Scandalous legumes

Words by The Boss

Cooking can be daunting at times. Sometimes you don't know what to cook, how to cook it, or simply bored with the same ol same, or too many options ... and let's not get started if you're cooking for others. Personally, I'm daunted by broad beans in all of their guises: fava, haba, english, windsor, tick, cold, horse, or field beans. The first time I saw them was at a local greek greengrocer. They look interesting, long, thick, bumpy, and hearty. Once I heard of the labor intensive requirements just to eat some small nuggets of goodness, I kept walking straight to the green beans.

Thank goodness for the commercial world dominated by the need for convenience - packaged, prepared, raw broad beans are here! Sorta like horse and carriage to motorized vehicles or bicycles to motorbikes. In case you don't know about cooking fresh broad beans, it requires boiling the pods, shelling the beans out, blanching the beans, then taking off the rubbery skin off the bean. Of course, you need to let the beans cool to a temperature that won't scald your fingertips. As much as I love being in the kitchen I'd rather spend my time in other ways. I will say broad beans are delicious and excellent for nutrition for women, and particularly for men.

Health and Nutrition

Broad beans are good sources of protein, fibre, vitamins A and C, potassium and iron. They also contain L-dopa, a chemical the body uses to produce dopamine, an important neurotransmitter involved in learning, mood control and motivation. Some also use fava beans as a natural alternative to drugs like Viagra, citing a link between L-dopa production and the human libido. Why not try incorporating the grey-green broad bean mash into your next romantic rendezvous?

Warning: Raw broad beans should be avoided by people with the rare hereditary condition known as G6PD, for whom ingestion can cause 'favism', a type of anaemia which is sometimes fatal. For the rest of us it still makes sense to eat raw broad beans only in small doses until our body builds up the required enzymes to digest them well - or you might be farting the whole night through.

So, if you don't have G6PD start your engines.

A meal fit for a king.

Leftover parsnip mash, broad beans in a brandy porcini mushroom sauce, topped with some organic porterhouse.

The only thing I really had to cook was the sauce for the beans.

Parsnip:

How hungry are you? Cut up that much in small 2cm cubes.

Add to large sauce pan, add stock to just reach top of parsnip.

I like to throw in a bay leaf, and/or thyme into the pot.

Bring to a boil, turn heat down, let simmer.

Add butter, and mash to consistency you like.

Season to taste.

Sauce:

Hot pan, garlic and butter to a pan.

Add some dried porcini mushrooms. Let sizzle for a bit. Drizzle a splash of brandy, let burn off for a couple minutes.

Add fresh thyme.

Add some stock 1/2 c - 1c (I used homemade lamb stock).

Let simmer until you're ready with the rest of the dinner (around 10 minutes).

I like bringing it to a quick boil and adding a dollop of butter, and in this case another splash of brandy, to give the sauce a bit of an extra richness.

If you're feeling naughty, add a splash of cream. mix up.

Add prepared Broad Beans.

Season to taste!

Wine of the week 2007 Organic Cabernet Merlot / South Eastern Australian / Red

First, every meal begins with a drop of red. For basic table wine I'm not too fussy. Being in Australia has some perks and one of them is having access to a wide variety of red wine. I remember when I walked into a bottle shop and saw $2 for a bottle of wine I was one happy lady. In Canadia a cheap (drinkable) bottle of wine will set you back $12 minimum. In the US someone came up with an idea to sell cheap wine for $4 at border crossings, I think they called it 'smokin Joes' or something like that. Well, Canadians AND Americans both flocked to the border to catch this deal. Of course, no one considers the amount of gasoline needed to fuel their SUV's to get to the border, but the drive is very nice. Anyway, I'm digressing. Needless to say, the $2 bottle was too good to be true. But, there are some great wines here for $10 and even a bit under! I love Australia.

The bottle shop (aka Liquor store) had an organic wine showcased. It happened to be a clean-skin so I know little about it unfortunately. What I do know is that it's organic. So, I was happy to give it a go and it went down nicely. For the price, for the feel good factor, and for the basic table wine, this bottle was a winner. The next day, I bought a case.

Beef / Lamb:

Have meat at room temperature, drizzle some olive oil over and slat n pepper just before you put them into a hot skillet.

Sear on both sides to your liking.

Unfortunately, with the absence of my trusty skillet, I overcooked the meat. The meal was still very good, but would have preferred a med rare steak to accompany the dish.

Bon appetite!

Sweet Goodness.

Of course, to finish off any decent meal a nice sweet goes down so well. I love a sweet, but after cooking a meal who really wants to spend more time in the kitchen - not even me. So, here's my two minute after dinner sweet treat.

Ingredients: Sugar, berries, vanilla bean essence, kirsberry and ice cream (in my case, soy ice cream)

Get a sauce pan, add some sugar (apx 1-2 Tbsp), vanilla and let melt down.

Add berries

When berries start to sweat, add a splash of kirsberry. I've used Cointreau in the past.

Let all the flavors get to know one another for a minute, then serve over some ice cream.

Voila.

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