, not when you published it. I made a title and uploaded the picture early. The actual details were written AFTER dinner!