Mushy Peas

Mushy Peas; not the best sounding name for a food, but one I was eager to try on our first trip to the UK and on our return home via the QE2.  We had our first taste of the dish in London and I've been hooked ever since.  While on the tandem crossing with QV, we made a point to dine in the Golden Lion just to have an authentic pub lunch of fish n' chips and the peas did not disappoint, although the portion was far from adequate.

On our Farewell to the UK trip, we typically were not on the ship during lunch, except for the sea days, so that made it hard to get to the Golden Lion for a traditional pub lunch.  On our final day at sea, we could not get a seat anywhere in the Golden Lion, smoking section or not.  Fortunately, the waiter who we had on our crossing, who's name escapes me, set us to Mauritania Restaurant where they were serving the same fare as the pub that day for lunch.  As luck would have it, we ended up finding our buddy Myles sitting at a table with total strangers.  We were not aware they had no idea who this character Myles was until afterwards, thinking the couple were old friends from a previous trip.  Checking off must do things on QE2, Ryan got to taste Mushy Peas on our last day onboard, in the nick of time! I ended up with the equally taste Cottage Pie that day.

Once back home, I was determined to replicate this simple dish.  A Google search yielded interesting information and several recipes, with the traditional UK versions using marrow fat peas.  Asking for this type of peas at the local supermarket resulted in several puzzled looks but no peas of that type.  The following recipe is my own amalgamation of several recipes and substitution of commonly available frozen peas.  They are simply yummy and to hell with the fat content!  Enjoy!