Broad beans

As a kid I hated broad beans (fava beans). I was totally surprised when I moved to Massachusetts to find out how excited people got about them in the spring. I was also surprised at the rigmarole involved in preparing them: my parents always served them with the skins on, but it seems that in the USA it's normal to parboil them and remove the outer skin. I have tried them this way but it seemed like a lot of work for not much return.

Anyway, now I am a convert, thanks to my dad giving me some small broad beans from his garden. These pods are very small compared to the ones you find for sale -- they are finger-sized and so tender that you can steam them and eat them whole. They are fantastic. I was surprised especially by the aroma of the pods when I lifted the lid off the steamer -- flowery, almost rose-like.


We ate these with risotto (again, this time it was lemon risotto with tiny cubes of smoked tofu).

Pho risotto

This is risotto made with leftover pho broth. It rocked!

I love this risotto recipe -- the trick is that you 'wash' the rice in the stock that you are going to use, so that the stock ends up full of starch. This is actually the source of the creaminess -- it has nothing to do with stirring. This version of risotto cooks basically unattended.

No surprise

Porcini stock cubes obviously lead to mushroom risotto. This one involved a tiny amount of chanterelles, a lot of cheap white mushrooms plus the stock cubes -- lots of mushroomy goodness.

(I promise that the next photo I post will involve a green vegetable -- enough with the orange and brown!)