54 Lima Beans From:   drwo@woteki.com Subject: Lima Beans - Phaseolus Lunatus (Moon Beans?) Date: September 21, 2003 7:09:38 PM EDT To:   aroundthekitchen@aroundthekitchen.info Reply-To:   aroundthekitchen@aroundthekitchen.info I just discovered lima beans. No, not those dreadful things you buy frozen, or worse still canned. Real, fresh lima beans. The Southerners on the list, or at least those who pretend to be (you know who you are), are laughing at me, I’m sure. At the Market on Saturday this old woman with a prunish face was shucking limas. I passed by the first time because she and her son don’t grow much, if anything, of their own stuff so I don’t buy much from them. But I was lured back by the beauty of the beans. So on second thought I bought a pint. And beautiful they were, tasty too! Lima beans are shell beans like my all time favorite, fava beans, and they are almost as good. I discovered the similarity when I began to cook the shucked limas and noticed that they have an outer covering on them, just like a fava. As I was poaching them the outer covering started to pucker and wrinkle, just like the old ladies face. So I shut down the cooking, let the beans cool and peeled the second fava-like shell from the beans. This worked wonders on the beans. The shell turns out to have a somewhat bitter flavor. removing it revelaed the sweeter flavor of the bean itself. My experience suggests that lima beans, while not quite as tasty as a good fava bean (they are a bit more starchy), are well worth the trouble. Seasonally speaking, they should be in abundance this time of year. Here is what I did: Obtain: 1 pint shucked limas 2 ears corn 2 T medium dice pancetta EVOO, chicken broth, salt, pepper as required or to taste Proceed: 1. Prepare the beans as you would fava beans: parboil a few minutes, shock in ice water, remove outer skins. Reserve. 2. Cut the corn off the cobs scraping the cobs with the back of your knife to extract all the bits of kernel and corn “milk”. Reserve. 3. Sauté pancetta in EVOO until fat is rendered. 4. Add beans and just enough chicken stock to cover. 5. Poach beans gently until they begin to tenderize. 6. Add corn and heat through until kernels tenderize. 7. Correct seasonings, serve at once. Tom From:   leslie.borden@comcast.net Subject: Re: Lima Beans - Phaseolus Lunatus (Moon Beans?) Date: September 21, 2003 7:50:40 PM EDT To:   aroundthekitchen@aroundthekitchen.info Reply-To:   aroundthekitchen@aroundthekitchen.info Hmm, I gotta say, lima beans are my second least favorite food (that spot is reserved for sweet potatoes), but I hear you, Tom, about seeing something at the market so fresh that you can’t resist it.  My epiphany on this score was okra, a vegetable that I had always assumed I’d hate “knowing” it to be simultanously slimy and fuzzy.  But a few weeks ago I saw some at the Dupont Circle Farmers’ Market that I could not resist.  It looked so fresh and firm and spiky that I knew I had to try it.  A vision (oh, well, meal idea, actually, let’s not get TOO spiritual about this) of gumbo rose in my mind, so I snatched up a box. Then I went back to the guy who was selling green bell peppers and picked one up.  On the Eastern Market leg of the Borden/Veeder/Pollard Sunday Morning Food Express (well, it’s a local, actually,as our number of stops grows), I bought some andouille sausage from Canales Bros. and a container of crabmeat and a pound of shrimp from the Southern Maryland Seafood people (who still remember me as the crazy woman who bought eels last spring).  With my trusty and kitchen-beaten copy of Paul Prudhomme’s Cajun cookbook (or whatever it’s called, it was his first, the one that was almost solely responsible for wiping out drum fish when they popularized blackened drum in the ‘80’s), I put together a really fine gumbo.  I adapted it from Prudhomme, rather than following exactly what he wanted with the okra.  I just treated it as part of the sauteed vegetables. This teaches two very important points:  first, market-based shopping. Decide on your menu and your food by looking at what’s available at the market, what looks best, rather than by what the cookbook says.  Stay local and in-season, and you will eat like a king.  Second, try something you didn’t think you liked when it’s really good-looking at the market.  I had a similar revelation about winter squash (a former major yuck for me) last year when I decided to learn to make squash risotto and squash tortelli.  In February, Rob said, “um, y’know, the squash risotto is really good, but could we have a break from it?” So who knows, maybe I’ll actually try lima beans.  And possibly sweet potatoes, but I still hold the line at the damn little marshmallows. . . . Here’s the gumbo, as nearly as I can remember: Seasoning mix of ground red, black, and white pepper; paprika; dried thyme; bay leaf; dry mustard; onion powder; and garlic powder.  I dunno, about 1/2 tsp. each A cup or so each of chopped onion, green pepper, and celery (the “holy trinity” of Cajun cooking) A pint box of okra, chopped into quarter-inch slices A coupla cloves of garlic, finely minced The crabmeat, picked over The shrimp, peeled (save the shells for stock) and brined for 20 minutes or so The sausage, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch chunks 1/2 c. vegetable oil 1/2 c. flour 4 - 6 cups shellfish stock Bring the shellfish stock to a boil Make a roux:  In a large heavy skillet, heat the oil to smoking and add the flour.  Stir - very carefully, this stuff is referred to by Prudhomme as Cajun napalm - constantly over high heat until it turns a dark red brown without burning.  This’ll take maybe 10 minutes, but watch it like a hawk. Add half the chopped vegetables and stir for 2 - 3 minutes.  At this point the danger of the roux burning is basically over, as the vegetables will cool it down and exude liquid. It’ll still be pretty hot, though. Add the seasoning mix and stir for another couple of minutes. Add the remaining chopped vegetables and stir for a further 3 - 4 minutes. At this point, you can either add the roux and vegetables to the boiling stock or the other way around, depending on your pots ‘n’ pans.  I like to add the stock to the skillet, since I have a nice deep one, and it assures I will pick up all that nice roux (the roux is the key to the deep dark Cajun flavor).  Stir thoroughly and bring it to a boil. Add the sausage and boil for maybe 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and add the shrimp and crabmeat.  Let it sit, covered, for five minutes, until the shrimp is just cooked through. Serve with rice.  Wow. The following week, I did much the same, but used fried chicken, torn from the bones (yup, with the skin), instead of the shrimp and crabmeat, and I used chicken stock instead of shrimp stock.  Yum. See you around the kitchen, lb