Thursday, May 13, 2010

Creamed Peas on Toast

It's been raining & cold for three days straight here in Minneapolis, Matt is in California on a business trip & I've been down with a nasty cold since Sunday. Basically, I'd been living on chicken noodle soup & pasta from the deli but, last night I finally felt up to cooking myself something. It needed to be something really warm & comforting plus not too much work to make. Then I read about creamed peas on toast in a review of the new restaurant HauteDish on Heavy Table. I've never had creamed peas on toast before (though as a kid I was a big fan of creamed chipped beef on toast) but, it sounded like the exact thing I was looking for.
Creamed Peas on Toast
Originally, I was just going to go really basic & just make a cream sauce with peas in it. Then, I started thinking ham would make a perfect addition but, since I didn't have any around, I used bacon instead. You can't really go wrong with bacon can you? While looking through the freezer for the frozen peas, I noticed half a bag of pearl onions & thought they would add some good flavor as well. Finally, I decided to add a little fresh thyme from the garden as a seasoning. Oh, did it ever come out fantastic! Creamy, crunchy, sweet, salty; a perfect comfort food.

I used frozen onions & peas for this because that's what I had on hand but you could easily substitute either with fresh. I prefer frozen peas over canned because they aren't as mushy. I made the cream sauce with half chicken broth & half milk just to give it even more flavor, you could use all milk if you wanted.

Creamed Peas on Toast

1 slice good bacon, chopped
butter
8 pearl onions, sliced in half (if you are using frozen, let them thaw a little)
1/2 c peas
leaves from 2 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 T all-purpose flour
1/4 c chicken stock
1/4 c milk + more if needed (I used 2%)
salt & pepper
1 or 2 slices of bread

Cook the bacon in a small saucepan over medium heat until crispy. Remove the bacon to a paper towel, leaving as as much fat as possible in the pan, & set aside.

Add enough butter to the pan to make about 1/2 tablespoon of fat. Once the butter has melted add the onions. When the onions start to soften, add the peas. Cook for a minute or so until the onions start to get a little brown. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Stir in the thyme & flour. Cook while stirring for one minute. Stir in the chicken stock, the sauce should thicken almost right away. Add the milk a little at a time allowing to thicken between each addition. If you feel the sauce is too thick add a tablespoon or more milk. Stir in the bacon. Season generously with salt & pepper. Keep warm over low heat while you toast the bread. Serve the sauce over the toast (I like to butter my toast but that's your choice).

1 serving (can easily be increased to serve more)

So, when the weather is bad & you're not feeling your best what favorite comfort food do you cook up?

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted.© 2007-2010 Kathy Lewinski

8 comments:

  1. Gasp! A girl after my own heart, Kathy. My mom always made tuna and peas in white sauce on toast. Theee best comfort food, ever! I'm going to try it this way!

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  2. No you can't go wrong with bacon - this looks lovely

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  3. I've never had anything like this! Toast is for grilled cheese and sometimes baked beans! But this looks so comforting. Glad you are feeling well enough to add fresh thyme - you are obviously healing!

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  4. kat. my stars. i'm ALL over this! i LOVE chipped beef on toast and i adore peas in any way, shape, or form, and this combination of meat and peas and gravy-ness is all kinds of awesome. comfort food defined.

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  5. I would never in a million years have thought of that but it sounds oddly comforting. Hope you're feeling better!

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  6. Very inventive! My favorite comfort food is pasta in chicken broth with Parmesan cheese, pasta en brodo. good stuff.

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  7. Bravo for making me actually drool over creamed peas on toast. In fact, forget the toast - I'll just take a whole bowl!

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  8. This looks like a perfect comfort food.

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