{"id":1876,"date":"2006-06-26T13:55:32","date_gmt":"2006-06-26T11:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coquinaria.nl\/?p=1876\/"},"modified":"2019-11-24T20:04:30","modified_gmt":"2019-11-24T19:04:30","slug":"royal-peas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coquinaria.nl\/en\/royal-peas\/","title":{"rendered":"Royal peas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well alright then, just the one!<\/h2>\n
\n

Straight to the recipe<\/small><\/a><\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Garden peas were an absolute hype in the\u00a0seventeenth century<\/span>. They were enjoyed much the same way as we nowadays eat chocolate, like a delicious sin.\u00a0Madame de Maintenon, mistress of\u00a0Louis XIV<\/span>\u00a0wrote in 1696: “Il y a des dames qui, apr\u00e8s avoir soup\u00e9, et bien soup\u00e9, trouvent des pois chez elles avant de coucher, au risque d’une indigestion. C’est une mode, une fureur.” (There are ladies who, after haven dined, and dined well, eat garden peas in their own quarters before going to bed. It is a fashion fad, a hype).<\/p>\n

For me, one of the most delicious ways of preparing garden peas is\u00a0petit pois \u00e0 la fran\u00e7aise<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0\u00e1 la cr\u00eame<\/em>, garden peas with butterhead lettuce, butter, bacon and cream. A modern dietist’s nightmare, but it tastes very good!
\nFran\u00e7ois Pierre la Varenne includes an early recipe like this in\u00a0Le cuisinier fran\u00e7ois<\/em>\u00a0from\u00a0 1651 (F<\/span>rench edition Hyman\u00a0p.120\/121 asee bibliography). In his version the peas are boiled with lettuce or purslane, and then prepared like a previous recipe for\u00a0asparagus \u00e0 la cr\u00eame\u00a0<\/em>(with butter or bacon, parsley, chives, butter and nutmeg).<\/p>\n

The mysterious L.S.R.<\/h3>\n

L’Art de bien traiter<\/em>\u00a0(1674)<\/h3>\n

L’Art de bien traiter<\/em>\u00a0consists of five parts.
\nIn the first part<\/strong> you’ll find recipes for soups (potages grands et petits<\/em>), stews, entr\u00e9es and entremets, pasties, sauces, jellies, salads and vegetables, but it opens with a description of the dining room in winter and summer, storing and choosing of wine, and a description of the ideal kitchen.
\nThe second part<\/strong> concerns recipes for fish and other dishes for the\u00a0jours maigres<\/em>\u00a0(the French court was of course catholic).
\nThe third part<\/strong> provides suggestions for special meals (on the water, in a cave), a seasonal list of fruit that can be eaten in their natural state (raw), a chapter on conserving fruit and how to ornate tables for dessert (with lots of artfully arranged fresh fruit).
\nThe paenultimate part<\/strong> describes the ambigu, an informal meal that has everything, hot and cold, savoury and sweet, on the table at the same time.
\nThe fifth and last part<\/strong> has recipes for preserves, candied and dried fruit and sweets (p\u00e2tes de fruits<\/em>).<\/p>\n

The original recipe<\/h2>\n

l’Art de bien traiter<\/em>\u00a0(1674) has been published together with two other seventeenth-century cookbooks,\u00a0Le cuisinier<\/em>\u00a0by Pierre de Lune and\u00a0La maison r\u00e9gl\u00e9e<\/em>\u00a0by Audiger, in\u00a0L’art de la cuisine fran\u00e7aise au XVIIe<\/span>\u00a0si\u00e8cle<\/em>\u00a0(Editions Payot).. The edition of Payot uses modernized spelling, that is why the text is taken from\u00a0La Gastronomie au Grand Si\u00e8cle<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>p.217. I have the French edition of this book, so the English translation of the recipe is by me, not taken from the English edition.<\/p>\n

Pois verts. S’ils sont tres nouveaux, & de la premi\u00e8re saison passez-les par la po\u00ebsle avec moiti\u00e9 beure & moiti\u00e9 lard menu bien moins que roux, assaisonnez-les de fort peu de sel & d’\u00e9pices pour ne point destruire leur goust naturel, qui paroist comme tout sucrin, mettez-y quelque coeurs de laitu\u00ebs pomm\u00e9es blanchies hach\u00e9es menu, un petit vert de siboulette, peu de thim, & sur tout point d’eau si ce n’est une cuiller\u00e9e ou deux de votre meilleur bo\u00fcillon, car les legumes d’elles mesmes en font assez, songez pareillement qu’ils doivent estre un peu verdelets, autrement \u00e0 force de cuire ils deviendront tout jaunes, un moment avant de servir jettez-y de la cresme \u00e0 proportion, remuez encore cinq ou six tours & donnez promptement \u00e0 manger.<\/em>.<\/div>\n
Green peas. If they are very fresh and from the first crop, pass them through the pan with half butter and half finely chopped bacon, melted but not brown. Season them with very little salt and spices to prevent destroying their natural taste which is very sweet. Add some blanched finely chopped hearts of butter lettuce, a little green of chives, a little thyme. Above all NO water, or just one or two spoons of your best broth, because de greens themselves have enough of it (water). Also remember that they have to be green, because otherwise they’ll turn quite yellow through cooking. Add cream as needed just before serving, stir five or six times, and serve at once to be eaten.<\/div>\n
<\/div><\/p>\n

