Sugar snap pea season lasts, oh, about a blink of an eye. They showed up last week at the Franklin Farmer’s Market and in a few more weeks they will be gone. Going from a very cool spring, which the peas like, to blasted hot in a matter of days is not helping to lengthen the season, I hate to say.

Russ Parsons, the food editor of the Los Angeles Times, was talking about sugar snaps the other day with Evan Kleiman, on her radio show, Good Food. He allowed as how pretty much from the minute you pick sugar snaps they immediately begin to lose their sweetness as the sugars turn to starch. He fairly well suggested that you rush home at top speed to immediately prepare them. This, of course, makes Southerners nervous because in the summertime, when it is wickedly hot and humid, we do not rush anywhere.

I got my sugar snaps home as quickly as regionally possible and then proceeded to string a few and eat them raw over the sink. Somehow, the sugars were still intact, I am happy to report. If you have tried to feed your children sugar snaps and they made squishy faces and spit them out it is probably because you did not string them. You have to snap the top of the bean off and pull down to get both “strings” peeled off before you eat them raw or cook them.

I ended up making a stir-fry with them. Make the thing up. Don’t rely on me for this. I used the sugar snaps, some onion, some yellow pepper and garlic. Throw in whatever you have on hand. I will give you the recipe for the Korean-style pork I use in about 90 percent of my stir fry dishes because I’m kind of addicted to it and the “scraps” you trim off pork tenderloins to make them pretty are what I consider to be free food.

I’m not telling you to rush or anything. As I said, it’s not in our vocabulary. But you really only have a couple weeks left to get sugar snaps at a farmer’s market. I’m just saying.

Korean-style pork

1 pound pork tenderloin scraps

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon Thai red curry paste

1 teaspoon dark sesame oil

1 large garlic clove, sliced

Cut tenderloin into thin sliced. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and add the pork. Marinate in the refrigerator for one hour. Heat a little oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Add the pork, with the garlic, and sauté until the pork is nicely browned.

One Comment

  1. JoAnn Rhodes Grose
    June 4, 2011 at 7:53 pm

    ooh, this looks so good. we’re going to Keaton’s Barbecue tonight. i’ve been saving calories for HOURS!

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