Let’s take a moment to consider and celebrate peas. Did you know that the garden pea has been around since 4800 BC? There’s a good reason peas have stood the test of time, because they’ve stood the taste of time too. They’re just so darn delicious! And they go with almost anything. In this recipe (or recipea, if you will) our Seafood Merchant, Michael Kanter, has paired peas with halibut and scallops. Check it out!

What You’ll Need:
½ pound dry sea scallops (or 2 fillets of halibut)
1 cup of shucked English peas
1 lb. sugar snap peas
1 shallot or small onion, diced
1 slice bacon, cubed (optional)
3 spring garlic stalks
1 sprig tarragon
Butter
Olive oil

Find all the ingredients to our Perfect Pairings’ recipes here.

What to Do:
Sweat onion and bacon in 2 tablespoons olive oil over low heat until tender, approximately 10 minutes. Add 1 ½ cups of water and a big pinch of salt. Bring to a boil and add ½ cup of spring peas and half the snap peas. Boil until tender, approximately 3-4 minutes. Place contents in a blender. Place lid on securely and hold tightly with a kitchen towel. Blend slowly at first and then increase speed until well pureed. Add water if needed to adjust consistency. Pour contents in a bowl and place bowl inside a larger bowl of ice water to chill quickly to keep green color. Stir often to chill. (When working with green vegetables, in order to get bright green colors, shock in an ice water bath after cooking.)

Preheat oven to 400°.

Pat your sea scallops (or halibut) dry. Season well with salt and pepper.

Place a nonstick pan on medium heat, add olive oil and place fish or scallops in pan. After 3 minutes on flame place pan in oven.

If using scallops, remove from oven in 3 minutes. Place back on stovetop at high heat. Flip scallops and add 1 tablespoon of butter to pan. Tilt pan toward you to have butter collect and spoon bubbling butter over scallops for 1 minute. Remove scallops from the pan and place on a towel.

For halibut, remove pan from oven after 4 minutes and carefully flip fish. Return to oven for 3 minutes. Remove from oven.

While fish is cooking reheat pea purée on low heat. Taste and adjust seasoning.

In a pot of well-salted boiling water, place remaining sugar snap peas, cook for 30 seconds at roiling boil, add remaining peas. Cook for 1 minute and drain. Toss in a bowl with olive oil and salt and pepper.

Place pea purée on center of the plate. Place fish or scallop on pea purée. Spoon pea mixture around the fish.