Pea Greens

Pea greens.  They're the tips of pea plants, complete with flowers, stems, and frondy tentacles.  They might look like they will ensnare you, but these greens are in fact versatile, slightly sweet, and benign despite appearances.

And sometimes, the flowers contain little baby pea pods!

I bought these pea greens from the farmer's market after seeing them week after week but being too afraid to invest.  They're actually pretty cheap here, $1.50 for about a pound of greens.  I like this because I'm frugal and because I'm on a very tiny Americorps stipend.

Although some people say they taste like peas (and I was hoping they would), the flavor is much milder.  They do taste somewhat of peas, but they also taste slightly of spinach.  They're crunchy when raw, and I thought they'd make a fresh and mild addition to a stir fry.

I tossed them with homemade seitan, soy sauce, a bit of cumin, rice vinegar, agave, and some big chunks of onion.  The pea greens cooked down like spinach.  I was worried that the curly bits might have a gross, choke-inspiring texture, but they were tender and not wormlike.  Which is nice.

If you can't find these at your farmer's market, they also sell them at many Asian grocery stores.  They're a nice, mild change from spinach or kale.  Give them a try, don't fear the tendrils.

Sourdough

Last weekend (and again this week, and again) I made Alton Brown's "sourdough" recipe.  You bake it in a dutch oven...or a pot with a lid.  Then you remove the lid and let the crust get crispy!

Out of the pot...

It crackled as it cooled, its crust settling.  Sliced open, it revealed its moist, pocketed texture:

This week (unphotographed, it was late!) I also made a whole wheat version of this recipe...doubled and cooked in a much larger steel pot.  It was much softer than its AP flour cousin, and it was also VERY salty...nearly too salty.  This recipe is a step in the right direction when it comes to crusty, artisan loaves...but I think it still needs a bit of something...and less salt.

I also made some seitan cutlets ala Bryanna Clark Grogan's seitan turkey roast recipe.  I decided to make them into little cutlets, however, to make it a bit easier to freeze.  The texture wasn't as fabulous as it was on the full size roast, but this could have been to my lazy kneading as much as to the size of the cutlets.

Mmm wheat meat.

At the farmer's market, we bought some big ol' onions.  The tops of the onions were too pretty to toss, so I chopped up a couple.

And threw them in a stirfry with seitan, butternut squash, a bit of bok choy...

And put in too much sauce for my boy's taste.  I like mushroom sauce, okay?!

He's also not a fan of sweet + savory, which the butternut and soy/mushroom sauce does with gusto.  But my point is that onion tops are super tasty.

Anyhow, looking forward to another weekend of cooking.  Tomorrow I'll post about the tasty beefy seitan and barley soup the boy made this week... so good!