More fun with food

[klwilliams]

Generally when I get home from work I goof for a while before I fix dinner, just to relax. Then when I start to get hungry I go fix something. Tonight I'd decided to try something new, since I'd received a bag in the last two boxes of vegetables. So, ready with a recipe from the internet and starting to get hungry, I got out my two bags of fava beans. I can hear you laughing already.

So how hard could it be, sauteing some beans? First, though, I needed to get the beans out of the pod. Unlike peas, these guys are loosely spaced and *hang on* for dear life. I finally got the hang of splitting the pods open, but then it was a fight to get the beans out. Next, I put the beans in boiling salty water for three minutes, then put the hot beans in ice water. Ready to saute now? Nope. Now I needed to pull the loose hangy skin off *each* *bean*. Each *cold* bean. This was not quick.

Finally, however, my two bags of beans had become my two small handsful of beans, but I was ready to saute, in oil *and* butter. (The recipe said so.) I also added freshly minced garlic, then cooked for seven minutes. The result? Marvelous. Mmmmmmmmmm.

Comments

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

I never bother to skin them - if you get young beans, the skins should not be tough. It took about 35 years to realise that what you call fava beans, we call broad beans (though how anyone, even a serial killer, could think they went well with liver is beyond me....)

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

What mevennen says: if these are broad beans, I don't skin them unless they are very big and tough.

The blanched beans are good in salad, in a lemony vinaigrette. (And maybe alongside some spicy little pork meatballs).

Mmm. Must go to the greengrocer this morning...

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Far be it from me to dispute my friends, but it took me 35 years to realise what everyone else in the world has always known: that only the English feel obliged to eat the grey leathery skin of the broad or fava bean. Every other nation on the planet peels that off, and eats the jewel-green gorgeousness within. As you did. (I do make an exception for baby beans, if they're very young and very fresh - but so few of them are, y'know?)

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Having prepared favas a few times, I've come to the conclusion that, like fresh chickpeas, they expend more calories in preparing than they represent in nutrient value. (My father feels the same way about artichokes, but with artichokes the flavor payoff is higher.)

[joycebre.livejournal.com]

I usually end up eating them while I skin them (the second skinning). But if you go to someones house, and they serve you fresh fava beans, you know you are loved and appreciated!

[acanthusleaf.livejournal.com]

Dang. I hope they tasted wonderful, because that sounds like a ton of work. I have a hard enough time remembering to soak black beans the night before cooking them, and all I have to do for that is put them in water and ignore them.

[calendula-witch.livejournal.com]

I love the skins, I would always want to leave them on. My ex-husband disagreed; so we took turns.

For a few years my parents were growing fava beans in the early spring just to fix nitrogen in their garden soil, and throwing them away! So I made them give them to me instead. Yum! They go great in risotto, with truffle oil. Skinned or not.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

Risotto with fava beans sounds delightful. I need to learn to make risotto. Maybe someone will teach me.

[trektone.livejournal.com]

I much prefer fava beans young and fresh, too, and if I remove the second skin at all, it's before cooking them.

[evil-macaroni.livejournal.com]

I love favas but they are such a pain in the butt to prepare.

[calendula-witch.livejournal.com]

Risotto is easy! I'll teach you if he doesn't. :-)

[kahnegabs.livejournal.com]

Was it worth all that effort? I mean, were they exquisitely delicious? I have never made them from scratch like that in all my years of cooking. Would you go out and select some to do it again, or was it more of a transient experience?

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

I got a bag of them two weeks in a row in my CSA box, or I doubt I'd have had them. If I get another bag I'll certainly do this again. They were yummy. I don't know that it would occur to me to seek them out, though.

[kahnegabs.livejournal.com]

Good to know. Thanks.

[kahnegabs.livejournal.com]

That's about where I stand too!

[kahnegabs.livejournal.com]

Well, the good chianti makes all the difference.