Cooked lettuce goes brown

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Roger Burton

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I've made this dish before without the problem, lettuce and peas cooked, it's really nice, a little butter, stock and cream but this time when I added the shredded lettuce within a minute or two it was going a little brown, tasted ok but looked nasty, (similar to the look of celery leaves sometimes when added to a cooked dish) ... anyone any ideas please ?
 
^ It just seems that even a minute is too much for the delicate and thin lettuce leaves. Try adding the lettuce after taking the pan aside. The lettuce will surely cook enough in the hot sauce without a boil. In my opinion, it's the same for all delicate and 'leafy' greens or herbs.
 
I'm sure you're correct Hemulen that was my first thought so I searched out a few other recipes in case someone said "add lemon juice or the lettuce will turn brown" but I couldn't find any that referenced the issue but,surprisingly, several had long cooking times ... look at this:

"Add in the lettuce and splash of wine. Let this all cook down with the lid on for around 6-7 minutes the lettuce will give off quite a lot of water. Add in the peas plus butter if using. Cook for a further 5 -7 minutes, leaving the lid off"

... seems an age !
 
My wife has just confirmed the likely problem - you are shredding the lettuce. Leave the leaves whole and they should be fine. She makes a very similar dish - petit pois a la Francais. She uses whole leaves of little gem, added to fried off spring onions, followed by stock, thickened with beurre manie.
 
Well I'll certainly try that epicuric, I'm sure chopping celery leaves is the reason they brown ... I'd love to know why but it will probably be exposing them to the air ... anyway I'll get back after the meal with the results ... thank your wife for me please.
 
Roger Burton said:
Well I'll certainly try that epicuric, I'm sure chopping celery leaves is the reason they brown ... I'd love to know why but it will probably be exposing them to the air ... anyway I'll get back after the meal with the results ... thank your wife for me please.
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I've noticed that even uncooked sliced lettuce goes brown faster than whole leaves. Browning is oxidation, so an increased exposure to oxygen is the likely reason.

CD
 
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epicuric said:
Basil is probably the worst for this.
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Yeah, I always cut up my basil right before I use it. As basil oxidizes, it seems to go darker green, and eventually go almost black. At least that's been my observation.

CD
 
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caseydog said:
Yeah, I always cut up my basil right before I use it. As basil oxidizes, it seems to go darker green, and eventually go almost black.At least that's been my observation.

CD
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Apparently, tearing it is better than chopping it. But that may be an old wives' tale.
 
epicuric said:
Apparently, tearing it is better than chopping it. But that may be an old wives' tale.
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I've heard that, too. I don't know how much it matters. I either use whole leaves, or do a chiffonade. I will sometimes chop my chiffonade for smaller bits.

CD
 
This dish is peas a la française (French Peas) and there are many ways to cook it as well as variants on ingredients. The one I posted here cooks the lettuce for a long time. It does go a little brown but to be honest I don't mind at all. 'Traditionally' this isn't meant to be a fresh vibrantly green dish of peas.

Recipe Peas à la Francais
 
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