Mushy peas

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Posted at 9:20AM, 31 December 2007 by Graham Holliday - Blogger

On paper it shouldn't work. Take one low rent vegetable, boil it down to within one inch of edibility, add some frighteningly luminous E numbers, stick the lot in a tin, call it a British icon and sell it in supermarkets and fish and chip shops the length and breadth of the country. But work it does. Marvellously.

Mushy peas are not sophisticated and they're of little interest on their own, but dollop a spoon load next to a piping hot, straight out of the deep fat fryer, golden fillet of haddock with chips and they set the plate alight.

I'm not alone in being mad for mushy peas. One blogger, an American living in England, agrees with me, even if she can't quite believe it herself, "There's something just so abominably, wonderfully wrong with them. Their colour should not appear outside of radioactive waste. They have no texture and a really weird flavour. But I love them. God help me, I'm going native."

I've never made mushy peas, it's not labour intensive but it does take time. Far easier to buy them ready made, all snug in a tin. But which brand? Who makes the world's best mushy peas? I have my favourites, but we're nothing if not adventurous on this blog, what are your favourites?

Comments

21-26 of 26 comments

lookingforideas

16 March 2008, 1:52PM
lookingforideas

as a little girl i hated mushy peas but now i adore eating mushy peas with my fish and chips.

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kitty

19 March 2008, 9:27AM
kitty

yeah multicolour food is great !!! =]

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clairu-claira

26 March 2008, 10:59PM
clairu-claira

mushy peas. mushy peas.... theyre quite beautiful really.. especially with random things eg tuna. i like to make weird meals. best so far involving peas : mushy peas, tuna and tomatoes mixed up in a sorta salsa, curry with mushy peas, melted cheese on mushy peas..

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FastAl

19 September 2008, 8:14PM
FastAl

I have just returned back up to Scotland after a trip to London where I had fish and chips with mushy peas for the first time. How can anything that looks so terrible taste so good? I used to think that they were just a silly English tradition - but I am converted - they are on shopping list for my next trip to the supermarket.

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Rosemary

2 August 2010, 9:02AM
Rosemary

Mushy Peas my favourite !!! My family think I'm mad but I love them on their own with plenty of seasoning or better still with really fresh crispy fish and chips.

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riverpointcosmo

10 July 2011, 4:37PM
riverpointcosmo

Mushy peas are fantastic, used to get them at home with the roast chook like a lot of people here. Just cooked up a batch myself for the first time and had them with my chilli and rice. Don't knock it till you try it:) Definitely going to try with mint sauce next time, this combo has not reached Ireland.

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