BOOK/A TABLE - Pea Soup and Mint Jelly

The very thought of fresh mint bouquets fills my head with bright notions of spring, the approaching Kentucky Derby (always the first Saturday of May), and Mint Juleps.* In New York, we’ve had a wonderful spring that has actually felt like a real transitional season, instead of an amorphous gray sheet of rain lasting until somewhere around Memorial Day. Summer has already felt like it is just a breath away.

I love this quote from Elizabeth von Arnim’s The Enchanted April: “Mrs. Fisher...had a curious sensation, which worried her, of rising sap. She knew the feeling, because she had sometimes had it in childhood in specially swift springs, when the lilacs and the syringas seemed to rush out into blossom in a single night, but it was strange to have it again after over fifty years. Yet oftener and oftener, and every day more and more, did Mrs. Fisher have a ridiculous feeling as if she were presently going to burgeon.”

The following recipe for Pea Soup and Mint Jelly is perfect for the blossoming season, and any personal burgeoning is certainly encouraged as well.

Marc Veyrat, a French chef who appeared on Martha Stewart Living nearly thirty years ago, showed us how it’s done. I’ve never forgotten the episode and have recreated the soup many times since myself. Using fragrant mint leaves and bright green peas, it’s a stunning, completely refreshing soup to be sipped out of a glass!

Although the recipe calls for pouring hot pea soup over the firm minted jelly, suspended above in a separate layer, I like to chill the soup first before topping with the jelly. I also like it served with long, elegant spoons. 

Fresh Pea Soup and Mint Jelly
Adapted from marthastewart.com
Serves 8
Ingredients
6 1/2 cups vegetable broth
60 mint leaves
2 tablespoons creme de menthe
2 gelatin packets
1/2 medium leek, well washed and thinly sliced
2 teaspoons unsalted butter
4 pounds fresh peas, shelled
Coarse salt

Method
In a medium saucepan, bring 4 cups vegetable broth to a boil. Cook until reduced to 1 1/3 cups. Add mint and creme de menthe. Using a handheld immersion blender, puree to break up the mint leaves. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve.

Add gelatin packets to broth mixture, and stir to dissolve. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into eight 5- to 6-ounce heat-proof glasses. Each glass should be one-third full. Transfer glasses to freezer, and chill until just set, about 10 minutes (I find it takes more like 20 minutes or so).

Combine leek, butter, and peas in a medium saucepan. Add remaining 2 1/2 cups vegetable broth. Bring to a boil, and simmer until peas are tender, about 10 minutes.

Using a handheld immersion blender, puree soup until smooth. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve. Season with salt. Remove glasses from freezer. Pour hot soup over minted jelly. Wait 4 minutes, and serve immediately. Giddyap!



*For a non-alcoholic julep, try mixing your concoction with Ritual Zero Proof whisky alternative!

Pea Soup and Mint Jelly

Marc Veyrat, a French chef who was on the Martha Stewart show about ten years ago once made Pea Soup and Mint Jelly. I've never forgotten it and have recreated it many times since myself. Using bouquets of fragrant, fresh mint leaves and peas, it's completely refreshing, stunning in appearance and perfectly suited for summer--and it's a soup to be sipped out of a glass! Although the recipe calls for pouring hot pea soup over the firm minted jelly, suspended above in a separate layer, I like to chill the soup first before topping the jelly and then serving it with a long, elegant spoon for my guests to combine as they may. Set up a humble arrangement of chairs on a shady back porch and do enjoy!

As always, my comments are in italics.

Fresh Pea Soup and Mint Jelly
Adapted from marthastewart.com
Serves 8
Ingredients
6 1/2 cups Marc's Vegetable Broth (or resort to using cubes)
60 mint leaves
2 tablespoons creme de menthe
1 sheet gelatin (the equivalent of roughly two gelatin packets)
1/2 medium leek, well washed and thinly sliced
2 teaspoons unsalted butter
4 pounds fresh peas, shelled Coarse salt

Method
In a medium saucepan, bring 4 cups vegetable broth to a boil. Cook until reduced to 1 1/3 cups. Add mint and creme de menthe. Using a handheld immersion blender, puree to break up the mint leaves. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve.

Soak gelatin in cold water to cover for 4 minutes (just dissolve as below if using packets). Remove, and squeeze out excess liquid. Add gelatin to broth mixture, and stir to dissolve. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into eight 5- to 6-ounce heat-proof glasses. Each glass should be one-third full. Transfer glasses to freezer, and chill until just set, about 10 minutes (I find it takes more like 20 minutes or so).

Combine leek, butter, and peas in a medium saucepan. Add remaining 2 1/2 cups vegetable broth. Bring to a boil, and simmer until peas are tender, about 10 minutes.

Using a handheld immersion blender, puree soup until smooth. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve (and let chill n the refrigerator if you like!). Season with salt. Remove glasses from freezer. Pour hot soup over minted jelly. Wait 4 minutes, and serve immediately.

Thanks to allherbaltea.com for the image.

Pete's Pea Soup

Armed with a pair of smoked pig knuckles, I set out to make pea soup. Much else was a happy accident, as I substituted some of the ingredients listed in the recipes on the bags of my dried peas and added other improvised goods that Baby and I already had on hand.

Pete's Pea Soup

Ingredients

1/2 lb bag Goya Green Split Peas/6 oz. package of Manischewitz Split Pea Soup Mix (find something to do with the seasoning packet at a later time) OR just use 1 lb. Goya green split peas

2 pork knuckles (pulled from the Hoppin' John stew)

2 tb sauteed onions (left over from our Boeuf Bourguinon)

1 tb tomato paste-not at all traditional-but I wanted sweet and didn't have any carrots to use, as the recipe on the bag indicates

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 cup pinot grigio (left over from our Celery Victor lunch) or other dry white wine

Soffritto bouillon cube (from Italy, essentially a mire poix trio of carrot, celery and onion), but the bag suggests Sazon Goya cubes, which are similar I think

Beef bouillon cube (also can use chicken bouillon but we didn't have that)

6 cups water

Directions

Simply add all of the ingredients into a large pot and bring to a boil. Simmer with cover on until the peas are tender. Remove pork knuckles. The soup is good to eat right away but will thicken to a fine moat overnight.

Serve with some crispy bacon pieces on top if you'd like, but I don't think you'll need it.