They may well be installing giant screen to the front of intu Victoria Centre, but wind your way toward the rear of the indoor Market and you will find a tradition as ‘Nottingham’ as the 700 year Goose Fair at which they’re served.
I’m talking about the beloved pea stall, and not just any old pea; it has to be the mushy variety. This little gem is sited on the same spot as the very original pea stall on the “central market”, which pre-dates the Victoria Centre itself. This particular regeneration has been there since last May last year, and it is by no coincidence that it occupies the same spot, for owner Claire Fisher, from Lady Bay in Nottingham, wanted it to be as authentic as possible.
Working as a chef at The Willow Tree, in West Bridgford, Claire spotted a thread on Facebook in which people were reminiscing about ‘The Hot Pea Man’. The local delicacy had become legend at the Goose Fair, the recipe for which inspired Claire’s own, but Nottingham folk yearned for a year round fix.
And so Claire kept checking the market to make sure no one else had hit on the idea. When they didn’t, she jumped in to bring the beloved dish back to its rightful place.
The wall of the market stall is covered with photos of the stall in year’s gone by, which hungry diners can peruse whilst tucking into their mushy treat. Obviously it’s been modernised and updated, but other than that, not a lot has changed.
Mushy peas are still made in the same way. They must be made from old-fashioned, dried, hard-as-bullets marrow fat peas (traditionally dried like this in order to preserve them as a valuable winter food in the days before refrigeration) which are first soaked overnight in water with bicarbonate of soda, then rinsed in fresh water and simmered with a little sugar and salt until they form a thick green lumpy mash of goodness. Eaten alone or with a cash of salt and pepper and mint sauce. Claire’s reinvention of the traditional fayre is a tasty one.
As with the original stall, this one also serves shellfish, which Claire’s gets from the seafood stall a couple of stalls down. You can also tuck into pork faggots sourced from Bonds at Carlton.
Trade at the stall, which is open six days a week, obviously fluctuates depending on how busy the Victoria Centre itself is, but Claire has also taken the stall to the Goose Fair, Food and Drink Festivals, and also caters for events such as weddings and themed parties. As for future plans? she’s keeping those a secret.
By Tanya Louise
Editor
@tanyalouise_