<\/a>Modern adaptation of the recipe<\/h2>\n

This vegetable dish has a presence in the menu: it has flavour and is nourishing. So the meat or fish that is served with it should not be too elaborate.
\nServe the peas with\u00a0<\/a>veal cutlets\u00a0or veal steaks, marinated in vinegar, verjus, lemon juice and salt, patted dry and coated with flour, and then fried in\u00a0lard<\/a>\u00a0or a mixture of butter and olive oil. This is a simplified version of the recipe for ‘cotelettes de veau marin\u00e9e pour frire’, the first recipe in part 1, chapter 3 of\u00a0L’Art de bien traiter<\/em>, where these ‘cotelettes’ are just meant as garnish for stuffed veal breast.
\nSide dish<\/span>\u00a0for 4 persons<\/span>;\u00a0preparation in advance<\/em>\u00a015 minutes<\/span>;\u00a0preparation<\/em>\u00a020 minutes<\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"French500 gr (3 cups)\u00a0frozen garden peas<\/span>\u00a0or peas from the garden
\n50 gr\u00a0butter<\/span>
\n50 gr (2 ounces)\u00a0bacon<\/span>\u00a0(it could be that just lard is meant, but I like it with bacon)
\n1 head of\u00a0butterhead lettuce<\/span>
\n2 tsp finely chopped\u00a0chives<\/span>
\nthe needles of 1 sprig\u00a0thyme<\/span>
\npinch of salt, even smaller pinches nutmeg and pepper
\n1 to 2 Tbsp\u00a0good\u00a0stock<\/span><\/a>\u00a0(from meat or vegetables)
\n\u00bd dl or 3 Tbsp double cream<\/p>\n

Preparation in advance<\/h3>\n

Rinse the lettuce, remove the outer, darker green leaves. Submerge the lettuce in ample boiling water for a few seconds, then drain well. The lettuce has lost most of its excess water. Cut the lettuce in thin strips. The recipe speaks of chopped lettuce, but I prefer the lettuce slightly larger. You decide.
\nLet the frozen peas thaw, but not completely.<\/p>\n

Preparation<\/h3>\n

Heat butter and bacon in a skillet until the fat has melted but is not yet turning brown. Add the peas, stir until all covered with a layer of butter\/fat, then add the rest except for the cream. Cover with a lid, let simmer on a low fire, depending on the size and how far they were thawed, five to fifteen minutes. Add the cream, stir a few times.<\/p>\n

To serve<\/h3>\n

At once.<\/p>\n

Ingredients<\/h2>\n

All descriptions of ingredients<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Flowering<\/a>Peas (Pisum sativum<\/em>)<\/h4>\n

The pea is a legume. Green peas have been eaten since at least the last five milennia. They were mostly first dried, and thus an important part of the daily fare together with other legumes like marrowfat peas, especially during medieval Lent.
\nGarden peas are eaten unripe, they are almost a different legume than peas, very sweet. In Dutch they are called\u00a0doperwten<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0doppertjes<\/em>, whilst the ripe peas are called\u00a0erwten<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0groene erwten<\/em>. Garden peas deteriorate in taste very quickly after being harvested. Therefore, unless you grow your own garden peas, it is best to use frozen peas. Canned peas are really NOT an option.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Verjuice<\/h4>\n

The juice of sour, unripe grapes that was used in the Middle Ages and up to the eighteenth century. You can still buy it, but you may have to look for it. In the Netherlands verjuice was also made from unripe apples and sorrel. You can use applecider vinegar as a substitute.\u00a0Make your own Verjuice<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Bibliography<\/h2>\n

The editions below were used by me. Links refer to available editions.<\/p>\n

For the recipe on this page I chose the version from\u00a0L’Art de bien traiter<\/em>\u00a0(1674), written by the mysterious L.S.R.
\nWho lurks behind those initials is not known. Some suggestions are\u00a0Le sieur Robert<\/em>,\u00a0Le sieur Rolland<\/em>, or simply\u00a0Le serviteur du Roi<\/em>, but all that is pure guesswork. However, we do know something. He served at the castles\u00a0Fontainebleau<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Vaux-le-Vicomte<\/a>\u00a0(where Vatel in the service of Nicolas Fouquet -minister of finance- organized in 1661 such a spectacular feast that Louis XIV became so envious thathe deicided to confisquate the possessions of the Vicomte de Vaux).
\nL.S.R. was rather conceited. Just look at his opinion on La varenne, who published his books just twenty years earlier: “Je crois m\u00eame qu’on ne verra point ici les absurdit\u00e9s et les d\u00e9go\u00fbtantes le\u00e7ons que le sieur de Varenne ose donner et soutenir, […]; la raison de cet aveuglement est qu’il ne s’est jamais trouv\u00e9 personne pour en combattre les erreurs.” (‘Pr\u00e9face’, edition p.p 22\/23, translation: I even believe that here <in this book,\u00a0l’Art de bien traiter<\/em>> one will find nowhere the absudities and distasteful lessons that mister Varenne dares to present and maintain, […]; the reason of this dazzlement <i.e. the continuing adoration of La Varenne by the public> is that never before has a person been found to contest his fallacies.)<\/p>\n