Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Sugar snap peas - in a snap please!

Sorry, Could not stop myself from the the corny title -
Seriously, I've been seeing those darned peas in the market for years now, but always avoided them because I had no recipe in mind except of course the oriental style - Which is good depending on what they toss it with. I like salads but somehow not as sugar snap peas....However, I am a recipe blogger now and I need to be more adventurous - So this time I passed through Sam's fresh veggies section, I spotted the double pack of organic, washed and cleaned sugar snaps and they saw the light of day in my shopping cart...
I wanted to be authentic with this, in that I wanted elements of oriental in it, but I wanted it desi style - so I used shrooms and tofu but gave them an Indian flavour.

- I realize one thing  - I find cutting veggie extremely calming and therapeutic- I love arranging them side by side for pictures - It's like picking blouses for saris and matching them :-). Seriously, the goodness of all the veggies gets enhanced when I cut them...
The big part to making this is the cutting - Tender sugar snaps are a lighter green and it is not always necessary to snap the end of to pull the string off the beans. I lucked out and got some that required no stringing at all!
I cut the mushrooms length wise as did I the onions and tomatoes - I did not want a big mush -

Ingredients:
1 lb pack of Sugar Snap peas washed and slit down the middle
2 good sized tomatoes (I used Romas)
1 red onion
2 cloves of garlic
About 30 pieces of cubed tofu
2 green chillies (optional)
1 teaspoon of jeera or cumin seeds
1 teaspoon of white sesame seeds
1 teaspoon of grated ginger
1 teaspoons of Curry powder (mine is home made and very coriander based)

Preparation:
The trick is to cook each ingredient separately since they have different cooking times - The other trick is to cook them al-dente because once they are individually cooked, we mix the lot and let them cook for a minute or 2 to absorb each other's flavours.
Add the cumin and other spices along with the onions and mushrooms which I cooked together because they cook more or less at the same pace.
Serve with chappatis or naan

Secret tips:  - cook the peas last since they can get watery of left for too long. Also after you transfer into a bowl - get creative and top it with a nut of your choice - I have some pine nuts so that's what I did :-) And most importantly be sure to keep the peas crispy because that is what defines this vegetable!













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