It's been a while since I last posted, and it had been a while since I last cooked. I really missed my kitchen! But I may post about cooking in an RV sometime...
It's August in Mississippi now, though, and that means certain things are really good at the farmer's market: squash, blueberries, peaches, watermelon, bell peppers, and shelled peas and beans. It's this last one that always gets me as a non-Southerner. They always intrigue me and I never know exactly what to do with them. Often I over- or undercook them or don't season them right and they're just a disappointment. But this time I used two blogs, What's for Lunch, Honey? and Orangette to figure out a pretty darned good recipe for the fresh butter beans I found at the market. I have to call them butter beans, because I have hated lima beans all my life, and I'm not about to stop now. Lima beans are mealy and mushy. Butter beans are tender and a little crunchy--not mealy at all. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Here is the recipe I came up with, more or less:
Fresh Butter Beans with Leeks
Serves about 4
3 leeks, halved, cleaned, sliced thin (white and light green parts only)
2 T. butter
Big pinch salt
about 12 oz. fresh butter beans (probably any of the fresh "shell peas"/beans you can get would work here)
Pepper and maybe some nutmeg
Water
1/2 c. cream (I used evaporated milk, which I think was a mistake)
In a big saucepan or even a deep skillet with a cover, sauté the leeks in the butter with the salt until they are all soft and melted; this will take at least 10 minutes. Add the beans and the pepper and nutmet, stir to coat in the leek-y goodness, and then add enough water to barely cover. Cover and let simmer for about 20 minutes. Taste to see how they're doing. If they're just about done, go ahead and add the cream, turn up the heat, and let the liquid cook down until it's saucy. Then serve this with some corn bread or rice or even a quinoa pilaf, which is what I did. Feel Southern.
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You probably already know this, but just in case;
ReplyDelete"There are other names for just about everything in the food world, and in this case, butter beans is the other name for lima beans. There are two common varieties of lima bean — the baby lima bean and the Fordhook — but don't confuse them as the same bean in different stages of development. The Fordhook is larger, lighter in color, and has a stronger taste than the baby lima, but it is not a grown-up baby — it is a separate variety.
In the south of the United States, Fordhook lima beans are commonly called butter beans. Indeed, one of our readers says many southerners wouldn't recognize the name lima bean."