2 JULY 1977, Page 27

Beans means broad

Marika Hanbury Tenison

There are times when I despair: a few days ago I actually met someone who considered broad beans to be a 'boring and unin- teresting vegetable' (to those who some- times speculate, I do think about food most of the time). French beans, this gentleman maintained, were all right, runner beans were bearable but what was there in broad beans to get excited about? Well, I suppose we all have our peculiarities and maybe some would maintain I was more peculiar than others when I say I find broad beans one of the joys of life, a natural magic that, unlike most things, seems to improve with every season.

I am fond of French beans, provided they are picked pencil-thin with no strings attached, but after the first flood of runner beans I find myself sympathising with those early explorers who brought the plants back to England in the sixteenth century for the glory of their flowers rather than .their fruits. In the bean world, however, it is the broad bean which really grabs me. I actually dream about them; the smell of them cook- ing is to me what the scent of madeleines was to Proust, and I check their progress daily in my kitchen' garden. When I have nothing better to do I invent recipes for using broad beans and only this morning I worked out a recipe in my head for a dish of fairly mature, cooked, skinned and split broad beans, cooled and mixed with an aioli and some chopped chives or spring onion tops to serve

as a starter with hot toast. Now 1 can hardly wait to discover if it is as delicious as I imagine.

The magic of broad beans is as old as their origins (they were one of the first vegetables to be cultivated and were the only 'bean' in Britain until the runner arrived). Country people will tell you how a cut raw bean rubbed daily on a wart will make it dis- appear and how nettle stings can be soothed by rubbing them with the white fur on the inside of the pod; the Romans, who always knew a good thing, have for centuries fol- lowed the admirable practice of nibbling on young broad beans and Pecorino cheese as they sampled the first of their vino verdi. And seven raw broad beans eaten every day of the season will increase your virility — or so they say. What other vegetable has such great versatility? Dried beans have helped many a peasant community to survive; God recommended them to Ezekiel in a vision; and their protein value is as great as that of maize.

Broad beans are not only•a summer veg- etable. They can be sown now as well as in the autumn and spring, so that in a well- planned garden it should be possible to har- vest three times a year. The plants need good manuring, deep trenching and a shel- tered situation, also protection against black fly and chocolate spot. Once the beans start to bear flowers and, in the case of the tall varieties, reach about three feet in height, the harvest can begin. In order' to make the plants bush and thicken you should pinch out the top six inches which make an excellent green vegetable. Cook the bean tops in plenty of boiling salted water until they are tender; drain and cover with melted butter and freshly ground black pepper. I have also used the tops as a salad, adding a vinaigrette dressing and crisp-fried bacon.

Pick the first pods when they are about four inches long. The beans should he cooked whole, in their rods, in boiling salted water for about twenty minutes until they arc just tender; and then eaten hot with butter, or cold with a vinaigrette dressing. At the next stage the tender beans need to be podded (a messy business as the juice stains) though not skinned. Savory is the traditional flavouring to add to broad beans, and they may be eaten raw in a salad with radishes and black olives. Finally the mature beans (and remember that the more you pick the greater the crop) can be cooked, pureed and made into a good summer soup with a well-flavoured chicken stock, cream and savory.

These grown-up beans can also be used to make the delicious country dish of fever au jambon a pleasure that is shared by French and English cooks. Cook the beans until tender, drain, cool and skin them and com- bine them with a rich béchamel sauce

flavoured with salt, pepper, some finely chopped savory or parsley and a pinch of mace. Add some chopped cooked bacon or ham, turn into a fireproof serving dish and heat through in a moderate oven.