I picked up some pea shoots at the
farmer's market last weekend. Pea shoot, or dou miao (豆苗) in Chinese, is a common cold weather vegetables regularly found in local market this part of the world. It's leafy with soft and tender stalks, with a distinct flavor (fresh but not grassy) which didn't require a lot of extra seasonings, and hence very versatile to cook - in Chinese cuisine, you can sauteed with or without garlic, boiled in superior broth, most of the time on its own but worked equally well with dried scallops, meat or seafood. Think of it as peas but in vegetable form. During hairy crab season (usually from September to November every year), there's nothing better than a dish of sauteed pea shoot topped with hairy crab meat and roes.
