Parched Peas
Created | Updated Jun 19, 2003
Prestonians (those of us who hail from Preston, Lancashire, UK - A486065) have long known about Parched Peas. There are a couple of goodly local gentlemen who sell them on the flag market (town square). I've eaten them for as long as I can remember.
When I first left the town for any period of time I found out that Parched Peas were not the global staple food that I had so far imagined. People from the next town but 2 hadn't even heard of them, never mind those in the south of country... What was I to do?
I learnt how to make them for myself. That's what I did.
Here then are my instructions for making your own parched peas...
You'll need (and this is important) dried maple peas. These can be hard to come by, but in Preston, you can get them from Booths supermarkets. If that's where you buy your Maple Peas, you'll already have the instructions for what to do next. If not here goes with the Delia Smith bit:
Wash the peas well and then cover with boiling water (leave enough room for the peas to double in size) and leave them to soak overnight.
Rinse them well and then cover them with cold water in a large pan. Bring them to the boil and boil them hard for 10 minutes and then simmer them for 1-2 hours (until they're tender. Serve hot, preferably in a polystyrene cup (that's the way they do it on the flag market!) with vinegar. Mmmmmmmm.
I'd be very interested to hear if you've heard of parched peas and you're not from Preston...
When I first left the town for any period of time I found out that Parched Peas were not the global staple food that I had so far imagined. People from the next town but 2 hadn't even heard of them, never mind those in the south of country... What was I to do?
I learnt how to make them for myself. That's what I did.
Here then are my instructions for making your own parched peas...
You'll need (and this is important) dried maple peas. These can be hard to come by, but in Preston, you can get them from Booths supermarkets. If that's where you buy your Maple Peas, you'll already have the instructions for what to do next. If not here goes with the Delia Smith bit:
Wash the peas well and then cover with boiling water (leave enough room for the peas to double in size) and leave them to soak overnight.
Rinse them well and then cover them with cold water in a large pan. Bring them to the boil and boil them hard for 10 minutes and then simmer them for 1-2 hours (until they're tender. Serve hot, preferably in a polystyrene cup (that's the way they do it on the flag market!) with vinegar. Mmmmmmmm.
I'd be very interested to hear if you've heard of parched peas and you're not from Preston...
