Our neighbor and friend, Joan, dropped by this week with a bag of broad beans (also known as fava beans)–a big bag.
The chore with broad beans is that they have to be shelled before you cook them.
And often de-podded too.
As they mature the outer skin becomes tough and the true delicate taste is missed.
Handy to have guests around in the broad bean season.
“Anything I can do?”
“Well funny you should mention it…”
If you are lucky and have a generous neighbor with green fingers, you could, like us, be gifted with beans so fresh and young that they only require shelling not de-podding too.
Joan is doubly generous; the beans she gave us were picked that day, fully-shelled and ready to cook.
Joan and Meredith went walking round the lake this morning and the beans came up–so to speak.
How was I proposing to cook them?
Joan is eating vegan at the moment, so a favorite way chez nous–broad beans with shallot and bacon–is not possible chez elle.
For lunch today I forgot about the bacon and gently softened a shallot in a tablespoon of olive oil.
Then added 8oz of the ready-to-cook beans*, two tablespoons of water, some fresh mint leaves and salt. I covered the pan and cooked the beans to just tender–about 10 minutes**. I added a little more water along the way, but not too much–as the delicate taste risks being dissipated.
You could–if you are not eating vegan–crumble some feta over the cooking beans, which melts nicely into the water to form a little sauce.
But watch out that the feta doesn’t make the bean too salty.
Thank you, Joan!
Our doubly seasonal lunch included these asparagus roasted with flakes of pecorino and olive oil
*I cooked the beans from the freezer where I had stored them in 8oz baggies, immediately on receiving them. Straight into the pan on a gentle heat.
** Since the beans today were coming from the freezer, they took a bit longer to cook. If you’re working with fresh, it’s more like 7-8 minutes–but you need to watch over them and test.
Robin Ellis 