Ingredient: Broad beans
Category: Vegetables
Season: June and August :
Vicia faba, the broad bean, fava bean, faba bean, horse bean, field bean, tic bean is a species of bean (Fabaceae) native to north Africa and southwest Asia, and extensively cultivated elsewhere.
The fruit is a broad leathery pod, green maturing blackish-brown, with a densely downy surface; in the wild species, the pods are 5-10 cm long and 1 cm diameter, but many modern cultivars developed for food use have pods 15-25 cm long and 2-3 cm thick.
Each pod contains 3-8 seeds; round to oval and 5-10 mm diameter in the wild plant, usually flattened and up to 20-25 mm long, 15 mm broad and 5-10 mm thick in food cultivars.
It is believed that along with lentils, peas, and chickpeas, they became part of the eastern Mediterranean diet in around 6000 BC or earlier.
In much of the world, the name broad bean is used for the large-seeded cultivars grown for human food, while horse bean and field bean refer to cultivars with smaller, harder seeds (more like the wild species) used for animal feed, though their stronger flavour is preferred in some human food recipes, such as falafel.
The term fava bean (from the Italian fava, meaning "bean") is its most common name in the United States, with Broad Bean being the most common name in the UK
Broad beans are eaten while still young and tender, enabling harvesting to begin as early as the middle of spring for plants started under glass or over-wintered in a protected location.
The maincrop sown in early spring will be ready from mid to late summer. Horse beans, left to mature fully, are usually harvested in the late autumn.
The beans can be fried, causing the skin to split open, and then salted and/or spiced to produce a savory crunchy snack. These are popular in China, Peru (habas saladas), Mexico (habas con chile) and in Thailand (where their name means "open-mouth nut").
In the Sichuan cuisine of China, broad beans are combined with soybeans and chili peppers to produce a spicy fermented bean paste called doubanjiang .
In most Arab countries the fava bean is used for a breakfast meal called ful medames . Ful medames is usually crushed fava beans in a sauce although the Fava beans do not have to be crushed.
Try cooking the very young broad beans in their pods; the beans are hardly formed and the finger-thick pods are delicious.
Later on the beans themselves have much to offer.
If they are young and tender, just steam them for about 3 minutes; if they are a bit older, boiling is best as it softens and tenderises the skin-add salt, barely cover with boiling water and give them 3-4 minutes.
Older broad beans, when quite large, can be blanched in boiling water for 1 minute, then drained and, when cool enough, the skins slipped off.
As you do this they will split in 2, then you can finish cooking them in steam till tender- 2-3 minutes.
Broad beans have a wonderful affinity with boiled ham and gammon steaks, and partnered with pancetta (Italian cured bacon) they make a brilliant salad.
1 lb (450 g) of broad beans in the pod will serve 2. |