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Peatini

Chef Mark Hix put his face to the pea shoots campaign claiming that the tender leaves of the traditional garden pea plant harvested after just two weeks are his first choice in the salad department.

Hix takes a leaf out of Chinese cookbooks and stir-fries pea shoots with butter, rapeseed oil and wild garlic flowers then serves them with scallops or poached sea trout. He also makes a cool minted pea salad with Little Wallop goat’s cheese and a cider vinegar dressing and a flavoursome chilled pea shoot and spring leek soup.

Pea shoots have crunchy stems and delicate leaves, like watercress, and taste of freshly shucked peas. Use them to make a pesto with lightly toasted walnuts, feta and pea shoot fritters or even in a super summery strawberry and cucumber salad with a honey and balsamic reduction.

50g handfuls of pea shoots
100ml cold water
50ml Hendrick’s gin or any decent brand
25ml pea-shoot puree
20ml gomme (sugar syrup)
1 wedge lemon

To make the sugar syrup bring equal parts sugar and water to boil in a small saucepan and then simmer, stirring occasionally until the sugar is dissolved. Cool before using.

To make a pea shoot puree, blend, in a liquidiser, the pea shoots with just enough of the water to make a puree.

Place the gin, puree, sugar syrup in a cocktail shaker, squeeze lemon into the shaker. Shake (with lemon wedge in) and strained into a coupe glass. Garnish the glass with a wedge of lemon and double pea-shoot on the top.

Pea Shooters

By Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall from River Cottage 2009
Makes about 500ml soup

Knob of butter
Sunflower oil
1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
4 spring onions, thinly sliced
About 300g freshly shelled peas, plus 1 handful of the pods, thinly sliced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 lovage leaves, thinly sliced
A big handful of pea shoots

1. Melt the butter with a little dash of oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the garlic, spring onions and sliced pea pods, season, then sweat gently for a few minutes until soft.

2. Add the shelled peas and the lovage leaves and enough water to just cover the peas. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for a few minutes, until the peas are tender.

3. Transfer the soup to a blender, along with the pea shoots, and blend until smooth.

4. Pass the soup through a sieve into a bowl. Leave to cool, then refrigerate, stirring regularly, until thoroughly chilled. Check the seasoning, then serve in chilled shot glasses.