Baby Gem Lettuce.

Plus my recipe for a fresh yet comforting dish of Cafe de Paris Butter-braised Baby Gem Lettuce and Peas.

Welcome to ingredient, where once a month I take a deep dive into some of my favourite seasonal and store cupboard ingredients. This month I’m focusing on baby gem lettuce: the crisp, crunchy lettuce in every salad aisle which is better suited to cooking rather than, you know, salads.

My first recipe this month is a fresh yet comforting way of cooking (yes, cooking lettuce) that is just right for the fact it is now June, but off the back of a killer heatwave we’re back to putting jumpers on: Cafe de Paris Butter-braised Baby Gem Lettuce and Peas. Later this month I’ve got a crisp salad (ish) with a brown crab dressing that’s perfect for entertaining I just need to take some photographs of, and I’m hoping also to work on a killer dressing that will work perfectly with barbecued little gem, aka the best way to cook them if it’s actually hot outside and you’re not seeking today’s braise.

If someone has shared this post with you (please thank them for me!) and you’re not already a subscriber, do hit the button below so you don’t miss out! And if you fancy exploring the archives for more seasonal inspiration, last June I was on hiatus, but the year before our focus was on one of my favourite condiments: white balsamic vinegar.

White Balsamic Vinegar.

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Little gem lettuces are pretty ubiquitous to the British salad aisle, always nestled alongside the bigger romaine (cos lettuce), heads of soft butter floppy green and crisp, crunchy and deeply misunderstood iceburg. Really, they have a bit of everything: vibrant green tops with crisp middles, plus the outer leaves can also be used as pleasing little boats of all manner of creamy, crunchy, delicious things.

A varietal of the aforementioned romaine, I think it is a salad leaf best suited to serving pretty much anyway than in a traditional salad, as in the bowl of something green with toppings and a dressing sense. It’s crisp, robust, and the lettuce you want to choose if you’re looking to assemble a platter ‘salad’ to hold up to a rather bold dressing, or to cook with. Cooking with lettuce stopped being revelatory at least a decade ago; now it should be as popular on summer menus as the ever present head of charred hispi cabbage. Honestly, I’m not sure why it is not. Sure, buy it, chop it and toss it, but you’ll be missing out on what can be done with it when it is kept whole and sliced through the base instead, something I hope to demonstrate across three hearty side dish recipes this month.

Today, we’ll start with braising.

Braised gem lettuces and peas are nothing new; I’ve got several recipes for them in my cookbook collection (my starting point for coming up with this recipe was Anna Hedworth’s Little Gem, Peas, Mint & Buttery Shallots in her excellent book Service: One Day in a Restaurant, over 150 recipes to cook at home which I rather liked even if I disagreed with the cooking times, but J thought was ruined by the addition of mint) - I also cooked this Garlic Butter Braised Lettuce and Peas from Flavour Nuggets by Helen Graves which she published when I was mid-braised lettuce testing, and which I was much happier with the cooking times of.

Braising little gem lettuce alters both the flavour and the texture. Whilst the flavours deepen and mellow into a slightly bitter (in a good way) vegetal bite (actually making the lettuce have a strong taste), the heart becomes tender and juicy, whilst the outer leaves soften into a mop for whatever butter and braising liquid you’ve cooked them with. Finishing them cut-side up means the final slick of flavoured butter we’re adding just before serving can melt down into all the little crevices for maximum flavour. Peas (or in my case, petit pois which I find much sweeter) not only visually finish the dish, but also soak up that liquid too in sweet little nuggets that balance out the aforementioned bitterness.

Cafe de Paris Butter-braised Baby Gem Lettuce and Peas

Serves: 2-4, Preparation time: 5 minutes, Cooking time: 10 minutes

I don’t make my own Cafe de Paris butter here, not just because I’m not sure how I’d improve on my friend Margie Nomura’s recipe (even if my batches never come out as green as in hers!), but also because I wanted to build a butter-braised gem lettuce and peas situation that would work with whatever flavoured compound butter you have made up in the fridge. I can report this also works really well with wild garlic butter if you made some this year (out of season I’m also a massive fan of The Garlic Farm’s oak-smoked garlic butter), and as it is rather ‘on trend’ at the moment I keep seeing cowboy butter already made up in local farm shops. M&S do one you can get on Ocado, and based on the quality of their cottage cheese I think All Things Butter’s garlic and herb number would work rather well too.

• 50g flavoured compound butter

• 2 baby gem lettuce

• 120ml good quality chicken stock

• 120g frozen petit pois or peas

• flaky sea salt

1. Melt half the butter in a medium-to-large frying pan big enough to fit four gem lettuce halves, cut side down. Do this over a medium high heat.

2. Trim the base of the lettuce, then split them down the middle. Place them, cut side down, in the melted butter and cook for 4-5 minutes. You want as much colour on the lettuce as possible without burning the aromatics in the butter.

3. Add the stock and the peas to the pan and allow to simmer for a further 4-5 minutes until the stock has reduced, and the peas and the hard cores of the lettuces are just tender.

4. Flip the lettuces over and divide the rest of the butter between them, rubbing it in so it melts into the gaps.

5. Sprinkle a little bit of flaky sea salt over each lettuce and serve immediately.