Peas, Please!

Today, June 25th, is a significant day in Germany. It's the day I finally have to give up asparagus for the next 10 months. Fine. I'll deal. I have peas.

I've been a fan of fresh peas since I was a child, and since I was a child, I've always looked forward to the onset of fresh peas. Because I either get my peas from the farm or my mom's garden, I hardly ever get the chance to cook the peas. I either eat them in the garden, or in the car on the way home from the farm. A few years ago, for the first time ever, I managed to make a mint-pea soup. This year, I bought 1 kilo of peas in the supermarket, and after eating maybe 300g raw, I decided it was time to make another dish of fresh peas.

I pretty much made a pea-mint soup without the liquid and without pureeing anything. 3 leaves of lettuce, 1 spring onion (chopped), sauteed with butter in a saucepan. Allowing the liquid to come out of the lettuce, I then added the peas, some salt, 4 leaves of fresh mint (sliced) and allowed the peas to steam until they looked done.

Not bad, but I still prefer them fresh from the farm, raw, sneaking them out of the bag on the car ride home. Makes me feel like a kid.

Snail-Speed Ahead!

Last year, on a rainy evening, I was walking down a country road. My companion, a city-boy with a softspot for animals, saw something on the side of the road, in the grass. It didn't look like a worm. "What is that?"
"Oh my God, it's a tasty!"
"A tasty?"
"An escargot. A Weinbergschnecke. A snail. Put them in garlicy butter & Mmmm!"

Later on that same walk, we found an abundance of escargots. If we'd had a bag (or a clue) we would have picked up all the snails we saw & eaten them. Later, at home, of course.

We sat down and thought about farming our own snails. There are not too many relevant online resources available, unless you are in Nigeria & want to do it for financial reasons. I am in Germany and I want to do it for gastronomic reasons. Or because I like to have my own little experiments, I'm not sure which.

Until the day that I can harvest my own snails (or at least feel confident enough in my knowledge to cook the snails I find in the springtime on my own) I will make do with the frozen ones I find in the freezer section of the supermarket. They're kind of cute - they come in a little wooden basket & are in the shells.

The only thing that I have of my own which is worth sharing is the pseudo-snail-pan I create out of tin foil to prevent the snails from rolling around while in the oven. I just wrap foil around the shells in a labyrinthine manner to lend them a bit of stability. The garlic butter stays put, and it's all a little treat with a crusty bread, a salad and a bottle of white wine. The sort of special-casual meal that invites you to sit a while, snack & exchange agriculture ideas.