Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Broad beans are sleeping in a blankety bed*

 Having friends with allotments has got to be the next best thing to having one yourself! At the moment there seems to be a glut of broad beans which I have been overjoyed to make use of.

Blankety bed

Especially since I came across Sarah Raven's way of preparing them  (from her Garden Cookbook).

Beans in the mixer

Blitz podded and jacketed broad beans with olive oil, lemon zest, mint and salt and pepper.

She suggests using the resulting puree on crostini with a sliver of pecorino, but I reckon Parma Ham would be fab too.

We ate ours as an accompaniment to some roast lamb and cous cous. One of the lovely things was that it didn't loose the bright green zingy colour at all. I would have taken a photo, but we were too greedy.

*Oh, takes me back to Harvest Festival...

Cauliflowers fluffy and cabbages green,
Strawberries sweeter than any I've seen
Beetroot purple and onions white,
All grow steadily day and night

The apples are ripe, the plums are red,
Broad beans are sleeping in a blankety bed

Blackberries juicy and rhubarb sour,
Marrows fattening hour by hour.
Gooseberries hairy and lettuces fat
Radishes round and runner beans flat

The apples are ripe, the plums are red,
Broad beans are sleeping in a blankety bed

Orangey carrots and turnips cream,
Reddening tomatoes that used to be green,
brown potatoes in little heaps,
Down in the darkness where the celery sleeps

The apples are ripe, the plums are red,
Broad beans are sleeping in a blankety bed

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