Peas | Gourmandistan

Hoppin’ John Biryani and saag paneer, our pagan rituals for a better year

January 1, 2020 by Steve

Gourmandistan is about as far from a theocracy as possible. However, we are not above indulging in bits of propitiation, as evidenced by the atheistic Michelle’s insistence on egg baskets, angel ornaments and other religious emulations. The turning of the calendar to a new year found us once again looking for ways to eat black-eyed peas and greens, a tradition supposedly guaranteeing luck and good fortune in the coming months. While we are skeptics, we find ourselves already crediting good […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, India, New Year, Peas, Pork, Recipes, Rice, Southern Food

Almond boneless chicken, exhibit ABC of Chinese-American idiosyncrasy

June 10, 2015 by Steve

Gourmandistan’s love of soy, stir-frying and other Asian ideas has led us to explore many Chinese dishes, as well as Chinese restaurants around the globe. Like many Americans of a certain age and geography, both Michelle’s and Steve’s first exposures to “Chinese food” came from menus full of chop suey, crab wontons, General Tso’s chicken and other items never dreamed of in China. We grew older and discovered dishes from Szechuan, Hunan and other regions of China, along with restaurants that (sometimes with […]

Categories: Chicken, China, Cooking, Food, Lettuce, Mushrooms, Peas, Recipes, Restaurants

Do do this ragout that we do so well.

May 20, 2013 by Steve

We’re not asking you join a great crusade to stamp out decency in the West. (After all, some would say there’s nothing left to do.) We’re simply asking you to start celebrating your fresh green vegetables with this simple, light “stew.” A while back, Michelle was hypnotized by some Whole Foods fava beans (a rarity in these parts), and found a recipe in Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse Vegetables for Fava Bean Ragout. Alice indicated it was “great with Potato Gnocchi,” […]

Categories: Artichokes, Asparagus, Cooking, Food, Old cookbooks, Pasta, Peas, Recipes, Vegetables, Vegetarian

Let’s go pea!

June 17, 2012 by Steve

One of the smaller joys of Steve’s life is his tangential connection to Austin-Peay State University, home of (at least to Steve’s scatologically-slanted ear) the greatest cheer in college athletics. A few seasons back, as Steve giggled at the chants of “Let’s Go Peay!” while the Governors lost to his beloved Wildcats, Michelle’s dad (also a rabid UK fan) revealed he’d attended the small university near the Kentucky border in Tennessee. By the transitive power of shared TV-watching (a right […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Peas, Recipes, Soups & Stews

Snow peas, with hints of pork and brevity

June 5, 2011 by Michelle

Before we had chickens, we had a garden. And from the first season, our garden grew peas. Like sweet corn, peas start turning starchy the moment they’re picked, so the freshest are always the finest. (Steve, of course, would simply stand in the garden and eat peas off the vine. But Michelle holds herself to higher standards and insisted he actually bring them to the kitchen.) After their first lovely flower, the tangled pea vines would produce sweet crunchy pods […]

Categories: China, Food, Peas, Pork, Recipes

Asparagus soup, a delicious penance

May 29, 2011 by Michelle

We try. We really, really try to restrain ourselves at our local markets. But we grow weak in the presence of so many fresh vegetables, acutely aware of the change of seasons. (Because of the dampness, strawberry season this year has been lamentably brief.) Overeager to grab good things before they’re gone for another year, we ended up with way too much asparagus sitting in our refrigerator. The previous week’s haul drooped their tips in disappointment as we added yet […]

Categories: Asparagus, Cooking, Food, Old cookbooks, Peas, Recipes, Soups & Stews, Soy Beans, Vegetarian

Paella and surviving the Gourmandistan cookbook gauntlet

March 10, 2011 by Michelle

Hundreds, if not thousands, of cookbooks have seen their way in and out of Gourmandistan. The kitchen’s multiple shelves are nearly full, even though scores upon scores of volumes have been given away to friends and charities over the years and at least 50 others currently sit in an upstairs bookshelf purgatory, waiting for a decision on whether they stay or go. (We’re looking at you, Lee Brothers.) Gourmandistan’s general cookbook-keeping metric is simple: to keep a place in our […]

Categories: Chicken, Cooking, Food, Peas, Pork, Recipes, Restaurants, Rice, Spain

Research and risotto cakes

February 22, 2011 by Michelle

Gourmandistan is planning to temporarily plant its flag in a new land this Fall, inside the province of Padua in northeastern Italy. We’ve begun preparing for our trip already—Michelle furiously researching the sites, transportation options and cultural habits of the Veneto; Steve rambling around Google Earth looking for towns named for sausages and cheeses he’s heard of. In addition, we’ve predictably started exploring Italian recipes. We’re not huge fans of risotto-making here in Gourmandistan. Steve’s weak wrists and fidgetiness resent […]

Categories: Breakfast, Cooking, Eggs, Food, Italy, Peas, Recipes, Rice

Pea meets pie. Gourmandistan falls in love.

May 31, 2010 by Steve

First too-good-to-be-true thing: a large bag of in-shell English peas from the Norton Commons farmers market. Second too-good-to-be-true thing: a recipe for Fresh Green Pea Pie from Camille Glenn’s The Heritage of Southern Cooking, combining the fresh peas with a double crust. Glenn, food editor for the Louisville Courier-Journal back when it was a great newspaper who died earlier this year at the age of 100, wrote: If I were asked to name the greatest fresh vegetable dish in the […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Old cookbooks, Peas, Recipes