A Journey to The Heart of Culinary Temptation

This is a common accompaniment to Fish & Chips. It is a kind of mashed bigga dried peas with mint. It is rather dense and consistent. Normally you need marrowfat peas. This is a variety of peas also called dry wrinkled peas. I didn't find any, so I fell back on split peas.

Normally, the seasoning is done with salt and pepper, mint and butter. But I wanted a smoother and spicier result, so I bound my mash with crème fraîche and cooked the peas with vegetable bouillon cube. Here is a recipe for 2 people:

Ingredients:

100g of dried split peas

1/2 onion (or a small onion)

1/4 vegetable stock cube

2 tbsp of crème fraîche

6 to 10 mint leaves (depending on your taste)

• The day before: soak the split peas for 1 night in cold water.
• Chop the onion and chop the mint.
• Put the split peas in a saucepan with 400mL of cold water (about the volume needed to just cover the peas), the onion and the piece of stock cube.
• Boil the water.
• Allow 30 to 40 minutes of cooking until almost all the water is absorbed (add more if necessary). The peas should be tender. Skim from time to time if necessary.
• When the peas are cooked, blend them (or mash them with a potato masher for a coarser result) with the chopped mint.
• Then soften with the crème fraîche (or a little milk). Serve hot as a side dish.

Little additional info:

You can also use a mixture of peas and split peas. I advise you to do 50/50. Put only 200mL of water and add the fresh peas when the water comes to a boil.

You can add a pinch of baking soda to the split peas soaking water.