Magazine Wednesday - Martha Stewart Living - Sauteed Peas and Scallions

I have a ton of food magazines, but Martha Stewart Living is one of my favorite magazines to find food inspirations and recipes. One thing I really love about Martha Stewart Living is the pull out recipe cards. It has been years since I started collecting them and I'm still going strong. Every time I get a new Martha Stewart Living magazine I read through the whole thing once, then remove the recipe cards and put them in a safe place.

Peas are great. This past early fall I had amazing split pea soup at a restaurant in New Hope. Peas are simple to cook, especially if you use thawed frozen peas. Fresh peas are going to be popping up in markets before you know it. I think fresh peas would be well worth the time and effort shelling them. I can't wait to be able to pick some up at one of the farm stores by my house. Maybe I could even find a place to pick my own!

This recipe for sauteed peas from Martha Stewart Living is simple and could be done with pretty much any vegetable you could thing of. It would be great with fresh green beans, sweet corn, even asparagus or summer squash. I think the scallions just add something a little special to something as simple as a sauteed vegetable.

Photo from Martha Stewart Living

Sauteed Peas and Scallions
via Martha Stewart Living, April 2005
prep time: 5 mins. total time: 10 mins

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 cups shelled fresh peas or thawed frozen peas
3 scallions, white and pale-green parts only, thinly sliced diagonally
course salt and freshly ground pepper

Melt butter in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add peas and scallions. Cook, stirring, until heated through, about 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.


I love how this recipe takes something as simple as a vegetable sauteed in butter and adds something a little unexpected in the scallions. I'd even try this with a mix of fresh vegetables, like peas, corn, and red bell peppers. To really heighten the the flavor you could grill sweet corn on the cob before sauteing in butter with the scallions.

Here's to spring showers and full bellies.
- Cait

Spotting Dinner - Braised Chicken with Scallion Purée

It's a bit later than I've been posting the "Spotting Dinner" post, but I had a busy day today. I checked e-mails, messed with Google Analytics, checked out Etsy, had some sort of sneezing fit in the shower (oh my, was that terrible!), did my hair, checked out my birthday gift from Patty, stopped at Starbucks, went out to Newtown to visit two teachers of mine - Cris Martino (jewelry) and Caren Friedman (printmaking), talked to some previous classmates, traded fixed earrings for a print, went to Doylestown to try and find special shampoo or colour glaze to keep my red hair SUPER red.... and if I came home to Terry B's braised chicken that I found on TasteSpotting I would have been in heaven!

Photo from blue-kitchen

Braised Chicken with Scallion Purée

via blue-kitchen

Adapted from The Cook and the Gardener

For Terry’s doctored broth:
3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 cup dry white wine
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 bay leaf
1 clove garlic
4 black peppercorns

For the chicken and scallion purée:
1 tablespoon canola oil
8 pieces of chicken—4 drumsticks, 4 thighs
salt, freshly ground black pepper
24 scallions, trimmed [leaving as much green as possible], sliced into 1/4-inch pieces, divided
1/3 cup dry white wine
2 medium to large potatoes [about 1 pound], peeled and cut into large chunks
3 cups Spring Stock or Terry’s doctored broth [or homemade stock or water]
3 tablespoons heavy cream

Make the broth. Combine broth and 1 cup of wine in a medium stock pot and bring to a boil. While it’s heating, “bruise” the rosemary sprig by rolling a rolling pin or the side of a glass over it to release its flavorful oils. Add to pot. Lightly bash the garlic clove with the side of a knife, remove the skin and add garlic clove to pot, along with the bay leaf and peppercorns. When broth comes to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer uncovered for about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let it cool slightly, then strain into a bowl and discard solids. You should have about 3 cups of wonderfully fragrant broth.

Cook the chicken. Season chicken on both sides with salt and pepper. Heat a large lidded skillet over medium high flame [I used a 5-quart sauté pan]. Add oil to pan, then add chicken, skin side down and sauté until it is very brown, but not burned, about 10 minutes. Swirl the pan occasionally to make sure oil is in contact with all chicken to avoid scorching. Toward the end of the 10 minutes, reduce heat to medium. Turn chicken and scatter two-thirds of the sliced scallions over and around it [this is why you reduced the heat a moment ago, to not burn the scallions]. Brown second side of chicken for about 5 minutes.

Transfer chicken to a plate. Spread scallions around pan and cook for another minute or so. Add 1/3 cup of wine and stir, scraping up browned bits. Reduce wine by half. Return chicken to pan, along with any juices. Add potatoes and enough broth to come about two-thirds up the side of the chicken [if you don't have enough broth, add water]. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer, partially covered, braising chicken for about 45 to 55 minutes, until potatoes are completely cooked.

Make the scallion purée. Heat oven to 175ºF. When chicken is done, transfer it to a plate and place in oven to keep warm. Strain the braising juices and reserve. Transfer potatoes and scallions to food processor and pulse a few times until potatoes are just crushed [as Hesser says, "pulsing any longer will turn the mixture into a starchy goo"]. Remove blade from processor and stir in cream with a spatula. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cover processor with dish towel to keep purée warm.

Transfer juices to sauce pan and reduce over high heat to a concentrated, highly flavored jus, about 1 cup of liquid. Lower heat to medium, add remaining sliced scallions and simmer until just wilted, 1 to 2 minutes.

To serve, spread purée on serving dish and top with chicken. Spoon some of the jus with scallions over chicken. Serve, passing the remaining jus and scallions separately. You can also plate individual servings.

I love scallions... I've never used them as a main part of a dish before - but I'll use them to add an onion flavor to salads or top off an omelet or add to scrambled eggs... Of course scallions are good with sour cream on tacos or the like. I usually don't use them often enough to use a whole bunch before they start to go "funny". So this recipe is an awesome surprise with its use of scallion as a main ingredient.

Here's to scallions and full bellies.

- Cait

P.S. Keep on the lookout for an upcoming post about scallions vs. green onions!