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These peas are worth the effort
• by Pat Eby • Photo by Josh Monken
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Come August, crowder peas are usually as plentiful as warts on toads, but you won’t find them languishing in the produce section of most local grocery stores. There’s just not much demand. Few folks have eaten, let alone cooked, fresh crowder peas. Sometimes called Southern, field or cowpeas, they are not peas at all, but legumes – beans.
Packed in their pods tighter than Dolly Parton in her Lycra knee pants, the nature of these small beasts is to mold or mildew if they sit too long. Unfortunately, they are the devil to shuck. Theirs are not wimpy pods, cracking at the pressure of a well-trained thumb like the English pea. No. Crowder peas have got to be wrassled out. So why bother?
Because the taste is unique: earthy, sweet and nutty. They cook up creamy, almost velvety, and mellow. Dried, they are the familiar black-eyed pea, but the taste, and look, of the fresh peas is very different.
Fresh crowders need only be steamed about 10 minutes to retain their shape and a hint of light green color. Use cooked peas as a base for a chopped salad. I like to toss them with an herbed vinaigrette dressing, then top with fresh chopped tomatoes, sweet onion and chopped red pepper. Add just a touch of sea salt, fresh black pepper and some grated Parmesan cheese. Or substitute lightly steamed crowder peas for garbanzos to twist the falafel. I think I might have Southern blood, because sometimes I’ll fix crowders with grits, ripe red tomatoes dipped in cornmeal and fried, and a side of stewed okra.
Darlene Petro likes crowder peas both for their nutritional value and for the taste. “Add a little hickory-smoked ham, some onions and cook like you would a pot of beans,” she said. “Then you fix a big pot of greens, serve it with cornbread, and you’ve got a good meal with lots of protein. Tastes great and it’s cheap.” Petro learned to cook field peas, as she calls them, from her mother, who was one of 18 children. “People didn’t have money back in the Depression. Crowder peas were on the menu, brown beans and green beans cooked with ham and potatoes. All flavored with fatback, or ham if you had it.”
If you want to try crowder peas already picked, visit Alice and Lenard Chartrand at Soulard Farmers’ Market this month. “Lenard planted cowpeas early in July, but the weather has been so cool, I don’t know when we will have them. August, usually, but beans need hot weather.” Ask Alice Chartrand how best to shuck crowder peas, and she’ll tell you there is no good way. “We’ve got a tabletop gadget, [it’s] supposed to make it easier, but it’s hard; [it’s] just part of it.”
If picking your own appeals, travel out to Prouhet Farm in Bridgeton early to mid-September. “Not very many farmers are growing crowder peas in the North. You’ve got to get down closer to Mississippi, usually,” said farmer Billy Prouhet. “We do pick-your-own greens, limas, okra, green beans and crowder peas. For us, crowders are a fall crop, coming in September and October. People call, asking for them, all the time. We have six acres under cultivation, and they pick every last one.”
Prouhet suggests using fresh-picked crowders within two to three days to avoid deterioration and mold. When I asked how he liked them best, Prouhet admitted he hasn’t eaten any. “I’m so busy growing them I don’t take time for eating them,” he said.
A case of the shoemaker’s children having no shoes. Well, more crowders for us. Put on your shopping shoes and try this seasonal bean.
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Summer Fresh Crowder Pea Chopped Salad
10 servings
1⁄8 tsp. salt
¾ cup water
1 cup uncooked spinach couscous
½ cup lemon vinaigrette, divided (recipe follows)
1 large fresh lemon, zest removed and reserved
3 cups fresh, shelled crowder peas*
½ cup finely diced Vidalia onion
¾ cup finely diced celery
2 Tbsp. chopped cilantro leaves
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
½ to ¾ cup each fresh summer vegetables, finely diced (green beans, corn, carrots, sweet bell peppers, radishes, yellow or green summer squash)
1 cup seeded and diced tomatoes
• In a 2-quart saucepan with a tight-fitting lid, mix the salt in the water and bring to a boil. Add the couscous, stir once with a fork, turn off the heat and cover. Let sit for 5 minutes, then fluff with a fork. Add 2 to 3 tablespoons of vinaigrette, squeeze the juice from half the lemon over the top and fluff again. Set aside to cool.
• In a 3- or 4-quart saucepan with a tight-fitting lid, add cold water to a depth of 1 inch. Bring the water to a roiling boil, add the crowder peas and cover. Steam over medium heat for 10 to 14 minutes. When the peas are cooked al dente, remove from heat, drain and rinse under cold water.
• Place cooked peas in a mixing bowl. Add the onion, celery and cilantro and mix. Add the lemon zest and squeeze the juice from the remaining lemon half over the top. Mix well. Add 1⁄8 cup vinaigrette, season with sea salt and pepper, mix, and set aside.
• Steam or cook all the vegetables except the tomatoes until crisp-tender, drain and cool. Mix together, then add dressing to taste.
• Make a bed of couscous on the plate. Add the crowder pea mix, then a layer of chopped vegetables. Top with the diced tomatoes.
*Use only fresh or frozen crowder peas, not dried peas
Lemon Vinaigrette
11⁄4 cups
1⁄4 cup cider vinegar
2 Tbsp. fresh-squeezed lemon juice
Zest of one large lemon
½ tsp. coarse salt
2 tsp. brown sugar
2 tsp. Dijon mustard
Freshly ground pepper to taste
3⁄4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• Whisk together the cider vinegar, lemon juice, zest, salt, sugar, mustard and pepper in a small deep bowl.
• Continue whisking and add the olive oil in a thin stream to emulsify the dressing.
• Serve immediately.
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