August. The hottest month of the year. Sticky, sweltering heat causing rivulets of sweat to cascade down your back landing in moist puddles in the crook of your spine. Early evening walks, when the heat breaks, and you are left with a dusk so pleasant, that you turn off the air conditioner and throw open the windows. These are the summer days I dream about, but here in the Bay Area, I don’t get them much. It has been downright cold. Not freezing, get out the gloves and scarf sort of weather, but cold, as in, better gather a sweater before going out, the bay fog clinging to the coast until mid-afternoon cold. And frankly, what is a bourgie to do when faced with such a climate? Well, she makes a batch of soup that’s what, casting guilt aside as she toils over the stove. Besides, it is not as if she must frolic outside, enjoying the beautiful weather.
Pea soup is such a versatile thing. I make vats of Split Pea Soup with Ham in the wintertime. Handfuls of dried, yellow-ish split peas, simmered for hours with a salty ham hock, makes a hearty stew-like soup to enjoy on a cold winter’s night. And in the spring and summertime, I make hardly cooked, fresh, shelling peas quickly pureed with mint, so clean and crisp to the palate. This combination of peas and mint is not a new one. In fact it seems that every cookbook I pick up as of late has their recipe for this light soup. For this incarnation, I picked up Fresh Every Day by Sara Foster. Foster, who now owns Foster’s Market in Durham, North Carolina, used to work as a chef for Martha Stewart’s catering company. She first tasted this soup, or so the intro to the recipe says, when Martha made it for the kitchen staff’s lunch with fresh English peas and butter lettuce from her garden. Isn’t that quaint, couldn’t you just die!?! Nevertheless, the soup is pretty darn good.
I served the hors d’oeuvre de rigueur with this shockingly green soup: thinly sliced radish lain on a baguette, slathered with sweet cream butter, with a sprinkling of coarse kosher salt. The ideal accompaniment to round out a light and nourishing meal. This soup was the perfect meal to have in prevention of my having one big pity party. Sure it’s cold outside, but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy the bounty of the season.
This recipe is adapted from Sara Foster’s book Fresh Every Day. The original recipe call for a fresh mint pesto to be served on top, but I made the soup without the pungent pesto, and just a hint of fresh mint pureed in the soup. Feel free to make the soup with frozen peas if shelling 2 cups of fresh peas is a bit too time consuming.
Sweet Pea Soup with Fresh Mint
from Fresh Every Day
Serves 6-8
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1 1/2 pounds (3-4 medium) Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
5 cups chicken or vegetable stock
2 cups fresh or frozen peas
1 head butter lettuce, about 4 cups loosely packed
3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
salt and pepper to taste
Melt the butter and olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and sweat until translucent and soft, about 10 minutes. Add the potatoes and celery and cook for an additional 5 minutes.
Add broth and peas, and bring to a low boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Add lettuce and simmer for an additional 2 minutes, or until tender. Stir in the mint, and season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat, and cool slightly. Working in batches, pour the soup into the bowl of a food processor, or a blender, and process until smooth. Pour processed soup back into the pot, check for seasoning, and serve.
And now, an update: Goo Day 5. As the French would say, my slop is appropriately de-goo-tante. For once in my life I am entirely following directions closely. After discarding all but 1/4 cup of my starter, I have mixed the remaining with 1/2 cup lukewarm water, and fed it an additional 2/3 cup bread flour. What I have is a gurgling, belching, semi-liquid matter, as I should have. Stay tuned for Goo Day 7: the feeding continues.
