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Fava Beans

post #1 of 15
5/10/07 at 1:06am
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Today I was introduced to fava beans. Ate a few raw. They seem interesting and worth experimenting with. Any suggestions on preparation and perhaps some simple recipes for their use? Thanks!

Shel
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post #2 of 15
5/10/07 at 12:11pm
The traditional roman spring treat is to have roman sheep cheese (pecorino romano - the hard, sharp kind) with raw fava beans.
I hate them, myself.
My mother in law made them like bean soup - she would take off the inner shell of each bean as well as the pods, because the outer bean is bitter. It was a LOT of work. Then chop garlic, onion, parsley, whatever you like, fry slowly in oil, till tender, add the beans and water and cook to make a fairly dense soup. Eat over toasted heavy duty bread, rubbed with garlic.
Be careful, though. Some people are so allergic to these that they can get terrible auto-immune reaction and become instantly very anemic and need immediate hospitalization. It's a rare genetic condition, typical of people of sardinian origin. If you're not sardinian you're probably safe from it. They can;t even be in the same space with the raw beans or drive by a field of them and all the markets and stores selling them here have to display signs that they have fave beans.
"Siduri said, 'Gilgamesh, where are you roaming? You will never find the eternal life that you seek...Savour your food, make each of your days a delight, ... let music and dancing fill your house, love the child who holds you by the hand and give your wife pleasure in your embrace.'"
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post #3 of 15
5/10/07 at 3:12pm
My husband adores new-season broad beans (as they are called in the UK). I often just lightly boil, plunge into iced water and then remove the fibrous outer skin. He likes them cold, served a vinaigrette, flavoured with a little finely chopped shallots. He also likes them served as a boiled veg with salmon.
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post #4 of 15
5/10/07 at 4:57pm
I bought some fresh fava beans the other week at the Farmer's Market. It's the first time I have prepared them fresh and probably the last. They were very deliscious but what a pain to peel and the yield was nothing out of a couple of pounds of beans.

Jock
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post #5 of 15
5/10/07 at 5:21pm

No...No...No...

I'm biting my tongue to keep from typing what I was going to type...:p

April
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post #6 of 15
5/10/07 at 6:00pm
True, but it also affects people of other origins. I found this by Googling "Thalassaemia": People who are likely to carry the gene of Thalassaemia are people with Mediterranean descent, for example Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, India, Italy, Lebanon, Malta, Middle East, Turkey and some parts of South East Asia.

I haven't tried them, but I'd like to. Are they really that much trouble to prepare for cooking?
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post #7 of 15
5/10/07 at 6:13pm
AprilB,

This morning I typed up the same post I bet you were going to make, then decided not to post. :D

I checked back now to see if anyone had done it.

Kevin

Muskies.
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post #8 of 15
5/11/07 at 2:33am
i must be very thick. i don;t get it. can't you hint???

mezzaluna, interesting. Might have suspected this. It sounds like maybe there is a phoenician origin or something. I know in italy, it seems to only strike people with sardinian descent, but it's important to know that it's so widely spread.
as for difficulty in preparing, imagine shelling peas, that have a kind of wooly interior, then peeling each pea individually. For me, not worth it. But i donl;t like them.
"Siduri said, 'Gilgamesh, where are you roaming? You will never find the eternal life that you seek...Savour your food, make each of your days a delight, ... let music and dancing fill your house, love the child who holds you by the hand and give your wife pleasure in your embrace.'"
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post #9 of 15
5/11/07 at 2:50am
Add a portion of the human anatomy..... and a nice bottle of chianti...?
Think Hannibal Lecter :lol:
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post #10 of 15
5/13/07 at 8:33pm
:confused: Yeah, me too ???

Jock
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post #11 of 15
5/14/07 at 4:57am
That's when I knew just how crazy Hannibal was. Chianti with Fava beans? What a maniac! Sauvignon Blanc, for sure, but Chianti? And since when do adult males have sweet breads...I guess he wasn't a medical doctor but seriously...

Anyway Fava's are awesom. Too much work? You have to remove the pods (easy) blanch the beans and shock in a water bath. After that a little pinch pops the beans out of their rubbery outer skin. Not too bad if you ask me. Pluse they are a pretty stable food, you can certainly peel them well before you need to use them. So nice with some shallots and a dash of truffle oil. Or braised with romaine lettuce.

If you really find it too much trouble you can often find them frozen in Greek and Italian speciallty shops. They are without the pod in this format and you usually don't need to blanch them. As the beans thaw its easy to squeeze off the outer skin just like that.
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post #12 of 15
5/14/07 at 12:25pm
Silence of the Lambs..... doh! My head was in the produce department rather than the movie theater.

Oy, that'll bring more gruesome observations! :eek:
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post #13 of 15
5/20/07 at 12:23pm
Different forum by Gia-Gina - just back from 2 years in Italy - said the shape of the fava bean pod leads to many coarse jokes (in Italian, presumably) so I think this must be what we're dancing around. :blush:

Mike
travelling gourmand
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post #14 of 15
5/20/07 at 2:12pm
No.... the comments are referring to Hanibal Lecter's penchant for preparing fava beans with human organs!
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post #15 of 15
5/20/07 at 6:52pm
This is turning gruesome!

I reckon they're well worth the trouble - they're one of the few beans my family will eat (apart from the ubiquitous baked bean....shudder).

Peel, blanch, shock in cold water, pop them out of their skins (per what Allan said), braise in butter with garlic, maybe a little chicken stock - yummers!!!!

They are very popular here - I buy them frozen when they're not in season or if I'm in a hurry. Guess we're lucky to have all the work done for us.
 Don't handicap your children by making their lives easy.
Robert A. Heinlein
 
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