Peas in Cheese Sauce

The news about Brittany and Jamal's baby has settled into the family like a stone dropped into water — the ripples are still moving outward, touching everything. Mama has been shopping for baby things online. Daddy has been unusually talkative, which is his version of processing big emotions — he talks more when he feels more, which is the inverse of what most people do, and which makes him either deeply evolved or deeply strange, and I love him either way. MawMaw Shirley called three times this week. Each call was under two minutes. Each call was about the baby. The third call included the sentence, "Tell Jamal I am making the baby a quilt," which means MawMaw Shirley has already started quilting, because MawMaw Shirley does not announce intentions — she announces things that are already in progress.

At LSU, the semester is winding toward finals. I have three weeks of classes left and then the exam gauntlet begins. My GPA for the semester is trending upward — the Chemistry A- pulled the average, and Biology is solid, and the other courses are performing as expected. If I can hold this trajectory through finals, I will finish freshman year with a GPA north of 3.8, which is the threshold I set for myself, the threshold that medical school requires, the threshold that means the plan is still the plan and the plan is working.

I made crawfish pasta in the dorm kitchen — not étouffée, the pasta version, MawMaw Shirley's "weeknight étouffée" adapted for a college budget. Crawfish tail meat from Walmart ($7.99 for a pound, which is robbery but also Louisiana), butter, garlic, cream, pasta. Total: about $12, which is expensive by my standards but I am celebrating the upcoming end of the semester and celebrations deserve crawfish. Eight people ate. The pasta was gone in twenty minutes. One of the girls from the second floor — Latrice, the art major from Opelousas — said, "You should do this for a living." I said, "I am going to be a doctor." She said, "You can be a doctor who cooks." She is right. I can be both. I intend to be both. MawMaw Shirley is both — she is not a doctor, but she is a healer, and her medicine is gumbo, and her patients are everyone she has ever fed.

The crawfish pasta fed eight people and reminded me that cooking — even dorm cooking, even budget cooking — is its own kind of medicine, the way MawMaw Shirley always said it was. This peas in cheese sauce is the same spirit in a simpler form: butter, a little flour, milk, cheese, and something green to make you feel like you’re doing right by yourself. It’s the side dish I made alongside the pasta that night, stretched from almost nothing, and Latrice from Opelousas went back for seconds before the main dish was even gone.

Prep Time: 5 minutes | Cook Time: 12 minutes | Total Time: 17 minutes | Servings: 4

Ingredients

2 cups frozen green peas
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
Pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)

Instructions

Cook the peas. Bring a small saucepan of salted water to a boil. Add frozen peas and cook for 2—3 minutes until just tender. Drain and set aside.
Build the roux. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Once foaming subsides, whisk in the flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 1—2 minutes until the mixture smells faintly nutty and turns pale golden.
Add the milk. Slowly pour in the milk while whisking continuously to prevent lumps. Raise heat slightly and whisk until the sauce thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 3—4 minutes.
Melt in the cheese. Remove the pan from heat and stir in the shredded cheddar a handful at a time until fully melted and smooth. Season with garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, and cayenne if using.
Combine and serve. Fold the drained peas into the cheese sauce over low heat, stirring gently until everything is warmed through, about 1 minute. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve immediately as a side dish.

Nutrition (per serving)

Peas in Cheese Sauce — When the Dorm Kitchen Teaches You That Simple Can Be Sacred