What do I do with ..............

researcher

I lived in Spain and they used to cook broadbeans and then add them to a mixure of onion, garlic and tomato, (which had been gently cooked in a little olive oil until soft). Season, add a little liquid, simmer for 5 mins or so and then take off the heat and let the flavors blend for an hour or two. (I used to add some bacon to the onion mixture which works well.) Can be served as a veg with meat, with pasta, on cous cous, or just with hunks of nice bread. Hot or cold. Lovely!

I do the same with runner beans (with a few potatos chopped and added too) and courgettes. I think this is typical mediterranean cooking - and the flavours are fantastic.

You can experiment - adding more of this, less of that etc. It's how people cooked when they had gluts of a vegetable, and needed to make them interesting and above all tasty!

arkonite_babe

squeaky wrote:

I cheated the first time I did these for people who only ever ate out of tins or packets.

Simmered them gently for about twenty minutes, drained them and put them back in the pan with a knob of butter AND (this is the cheat) a big pinch of sugar.

Whirl around ( I mean stir ) until the butter and sugar disappear.

The trick is to remove the sugar to zero in small steps first... and then set to work on reducing the butter to minimal levels second

Squeaky, I used your recipe for the broadbeans and I have to say, they turned out rather nice :T Thankyou all for the tips. Stand by for next weeks question when I get something new in my organic veg box

squeaky

You're welcome. It's nice to get feedback. Just remember to reduce the sugar very slightly next time - it's not really supposed to be there. I only put it in as a cheat because so many prepared foods have added sugar - and it worked

Pal

Twenty minutes cooking time seems excessive to me. I would go for about 6-8 minutes if you are boiling them. Also salting the water will surely toughen up the skins, something to be avoided?

Broad beans are like peas or sweetcorn - you want to get them fresh and eat them as soon as possible as the sugars turn to starch over time. Yuk!

Personally I peel them after cooking if I can be bothered. I am not a great fan of them with the skins on, but peeled they are really nice.

researcher

[QUOTE=Pal
I peel them after cooking if I can be bothered. I am not a great fan of them with the skins on, but peeled they are really nice.[/QUOTE]

And the italians mash them up with a little crushed garlic, olive oil and salt and use it like pate!

competitionscafe

Pal wrote:

Twenty minutes cooking time seems excessive to me. I would go for about 6-8 minutes if you are boiling them. Also salting the water will surely toughen up the skins, something to be avoided?

Broad beans are like peas or sweetcorn - you want to get them fresh and eat them as soon as possible as the sugars turn to starch over time. Yuk!

Personally I peel them after cooking if I can be bothered. I am not a great fan of them with the skins on, but peeled they are really nice.

Agree with all the above although I find that if I boil them first for just 1 minute then peel the skins off the beans they only need another minute or two of boiling or steaming - that's how I like them anyway and they taste tender and cooked to me. If using as a side vegetable then a bit of butter, salt and pepper and yum!

arkonite_babe

I blanched them first in hot water, then peeled the skins off. When I was ready to cook them, I boiled them for 6 minutes and added the butter and sugar. Very delicious they were too!!

arkonite_babe

researcher wrote:

And the italians mash them up with a little crushed garlic, olive oil and salt and use it like pate!

I shall maybe try this one if I get more broad beans in my veg box soon.



Thankyou all for your suggestions :T

Pal

They are nice but removing the skins is a bit fiddily. I do like CC's idea of quickly blanching to remove the skins. Presumably you can just squeeze them at one end and the inside pops out rather than mushes because it hasn't been cooked for long. I can feel an experiment coming on.....

Apparently if you grown your own you can pick them when very young and eat the outer case as well, like a runner bean. A couple of books I have read seem to think that this is the best way to eat them.

The beans are flowering nicely in the garden at the moment so hopefully I will have lots of practice cooking them in a few weeks time!

arkonite_babe

I just nicked the end of the skin with a knife after blanching, then the beans popped out nicely Do the end that has the groove in it, makes it much easier