Fava bean and egg salad

As a scientist I can't help myself but weigh fava beans before and after shelling them every time they cross my path. I had blogged about the experiment here already. And yesterday as usual I took my scale out. This time we had 3 pounds of pods, 1 pound 4 ounces of beans with skin and just under 14 ounces of beans once skinned (28% of the pods' weight). We had enough for 3 generous servings.


The following recipe is inspired by this one, from Marmiton.org.

• 3 lbs fresh fava beans (in pods)
• 2 sprigs thyme or savory
  
• 3 brown eggs
• 3 calçot onions (or green onions)
• 2 to 3 oz (60 to 85 g) goat cheese*
• 1 tbsp Banyuls vinegar (or sherry vinegar)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• salt and pepper

1. Boil the eggs for 10 minutes then plunge them in cold water.
2. Remove the dark leaves and the outer skin of the onions and slice them thinly. Place them at the bottom of a salad bowl and cover with 1 tablespoon vinegar.
3. Shell the fava beans. Boil them with thyme (or savory) in salted water for 5 minutes, then plunge them in cold water to stop the cooking. Pop the beans out of their pale green skin. Place them in the salad bowl.
4. Peel and slice the eggs. Add them to the salad along with the cheese, shaved or diced depending on how hard it is.
5. Season with salt, pepper and 2 tablespoons olive oil. Toss.
6. Serve or refrigerate.
   

* I used a fresh California goat cheese rolled in herbs that I had handy. I think a hard goat or sheep cheese would work even better.

Short And Sweet Break

Our much awaited bundle of joy has arrived.Yes,my daughter gave birth to a baby boy Siddarth on May 11th.Since he is keeping his grandmom busy round the clock,I think I have to take a short break to blogging.But I will soon be back with the recipes of food items which is good for the new mom.For more details of the little star please have a look at the innovative poster made by his dad and mom.

Agretti

Here is one of the wonderful surprises of this week's CSA box. As Andrew Griffin explains in the newsletter, agretti is the Italian cousin of the American West's tumbleweed. It starts out with slender succulent leaves with "a unique marine flavor and toothsome quality". As it matures, agretti becomes, like it's American cousin, a sprawling, dry and prickly shrub, which no-one would eat!

Here is what we did, with the help of the newsletter's recipes and advice:

Serves 2

• 1 bunch agretti, clean (we pulled the leaves from the hard branches and rinsed in cold water twice)
• 4 slices prosciutto
• 1 tbsp olive oil

1. Tear the prosciutto into small pieces and pan fry until crisp. Remove from the pan and reserve.
2. Heat up the olive oil and sauté the agretti until wilted (3 or 4 minutes are enough).
3. Toss the agretti and prosciutto together and serve warm.

It was a little too salty for my taste (the original recipe called for pancetta) but the crunchiness of the agretti was great and the flavors really pleasant.

Pachai Kondakadalai Pirattal (Fresh Chick Peas Curry)

Another vegetable which made me curious in US is the fresh Chick peas ,right from the garden inside the pod. I found this in one of the big korean store called Lotte Plaza. I broke one pod and tasted the pea. It was tender and tasted like fresh peanut in the shell. I thought there will be at least 2 chick pea in each pod but in almost every pod there was only just one pea.

chick pea curries are always very tasty and will go well with roti, chappathi, curd rice etc.I decided to make the traditional chettinad pirattal with the chettinad masala. The curry turned out very tasty. Those who don't want the masala can make the curry adding a teaspoon of sambar powder alone
Ingredients
Chick peas-200gms(shelled out)
Big onion-1
Tomato-1

Ingredients for the Masala (optional)
coconut grated-2 table spoon
Red chili-4
Small jeera-1 teaspoon
Fennel seed-1 teaspoon
Ingredients for seasoning
Mustard seed-1 teaspoon
Fennel seed-1 teaspoon
curry leaf-little
Procedure
Take out the chick pea when you have time and store it in the fridge. Mince the onion. In the mixie or blender smash the tomato little so that it will get cooked fast. Keep the kadai in the stove.In a table spoon of cooking oil season the curry with the items given in 'To season'. Saute the onion and the smashed tomato.If you choose not to grind coconut paste, add 1 teaspoon of sambar powder( kuzhambu milagai thool)to the sauted mixture.When the sauted mixture boils add the chick peas and close the kadai. Check in between that there is enough water for the chick pea to get cooked. It will get cooked within 10 minutes.Once the chick pea is cooked soft , add the salt needed and the grinded masala.Cook in medium fire till the masala gets cooked and oil starts separating

Vegetable Soup with Asparagus

I loved the soup made with Asparagus by one of my daughter's friend Amudha's mom in DC. Her mother Mrs Vasantha Achi is a permanent resident of Singapore. She makes lovely soups and some other items right from the scrap. I was really impressed by the soup. Since it does not require any white sauce or such other things, it is very easy to make and at the same time good for kids. So with her permission to blog the recipe, I made it at home. Those who don't get Asparagus need not worry. They can substitute it with beetroot or any other veg. Beetroot will give better colour for the soup. She uses vegetable stock cube bought from the stores like Wegmans.We can substitute it with the real stock made at home like chicken or mutton stock. I had mutton stock which I saved while cooking mutton for podimas.

Ingredients (For 4 to 5 cups)

carrot-1

Big onion-1

Asparagus-Half bunch

Tomato-1

Green chili-1

pepper powder-1 teaspoon

Vegetable stock cube -1 (Bouillon without msg).Any brand that you get can be used.

Procedure

Cut off the bottom and top portion of Asparagus and cut into 1 inch pieces. Cut the onion,tomato and the carrot also. Keep a small cooker in the stove. In a teaspoon of butter saute the onion,tomato,carrot,chilli and asparagus. You can add any other vegetable that you like also. Add a pinch of salt and a cup of water. Close the cooker and cook for just 1 whistle(5 minutes). Once the pressure is released allow the vegetable to cool and grind the strained vegetables in the mixie till you don't find any fiber in the asparagus. Usually this will get grounded in a minute if your asparagus is good. Now keep the kadai in the stove and pour the grounded soup into it along with the water strained. Mix the vegetable stock cube in a cup of water and add to the soup. If you have some other chicken or mutton stock that can be substituted in the place of this stock cube. Add water to the consistency you like. Add the salt and pepper to your taste. Allow the soup to boil for 5 minutes.