Spring is definitely here as our CSA box has been showing up with more and more variety & surprises. The first two to show up, in the same box, were a bag of fava beans and a small basket of strawberries. Already! I was really surprised but they were absolutely ripe, sweet and intensely flavoured!I'd been dying to get some fava beans and decided a simple fresh fava bean purée would be the perfect way to showcase their flavour. The note at the head of the Fava Bean chapter says that if the beans are small, fresh and ripe, they should be tender enough that you shouldn't necessarily have to remove their skin. After shelling them, I tried a few to see if they seemed young enough and decided to skip the peeling step.
I put them in a pan and brought them to boil over low heat, then drained them, returned them to the pan and puréed them using my trusty immersion blender
. At this point, I began to question my decision to leave the skins on the favas because they weren't quite disappearing into the purée. Too late now. I went on with the recipe: seasoned the purée with some sea salt, added two small diced potatoes and a half cup of veggie stock and cooked it until the potatoes were soft. Then, although the recipe didn't say to, I puréed it all again to get the potatoes nicely mashed in, drizzled it with olive oil and some freshly ground pepper. I served the purée on some baguette crostini.
They were... ok. They weren't bad at all, really, but I guess I just wanted more out of them. For a simpler fava bean recipe, I've since just shelled and peeled them, cooked them very briefly in boiling water and seasoned them with olive oil, salt and pepper. For a more flavourful purée, I'd probably eliminate the potatoes, which just seem to dilute their flavour, and add a bit of garlic and maybe a few shavings of Pecorino Romano.
Tasty Factor: C+ Ease of Preparation: B (I think it'd be difficult for a fava bean recipe to ever get a really high grade here due to all the shelling and peeling) Modifications: Sort of. Didn't peel the beans, though I probably would in the future. Mashed in the potatoes after they cooked. Would do even more modifications next time, such as adding garlic and cheese. I'll keep you posted, I just got a whole new bag of favas in this week's box.
5 comments:
Sorry you weren't crazy about the recipe but I have to say, I'm always so happy to see that you've posted!
I think you are being generous giving fava bean preparation a "B". When I saw it was fava beans, I first scanned down to see if the "ease" score was at least a "C". I personally never use them because, while they are tasty, fava beans are NEVER worth the effort. (Though some italians cook them whole - no shelling at all... which is easy, but doesn't taste all that good...)
Anyway, I always use edamame in place of favas if only for the ease of preparation. Would you recommend to try this with that change, or do you think the recipe is too much of a lost cause?
And I too am always happy to see you post.
Thanks!!!
As for using fava beans, I've been getting them every week in my CSA box and have been using them at least once a week. None of the recipes in the SS seemed to draw my attention however. I just came up with a fava bean pasta recipe this week that was quite delicious and I thought worth the effort.
I boiled the fava beans for a few minutes then peeled them (with the help of Big E) then I tossed them with whole wheat rotini, meyer lemon zest, grated Parmesan cheese and chopped Coppa. I finished it with freshly ground pepper, some chunky sea salt and a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. It was delicious!
I'd be curious to try swapping edamame into some of these recipes - I bet that would be great. However, I do think this purée is a lost cause because I really don't think it needs the potatoes or the vegetable broth. I'll work on finding a better fava (or edamame) purée recipe and will keep you posted!
Favas are a bit of a pain, but it's all in the timeframe. When we know we're gonna be eating them, we take the bowl out to the TV and shuck them there. Easy.
Now if Sara was preparing these on a deadline, well, she'd probably be grading them a bit tougher.
Have found frozen fava beans at whole foods and am a big fan. I like edamame as well but the peeled frozen fava's are softer and since they don't have hulls, are easy to mash or incorporate into recipes. I like them cooked lightly w/ some EV olive oil and salt/pepper as a side dish to either meat or a grain dish.
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