Does anything good come from a can?

What do you do when you only have about 20 minutes to get dinner ready and you haven't done any French cooking all week? Make canned peas of course! It is in Julia's cookbook (Mastering the Art of French Cooking) so it therefore counts as sophisticated French cooking, right? It has been a very busy week and there just wasn't time to do any major cooking but I wanted to create something resembling a balanced meal so this is what I ended up making.

The main course was a microwaved eggplant parmigiana over angel hair pasta -- something decidedly un-French. Needing a vegetable side dish that could be prepared quickly I turned to Julia for help and she came through. She actually has a recipe for preparing canned pas in case you don't have time to cook something from scratch. Really simple and super fast make. Julia did call for shallots, which I didn't have, but I substituted red onions. Remember, recipes are more of a guide than a precise formula so I didn't break an rules in the preparation of this dish.

In a hurry, here you go: First, I dumped a can (or more) of green peas into a colander to begin draining them and give them a quick rinse. While they were draining I peeled a small red onion and chopped them nice and small (minced). A couple tablespoons of butter (surprise!) went into a large saucepan with salt and pepper and then the onions were added and sauteed for just a couple of minutes. Once the onions began to change to a slightly translucent appearance the peas were dumped in and stirred around to coat them with the butter and evenly distribute the onions.

The final heating was done by covering the pan and continuing to warm everything together with until everything is evenly warmed. Not much time was needed to finish heating because the peas were canned, remember? No blanching in this recipe!

That's it, then the peas were dumped, errrr transferred to, a serving dish and served. Surprise, these really did taste good! The addition of the onions, butter, and spices did raise the canned peas to a new level and made a nice vegetable side dish. Next time you're in a hurry and want to improve on an existing recipe, here's the solution. Remember the canned peas!

Bon Appetit!