Pea-Pod Stock

The Peas have swelled.  As we are picking, pea-ing and podding away, I thought to share a quick note on what to do with Peapods - and I welcome (please) any other suggestions.  For what sadness but to find great baskets of peas in their shells provide but a scarce handful of peas.  Now, they do reccommend Peapod Wine.  But tonight, instead, a simple stock:

Bring the peapods, covered in water, to the boil.  Simmer gently for about forty minutes.   Take off the heat.

This gives a lovely light and pea-tasting stock.  Great in Summer Soups, Veggie Stews or to flavour Grains.  Try adding Onion Skins for a heartier flavour, Carrot tops, Cabbage Stalks, Herbs and general Vegetable Waste creates a more ordinary Vegetable Stock.  I tend not to salt my stocks, allowing one to then decide how much salt to add in cooking.  

If you wish to keep the stock, freeze or seal and pasteurise it.  Or, I have never tried, you could a la Mrs Beeton, boil it down to bare flakes and make of it a stock-cube.

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For another simple Stock Recipe.

See also The Frugal Cook for uses of Beetroot tops (quite my favourite seasonal green, as sweet and buttery as spinach) and, who'd 'a' thought: broad-bean skins... though, I rare' manage to peel them m'self!