- 100g/4 oz pitted black olives
- 1 large red pepper
- generous 5cm/2″ piece fresh ginger
- 3 large cloves of garlic
- 675g/1½lb frozen peas – or you can use fresh if you have an army of podders to help.
- 100g/4oz chopped candied peel. Important to buy this as whole pieces and chop it yourself rather than buy the pre-chopped sort – which tastes horrible.
- 4 tbspns lemon juice
- 175ml/6fl oz organic extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tsps paprika
- good bunch fresh mint
- good bunch fresh flat leaved parsley
- salt and pepper.
Serves 8.
- Roughly slice the olives.
- Cut the pepper in half and remove seeds and stem. Slice v thinly – could use food processor.
- Peel garlic and ginger and chop finely.
- Put all these ingredients into a large saucepan plus all the other ingredients but not the fresh herbs or s &p.
- Cover pan and cook gently, giving the odd stir from time to time, for 15 mins.
- Remove from heat, season to taste and leave to cool.
- Chop the mint finely and the parsley a little less finely. Stir the herbs into the cool peas and put into serving dish.
This fabulous recipe by Joscelyn Dimbleby can be found on line as taken from the book The Christian Aid Book Of Simple Feasts: cooking for a crowd. Edited by Sarah Stancliffe. I first came across this recipe in Joscelyn Dimbleby’s Complete Cookbook – a rather good book with interesting recipes in. This recipe makes everybody look like they can cook and is a stunner when taken along to those bring a dish type events – and it doesn’t take long to do either. Oh, she doesn’t call it Surprise Peas. She calls it ‘Pea salad with ginger, olives and sweet pepper’. But when you make it, you’ll understand why the surprise.