Broad beans
It’s been two weeks now since the broad beans have arrived in our veg box, and two weeks I’ve been dreaming about some sort of broad bean paste… that sounds very unimaginative, but unfortunately my two weeks have been very broad-bean-less. I had a few quickly boiled and rolled in butter. But not the recipe that I have been longing for. Not the sumptuous seduction of fine olive oil, combined with the tongue curling tartness of lemons. So as the days pass, more ingredients get added to my paste… maybe broad bean and courgette paste… and more dishes… beetroot tahini paste, or grilled halloumi and courgettes.
This weekend has been a real weekend. Two days off. In a row. Such a rarity for me these days. No plans, no demands and very few people around. Of course it soon got littered with unexpected calls from wannabe flatmates. Saturday spend the morning waking up listening to bits of podcast and falling asleep again. Managed to pull myself out of bed for water melon and one of the aforementioned flatmates and meandered to the market. We did the usual ambulation, this time introducing it and our favourite stalls to two Finns that were staying over. I got a berry juice and a Portuguese custard tart.
That sustained me to get on my bike and speed along Kingsland Road down to Old Street, Clerkenwell, Holborn, Kingsway and over the bridge to Naveena’s. She was preparing a Keralan beef stew with handfuls of curry leaves, ginger, and various other spices thrown in. Once that was on the boil we went up to the roof terrace, armed with a tray full of lunch time goodies. We slowed sauteed in the sun and lazily munched our way to contentment.
We decided to head out to the Southbank to look for presents and the gift of inspiration, and so I lounged on the sofa while Naveena got ready. I got stuck into Mai Pham’s New Flavours of the Vietnamese Table. Finally the inspiration I needed seemed to be captured in a book. The regional differences, the historical influences. Our perusal of the bookshop threw up no better books, so I went home with New Flavours in my bag and good intentions.
I came home and went to the Turkish shop and found green olives pregnantly stuffed with garlic cloves. The clove adds a crunch you can’t expect from an olive, unless you go through to the stone and your teeth are decomposing. I picked up a bunch of parsley and coriander. As a veg box buyer and grower, I have a profound sense of appreciation at such abundance, and hate to see the beautifully fragrant leaves disintegrate before my eyes into liquid compost.
But time has come and gone. Sunday was meant to be a birthday picnic in the park and I imagined my broad bean paste making an appearance there. It ended up being lounged in bed sorting out newspapers, reading recipe books, listening to podcasts, having long-distance phone calls, watching old movies and I’ve managed to skip more meals than I have eaten this weekend. And the ones I have longed for still remain just that. There’s always tomorrow.
July 21st, 2009 at 06:53 pm
So the next day, I got stuck into making lunch for Naveena, and came up with all sorts of different little dishes. The broad bean paste was good, the right consistency, which can be a bit tricky with broad beans because they can be quite clumpy. But it did feel like summer, and delightful. The unexpected joy of the meal was a red pepper and almond paste. Just liquidise. Good stuff.