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February 19, 2013Simple Stir-Fried Pea Tips Recipe and Buying GuideI have a love-hate relationship with pea tips. When they are perfect, shot through with tenderness and spring-freshpea flavor, I’m in a state of bliss. But they are an iffy vegetable tobuy, a potential pain in the butt. If you’re not thorough in prepping them orbuy a bag full of mature tips, you end up with a stir-fry riddled with dentalfloss-like pieces. Sometimes the pea tips resemble damp toothpicks. In other words, you don’t wantto eat them because you can’t chew them. Pea tips thrill but can frustrate.
What are peatips? Avariety of snow pea that’s grown only for its tender tips. Sold at Chinesemarkets, they’re called dou miao inMandarin. Pea tips look like pea vines but they only grown a foot or two; theyare not trellised. (If you want to grow pea tips, here is a seed source.)
A fewyears back, I visited with an Asian-American farmer who explained that harvesting peatips is very time consuming. To get abag of good tender ones you have to be careful and knowledgeable when snipping.She showed me some plants in a hot house and while they all looked the same tome, they were over the hill to her. We had to squat to get at them. Pea tipsare a bargain at $3 to $5 a pound, given the amount of labor that’s required toget them to market.
Lastweek, I bought two bags for about $3.50 a pound. They looked fresh and tenderat the market. My husband cleaned them, snipping off the tendrils that alwayscook up like floss. What he and I didn’t anticipate were the stiffpieces that refused to soften in the wok. I had cooked them up for a Lunar New Year dinner but decided to not servethem because they were not ready for primetime. I wasn’t about to tell gueststo spit out woody, inedible pea tips.
Thenext day, I went through the pea tips again and found that some pieces felt very hard and stiff. They seemed unyielding compared to the stems that charmingly bent. The stiff ones were likely the ones that gave me trouble.
Isnapped all of stiffies and in some cases stripped off the leaves to cook. At the end of the line, I had only about 3/4 of my stash.
I stir-fried what was left and even with thesecond pass, there was still an inedible piece that stuck out from the rest ofthe pile. That said, what I ate was delicious, the essence of peas butin leafy green form.
Thepea tip experience reminded me of something my mom likes to say, "Ti?n nào c?a n?y," (tee-en now cu-ah ney) which roughly means you get whatyou pay for. Next time, I’m buying closer to the $5 a pound range. I'll hopefully waste less time and fewer pea tips. If you have pea tip tips, please please share!
How to cook pea tips? Restaurants often presentthem in a shallow bowl surrounded by a moat of rich chicken stock. At KoiPalace, a fantastic Cantonese restaurant in Daly City, CA, the chefs add somefresh tofu skin (yuba) for color and textural contrast.
I’vestir-fried pea tips with stock and chicken/duck fat in the past too. But youcan also just do this:
Simple Pea Tip Stir-Fry
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
Swirlof canola oil1 or2 cloves garlic, finely chopped (optional)1 1/3pound of pea tips, tendrils removed and stiff pieces discarded (net 1 pound)KoshersaltSesameoilInstructions
Heat a wok or large skillet overmedium-high heat. Swirl in the oil, add the garlic and cook, stirring, untilfragrant, about 45 seconds. Add the pea tips and a sprinkling of kosher salt. Stir-fryfor several minutes, until wilted. If things seem dry, splash in water tofacilitate cooking. The pea tips are done whenthey’re about a third of their original volume. Dish out to a serving plate.Drizzle on some sesame oil.More simply delicious vegetablesides:
Pea Tips Stir-Fried with Garlic recipe (Qing Chao Dou Miao)Easy Asparagus with Soy and SesameChilled Edamame with Star AnisePosted in Recipes: All, Recipes: Fast and Easy, Recipes: Gluten-Free , Recipes: Vegan, Recipes: Vegetable Sides and Pickles, Recipes: Vegetarian | Permalink | |
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Comments Simple Stir-Fried Pea Tips Recipe and Buying GuideI have a love-hate relationship with pea tips. When they are perfect, shot through with tenderness and spring-freshpea flavor, I’m in a state of bliss. But they are an iffy vegetable tobuy, a potential pain in the butt. If you’re not thorough in prepping them orbuy a bag full of mature tips, you end up with a stir-fry riddled with dentalfloss-like pieces. Sometimes the pea tips resemble damp toothpicks. In other words, you don’t wantto eat them because you can’t chew them. Pea tips thrill but can frustrate.
What are peatips? Avariety of snow pea that’s grown only for its tender tips. Sold at Chinesemarkets, they’re called dou miao inMandarin. Pea tips look like pea vines but they only grown a foot or two; theyare not trellised. (If you want to grow pea tips, here is a seed source.)
A fewyears back, I visited with an Asian-American farmer who explained that harvesting peatips is very time consuming. To get abag of good tender ones you have to be careful and knowledgeable when snipping.She showed me some plants in a hot house and while they all looked the same tome, they were over the hill to her. We had to squat to get at them. Pea tipsare a bargain at $3 to $5 a pound, given the amount of labor that’s required toget them to market.
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