Has beans

[chickenfeet]

To the St Lawrence Market in search of comestibles today. In particular I wanted to buy some of the pale green flageolets which are my favourite dried bean for assorted French beanie things such as cassoulet or in this case to accompany a leg of lamb. Last time I shecked the market stall which stocks several zillion varieties of beans and rice there were none, ditto today. So I enquired of the proprietor what the situation might be. Apparently pretty much the entire crop was wiped out by this summer's French heatwave and we will be sans flageolets until the new harvest. Thus, I was forced to fall back on the local Great Northerns, Mr. Heinz not having bought quite the entire crop(1). Fortunately Le Puy lentils do not seem to have been similarly affected.

(1)In my year at Kitt Green I witnessed just what a staggering proportion of the bean production of Ontario, Michigan and Minnesota passes through Wigan. It really is awe inspiring.

Comments

[lnr]

I have to admit to almost exclusively using tinned beans and pulses rather then dried ones. Are they really that much better?

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I don't have a lot of experience with eating the tinned ones (as opposed to watching tons being processed) but from what I have seen, cooking your own produces a better texture. I find canned beans to be badly overcooked.

[badasstronaut.livejournal.com]

I like fresh vegetables. This week I've been using mange tout which I've no idea how to pronounce. Unless it's actually French, in which case I think I could make a reasonable guess. They seem just like snow peas to me.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

They are snow peas! And it is French.

I like fresh too, but dried white beans are a wonderful accompaniment to lamb. FWIW we have parsnips and sprouts too for tonight.

[badasstronaut.livejournal.com]

Parsnips are great. On Sunday night I made parsnip.. um... well sort of like rissoles.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Sounds interesting. I'm roasting these with a little olive oil, lemon juice and honey.

[badasstronaut.livejournal.com]

Nice. I'd grind some black pepper over those. I think parsnip also works well in curry. It's very nice with cumin.

[classytart.livejournal.com]

It's actually French "eat all" and is pronounced in that frenchy way, roughly "monje too".

[badasstronaut.livejournal.com]

I thought so, but I'd have looked an idiot if I'd said it that way and then it turned out it wasn't French at all. Mind you, I guess I can (and do) cope okay with looking an idiot.

[lemur-catta.livejournal.com]

If you can find Sugar Snap peas they're another really nice eat-the-whole-pod type but with big round peas instead of flat. Unfortunately they have a very short season and if they aren't very freshly picked they lose all the sweetness quickly.
When I first had fresh lima beans instead of dried ones that was quite a revelation.

[badasstronaut.livejournal.com]

I love fresh bright crunchy things. I bought some strange large green citrus fruit out of curiosity the other day. I forget its name. The Sainsbury guy told me it was like grapefruit but sweeter. It's also larger than grapefruit.