Saturday 26 June 2010

Broad Beans


I was very excited to find broad beans in my bag this week. I love everything about them, the process of podding them, the fresh smell, the beautiful pale green colour and the delicate taste. I was busy on Friday night so I decided to make myself a quick broad bean risotto before rushing off to a meeting and then to the pub. It ended up taking a bit longer than I anticipated and I was a bit late for my meeting but "sorry I'm late, I was waiting for my broad bean risotto to cook" is a pretty good excuse in my book!

We had some frozen homemade chicken stock so I decided to use that which had the added advantage of making space in the freezer. We are pretty good at freezing left overs so as not to waste anything but at some point you have to use them. I made a risotto with arborio rice, just adding an onion, some black pepper and a slug of cider vinegar. The vinegar went in after adding the rice and before adding any other liquid and it added a lovely sharp taste to the risotto. I boiled a handful of frozen peas and a similar amount of podded broad beans. They were so small and fresh that I didn't need to take off the outer skins. They only needed 3 minutes cooking - in fact 2 would probably have been enough but the peas weren't ready. 

When they were cooked I mixed them into the risotto with some fresh herbs (chives, parsley and basil - just what I  happened to have available). Delicious!


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