Since we gave out fava beans as “you pick” extras this week, I looked up some harvesting and cooking information on the web. Here is an excerpt:

Picking Favas: The pods will look a little like giant green beans - long and plump, varying slightly in length, slightly fuzzy, with some bronzing on the outside of the pod. Stems should be fresh, and the pods should be heavy, with just a hint of the rounded beans inside.

Storage: Store fava bean pods in a plastic bag in the crisper section of the refrigerator. Although best used within a few days, they will keep up to a week. Store shelled, cooked and peeled fava beans in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for a day or two.

Prepare and Cook: Fava beans need to be shelled (removed from their pods). To open the pods just pull on the stem at the top to unzip the string down either side of the pod, then gently push the pod open between your thumb and forefingers. Pop the beans out.

Cook shelled beans in a large saucepan in plenty of boiling water until just tender, about 3 to 5 minutes depending on the size of the bean. Drain well and rinse with cold water to cool.

Using the tip of a knife or your thumbnail, slit the translucent skin covering the bean, peel off and discard. Use the peeled cooked beans as appetizers, in salads or in recipes.

Another website called Seasonal Chef had more recipes.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 6th, 2006 at 12:23 pm and is filed under Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.