Around here, frozen peas are usually an excuse to do Portuguese-style braised peas and chourico*.
Chop up a small onion and mince a couple of cloves of garlic. Cook these in a large skillet in some olive oil until they go soft, then add a sliced chourico sausage to the mix.
Continue cooking until your onions are golden, then add half a large can of chopped tomatoes and a few dashes of paprika. Bring this to a boil, and then cover the skillet and leave to simmer for 10-15 minutes to allow the flavours to blend.
Add three cups of frozen peas; cover and cook for 3-5 minutes, just long enough to warm the peas through and bring the mixture back to a simmer. Use a spoon to make four hollows in the mixture, and crack a fresh egg into each hollow. Cover and cook until the whites of the eggs are set. Serve with some toasted fresh bread to mop up sauce.
Chourico is a dried and cured pork sausage - you can substitute Spanish-style chorizo, which is very very similar. However, don’t try substituting with Mexican-style chorizo, because it has a totally different taste and texture due to the fact that it’s uncured and made from ground meat instead of chunks.
I’ve made a pie with green peas a few times that was really good. Recipe was from one of John Thorne’s excellent food books and was exactly like it sounds: make a flaky pie crust. Add frozen peas. Bake. If you like, you can add little bits of bacon or gribenes to the peas, too. It sounds weird, but it’s not just me, it went over really well at a foodie potluck I attended.
2 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and quartered.
1 box frozen green peas (about 14 oz)
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp vegetable oil (or what you need to cover the bottom of your pot)
a pinch of ground asafetida
1/4 tsp cumin seeds
1/4 tsp tumeric
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
5/4 tsp salt
Heat oil in 3-quart pot, put in asafetida and cumin seeds, stir once. In a few seconds, when cumin seeds begin to sizzle, at potatoes, tomato paste, tumeric, salt and cayenne. Stir and continue to fry for 2 minutes.
Add 4 cups of water (or a combination of water and vegetable broth - if using broth, consider whether or not it’s salted and adjust the amount of salt you add accordingly.) If necessary, add more water to cover the potatoes. Cover pot and simmer for 45 minutes or until potatoes are soft. Mash the potatoes , then add the frozen peas and continue to simmer until they are heated through.
You’re probably a female; but if you’re male, you can get a vasectomy and hold them on your swollen nuts.
Or there’s Italian Peas…
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 1 onion, chopped
* 2 cloves garlic, minced
* 16 ounces frozen green peas
* 1 tablespoon chicken stock
* salt and pepper to taste
DIRECTIONS
Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in onion and garlic; cook about 5 minutes. Add frozen peas, and stir in stock. Season with salt and pepper. Cover, and cook until the peas are tender, about 10 minutes.
