Fresh English Peas

We found fresh shelled English peas at Sam's Club, two 12-ounce packages bundled together.  We are going to steam them in a small microwave steamer, called a "Mini Steamer", in a 700 watt microwave oven.

To the mini steamer, add 1 cup of water below the basket.

Pour one 12-ounce bagful of fresh peas into the steamer basket. They fit nicely.  Cover the steamer.

Fresh English peas in a mini steamer

Directions on the package of peas call for 3 minutes, but, assuming that means a full-size oven, and because the peas are compactly held in this small steamer, I gave them 6 minutes.  That turned out to be about right.

(If you are cooking frozen peas, they are already partially cooked, but then you are starting the cooking process while they are still frozen.  The best thing to do is start with 3 minutes and then check.)

Empty cooked peas into a bowl and serve with butter or other seasoning, or chill for use in salad.

To see a full set of photographs showing how this dish was made, go to this set on flickr.   (It will open in a new tab or window; to return to this page, just close it.) The small pictures are thumbnails; click on each one to see it full-size, and to read the comments under it.  If you prefer to use the slideshow feature, you won't see the captions unless you click on "show info" (top right).