Another very nice video, Helen, which brings up a few questions I've been harboring for a long time.
I love sugar snaps too, but I find it interesting that no one addresses the fact that sugar snaps and snow peas more often than not (in my experience) have tough strings on both edges -- at least they do when I buy them, and are still tough and stringy after blanching.
String them before cooking? If the strings are removed after blanching, I find that the halves of the pods separate to expose the little peas inside of them.
Perhaps they have been harvested too late, after they have matured? How does one tell at the grocery store? Any guidance would be appreciated.
Yes, sugar snaps are often annoyingly stringy, but snow peas usually aren't. I eat one at the supermarket before buying :) Sugar snaps from the super market are rarely good. They need to be really fresh to be good since the peas convert sugar to starch very quickly. Even if you get them from a farm and they are really sweet, they might be stringy and the strings need to be pulled out before cooking. Snow peas on another had are all about the shell since the peas in them are really tiny.
May have to reconsider snow peas as I previously found them to have way too much texture (stringy) to my liking.
Also, you mentioned how forgiving snow peas are with just enough water required to submerge for blanching. Made me wonder if I haven't been blanching other veggies properly. Is there a rule of thumb of water quantity to use when blanching other veggies like broccoli?
normally, you don't want to crowd the pot so that the water doesn't cool off much when the vegetable goes in. I don't normally measure for blanching, but I am guessing you want about 1 quart of water per cup of vegetable. Here is a "normal" blanching video: https://youtu.be/ysIgWLbkmwQ
ReplyDeleteAnother very nice video, Helen, which brings up a few questions I've been harboring for a long time.
I love sugar snaps too, but I find it interesting that no one addresses the fact that sugar snaps and snow peas more often than not (in my experience) have tough strings on both edges -- at least they do when I buy them, and are still tough and stringy after blanching.
String them before cooking? If the strings are removed after blanching, I find that the halves of the pods separate to expose the little peas inside of them.
Perhaps they have been harvested too late, after they have matured? How does one tell at the grocery store? Any guidance would be appreciated.
Yes, sugar snaps are often annoyingly stringy, but snow peas usually aren't. I eat one at the supermarket before buying :) Sugar snaps from the super market are rarely good. They need to be really fresh to be good since the peas convert sugar to starch very quickly. Even if you get them from a farm and they are really sweet, they might be stringy and the strings need to be pulled out before cooking. Snow peas on another had are all about the shell since the peas in them are really tiny.
ReplyDeleteMay have to reconsider snow peas as I previously found them to have way too much texture (stringy) to my liking.
ReplyDeleteAlso, you mentioned how forgiving snow peas are with just enough water required to submerge for blanching. Made me wonder if I haven't been blanching other veggies properly. Is there a rule of thumb of water quantity to use when blanching other veggies like broccoli?
normally, you don't want to crowd the pot so that the water doesn't cool off much when the vegetable goes in. I don't normally measure for blanching, but I am guessing you want about 1 quart of water per cup of vegetable. Here is a "normal" blanching video: https://youtu.be/ysIgWLbkmwQ
ReplyDelete