Yet if there is one thing that, for me, earns the title of star pantry ingredient, hands down, it is frozen peas. Not only are they versatile, ready almost immediately, they are also as good as, if not better than, the real thing. As much as I like eating fresh peas in season, by the time I get my hands on them in a Central London grocer, they are often just not as good. They also need shelling, which takes time. The frozen version is perfect!
I learned this from my mother, years before Covid and my newfound obsession with my pantry. It was she who taught me the simple art of introducing frozen peas, which she always had on hand when I was growing up, into practically any meal. The simplest way — her signature — was sautéing sliced garlic in butter and olive oil until just translucent, then adding the frozen peas, a bit of water, some powdered stock (a favorite pantry ingredients of hers and mine, I have to confess), grated nutmeg and a pinch of sugar. Five minutes on a low simmer, and it’s ready to serve, alongside fish or poached chicken. She would use frozen peas for frittatas, soups, picnic salads and even a quick curry, with tomatoes, potatoes and coconut, which is not too far from my pea stew here.
The trouble was, it wasn’t just peas. Typically of the ’70s and ’80s, my working mother adored her freezer, using it in a completely different way from how I do today. For me, the freezer is home to weekly batch cooking, good sliced bread, leftovers I refuse to let go of and a handful of selected vegetables: spinach, broad beans, corn and peas. Her freezer used to host fish fillets in perfectly square blocks (I was always baffled by those), convenience veggie schnitzels, oven fries and a bunch of vegetables that, by and large, were a pale version of the fresh variety. Carrots come to mind, limp and bland, and broccoli, which no matter how hard you tried was always soft and waterlogged.
Frozen peas were the outliers, daredevil defiers of the seasons. You see, just as only some foods are right for home delivery, there’s only one vegetable that’s simply made for the freezer, regardless of everyone’s best intentions — and the era.