During my lunch break yesterday, I went to the farmers market. There wasn’t much left by the time I arrived, but I did find some pretty unshelled peas. When I got back to the office, I was greeted by peppery fresh basil thanks to the garden of my coworker, Dee Riggs.

Inspiration hit: peas with pesto. Add a poached egg and you’ve got a meal. Warm peas with pesto is good stuff. A poached egg is also good stuff. Together, they make great stuff. When it’s hot outside a simple veggie-heavy meal is nice and refreshing. All of this was done on the stovetop and for not very long, no oven needed.

Shelling the peas was actually quite fun, and my two-year old niece, Mimi, was having a good time sitting on the kitchen counter “helping” me. By the time we were done, she didn’t want to get down, she wanted more peas to transfer from her little mitts to her little mouth.
I almost liked the peas better when fresh and raw than I did after they had been blanched. No matter, they sure do look pretty after a short time in boiling water, and they still taste quite fine.

Poaching eggs is really easy. In the past, I’ve used a tablespoon of vinegar in the simmering water as a method of making sure the egg doesn’t dissolve into the water, but last night I didn’t. Now I don’t think the vinegar is necessary. All you need to do is break the egg into a ramekin, small bowl or soup ladle and slowly dip and pour the egg into very lightly simmering water. Let the simmering water poach the egg, keeping an eye on the egg until the whites have solidified and the yolk is cooked to your liking. I like to cook eggs just until the white is cooked. If you wait too long, the yolk won’t be runny. In my mind, there’s little else better than a good, runny, warm yolk.

If you’re serving it over peas, break the yolk and let its contents leak onto the peas. It’s nice.