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Snow Peas with Warm Apple Cider and Bacon Dressing
By Jeff Becker Photography By Marty Snortum Studio
the French name for snow peas is mange-tout, meaning “eat it all”. That, my friend, is such a fitting phrase for the pleasure of snow peas. As a child I visited my grandparents each summer at their home in Auburn, Maine. Snow peas bring to mind Maine in the summertime, my grandmother, and the glory of the greatest garden (her’s) that I have ever seen, and I recall those days fondly.
My grandparents’ home stands in a grove of trees near Lake Auburn. Everything is green, and the garden is full. Rhubarb is picked to be dipped in sugar. Beets. Corn. Lettuces. Carrots. String beans. Asparagus push from the earth in thick bunches. A certain smell—uniquely Maine—tickles the nose. Vines of morning glory and other flowers creep over a wooden fence, grass is soft underfoot and pulls away easily to reveal the thick black earth. On many a morn, my grandmother would wake early to tend her gardens, and by the time I awoke, the kitchen table would offer a fresh peck of raspberries and blueberries beaming from a yellow colander. We dined. It was wonderful.
It was the same with the snow peas. My brothers and I were young then. Undoubtedly we would mess up such a harvest with our constant game-playing and mischief. Only she could pick the right pods for only she knew where the best ones hid, only she knew which to take, dropping them into the same yellow colander for that morning’s breakfast. Then, like a secret, she would place one of the pods in her mouth, then one in mine, and tell me it was okay. We can eat them like this. My grandmother had such a beautiful smile.
The pea, shell and all, could be consumed. As a child I marveled at this. No peeling, no cooking, just a handful of the crisp pods, a mind full of joy. Coming from New Mexico, these mornings in Maine were a lesson to me in gastronomy. We eat plants. My grandma picks them. They grow in this garden from this black dirt. It did, at the time, feel like cheating.
I’ve adapted a favorite Warm Apple Cider and Bacon Dressing from a popular recipe on epicurious.com and added it to steamed snow peas. The result was worth sharing with you. If you are feeling festive, add roasted piñons or pecans.
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