stringing runner beans?

maryb

My allotment is producing beans like there is no tomorrow so I have been freezing beans. DH never liked frozen beans before, he says they lose their oomph and go flabby but I've tried a new way of doing them which His Majesty approves of.

I put a pan of water on to boil while I prepare the beans then I put them in while the water is boiling fiercely and give them exactly two minutes from the time they come back to the boil. Meanwhile fill the sink with cold water. Then when the two minutes are up I drain the beans - it helps that I've got a half sink but you can fish them out with a draining spoon if you've only got one sink - then empty the colander into the sink full of cold water and swish the beans around to cool them quickly. Then I put them in a salad spinner to get rid of the water and spread them out on baking trays lined with greasproof paper, blot them with a tea towel to soiak up any remaining moisture, and put them in the freezer until they are frozen. Then I bag them up. The advantage of freezing them on trays is that they separate rather than freezing in a block so you can take out as many or as few as you need. I find that they stay really nice and bright green done this way and they only need about two minutes in boilng water to finish cooking which makes them as convenient as frozen peas.

Hope this helps someone

Botany

Thanks Mary, that is really good advice, and i shall try the 'parboiled' method too :j

Bargain_Bunny

Hi

I picked some beans yesterday at a farm and as i was preparing them this morning, i noticed the beans inside were red!! Is this ok?

BB

purpleivy

yes, some are white, some pink, some purply, some mottled

sarahs999

I think it must have been a particularly good year for runner beans as my in-laws garden is overrun with them...

Natty68

I've been getting runner beans every week in our veg box for well over a month now. The other night I was sitting watching the t.v. with a bowl in my lap, a bag to one side of me and stringing runner beans with my lovely bean stringer that I bought from a cheapy shop this year. I wanted my beans to look like my nans ones and if you string them this way they look like they used to. Yes I know I am sad I could have been doing something else instead of stringing beans, but when you have over a kg of beans to do I couldn't think of any other way of doing them..lol