A classic Catalan dish, with even more protein
ingredients for 4 servings (cost about 3 € pp)
- Salt
- 1 kg fresh peas or 400 g frozen ones
- 8 slices jamón serrano
- 2 spring onions
- a pinch of cinnamon
- a pinch of sugar
- Fresh spearmint (abundant)
- EV olive oil
- 4 large eggs
- EV sunflower oil for frying
- Coarse black pepper
I have prepared this dish (without the egg) thousands of times, as it was a dish of almost every menu of my restaurant.
We talk about a classic dish of the Catalan cuisine which, if made with fresh peas, can be a great, hearty and fragrant dish. Using frozen peas is not a crime, on the contrary peas can be frozen very well. But fresh ones elevate the dish to a higher level.
I have made three small changes to the classic version. I decided to use spring onions instead of dry ones as they are more tender and fragrant. I also added some sugar to the pan which makes the peas feel sweeter. And finally I added the egg, to raise the umami of the dish.
So, we first of all peel the peas. If we use frozen ones, we defreeze them.
In a small cold pan, we add the half amount of the jamón and we subfry it, using very low temperatures till crispy. We remove it, we wait for it to cool and we cut it with the hand to small, uneven pieces. We keep aside.
We bring plenty of salted water to boil and we start boiling the green peas in batches for about 4 minutes. We drain them and we keep aside.
In a wok we put some olive oil along with the fat of the fried jamón. We add the spring onions and the raw jamón, all cut in small pieces. We subfry till tender. We add the peas, the sugar, the cinnamon and the spearmint (at least 40 leaves) and we continue for a minute or two. We keep aside.
In the small pan we add abundant EV sunflower oil and we start frying the eggs, one at a time. We salt each one of them right after we put them on the plates.
We put the peas on the plates, we add a fried on top, we garnish with the fried jamón and coarse black pepper and we serve.
