If you don't know the glory of fresh shelling beans, it's high time you learned. Now is their moment; you really don't have any time to waste. Shell beans are at their height in your farmers' market, as is the last of the corn, which will initiate you into the mysteries of succotash -- and I'm not talking about the nasty packets of frozen stuff you were forced to eat as a child.
At the moment, my favorite shelling bean is the lima bean. It's no wonder that some varieties are referred to as "butter beans," especially in the South. They are so tender, so starchy-yet-creamy, so perfect. Yes, yes, I know all about your childhood trauma and how much you hated them, there on the plate next to the overcooked liver and how you had to sneak all of it to the dog in order to get your Kit-Kat bar. Yeah, me too. It's time for us to get over it. We have now evolved to the point where we like the lima beans better than the Kit-Kat bar, especially when they're fresh. Even if it may cost a manicure or two to get them out of their pods.
While fresh peas probably still reign supreme in my legume affections, I prefer fresh lima beans to cranberry beans, although I love the little red-splotched guys too. But it's the texture of the butter beans that wins me over. With these beauties, it's important not to err on the side of undercooking -- you don't want even one bean that is gritty or crumbly rather than meltingly tender.
Vegetables like fresh lima beans provide the perfect opportunity to slow down. Instead of using pre-washed salad greens and pre-peeled garlic and frozen vegetables and all those other conveniences on which we rely at times in the name of getting a meal on the table, today you can decide that you will slowly, meditatively take the time needed to choose the best, firmest green pods. Then you start shelling, working your way through a couple of pounds of the twistilinear hulls, noticing that your yield of beans is, sadly, quite a bit smaller than the growing pile of spent pods next to you. You have to figure out the best way to open them -- can you slit one side with a fingernail, and pop out the beans? Sometimes these bean-husks are too resistant for that, and you have to break off an end, and see if you can peel a thread of membrane along one side to get the pod open. And other times you just have to fight and wrestle with it until you can get those babies out of there, slightly bruised or nicked but none the less delicious for that.
Although they're more work than my beloved English peas or the prettily painted cranberry beans, they're actually far less effort than favas, with just as great a reward, at least in my opinion. And once you're done with the pesky shelling, some very succulent dishes are but a few minutes away. My current favorite, as you've no doubt guessed, is succotash.
The Northeastern Woodland Indians created this particular vegetable mixture, which serves as just one tiny example of how much has been lost by the suppression and destruction of tribal knowledge. Beans and corn together (and sometimes squash, for a perfect "three sisters" vegetable dish) balance each others' nutrients. The beans and squash both provide niacin, as does the process of treating the corn with lime, also known as "nixtamalization," another Native American invention. If corn is a major part of one's diet, and is not nixtamalized nor eaten with niacin-rich foods, dire circumstances may result. The early inhabitants of this continent knew how to balance the grain. Not so southern Europeans, and most particularly the Italians, who when first introduced to corn (and hence, polenta) in the 18th century, became so fond of it that they ate it to the exclusion of many other foods, and developed pellagra -- as did many inhabitants of the southern United States during the 1900s.
Succotash is worth the effort not only for the superiority of its balanced nutrition. I truly think it one of the most delicious things you can eat in the early fall. If you wish, leeks or green onions are good additions, as are the last few summer squash or green beans. I prefer it in its simplest form -- corn, beans, a little butter, a soupçon of good cream, salt, pepper,
and a generous lashing of piment d'espelette, or failing that, ground cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes. This could also be easily adapted to any dietary restrictions -- the cream isn't strictly necessary, although it creates a lovely bit of sauce, and the butter can be replaced with a splash of olive oil, if you don't use dairy products. However you modify it, take a moment to slow down, and give fresh succotash a try before the frost sets in.
Simple Succotash
serves four to six moderately, or else just two people who can't believe how good this is.
3 cups of shelled lima beans (from about 2 1/2 lbs. of beans weighed in the shell)
4 ears of fresh sweet corn, kernels cut and scraped from the cobs
2 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. cream
a grating of nutmeg
salt, pepper, piment d'espelette, cayenne or red pepper flakes
pinch of sugar (optional)
Cook the limas in about an inch of boiling water, until creamy and tender. This could take anywhere from 10 to 25 minutes, and you can only really tell if they're done by tasting them, since cooking time will vary due to the size and age of your beans. Drain them and reserve.
Melt the butter in a medium sauté pan or skillet, and let it brown just slightly, until it foams and has a nutty smell. Gently add the corn kernels and sauté for about five minutes or until the corn seems done (again, this will be dependent on the size and maturity of the corn kernels). Add the beans, the cream and all the seasonings, and simmer together for a couple of minutes until the cream is thickened, and all the ingredients have melded a bit. Taste, and only add the dash of sugar if the natural sweetness in the corn and beans needs a tiny bit of heightening.
Serve alongside almost anything.
Ah yes, I got myself into a similar slow-down reverie when shelling fresh black-eyed peas. Succotash ... you're next!
Posted by: Alanna | October 08, 2007 at 11:54 AM
I am so trying to learn how to cook with beans. I am definitely coming back for this recipe.
Posted by: Pieds Des Anges (Kyla) | October 08, 2007 at 06:37 PM
I'm so glad you posted about this. It was so much fun to talk your ear off last weekend; next time, I think we should get to the bottom of that bakers' muffin, once and for all.
Posted by: deb | October 08, 2007 at 08:42 PM
As a recent convert to limas I have to concur that they're highly underrated. Now I need to try cranberry beans.
Posted by: Lisa (Homesick Texan) | October 09, 2007 at 09:34 AM
My mother often made succotash but never with beans only corn with peppers, tomatoes and okra. I knew that this wasn't the original recipe, and often wondered about the origins of the dish and the name. Thanks for the history lesson!
Posted by: Mari | October 09, 2007 at 11:03 AM
Julie - you've got me pegged! I've become a bean lover in my adult years, but I have still shied away from lima beans. I have to say though your succotash looks very tempting! I think I'd have to make due with the dried lima beans though as I'd have a tough time finding shelling beans around here.
Posted by: Cathy | October 09, 2007 at 09:39 PM
why oh why do I find horrible errors in my comments the moment I post them? I meant (of course) "make do" not "make due". Arggh!
Posted by: Cathy | October 09, 2007 at 09:40 PM
Alanna -- Now, of course, I'm going to have to try fresh black-eyed peas -- when I can find them!
Kyla -- this is a great way to start out with fresh beans, but it's definitely got its seasonal limitations. Time's running out!
Deb -- I was at City Bakery the other day. Didn't get the baker's muffin, but that apple miso muffin really hits the spot -- as does my favorite chocolate tart.
Lisa, cranberry beans are great too. I recently put them in a dish I think you'd like -- a pork stew with tomatillos and serrano chilies.
Mari, your mother's combination sounds pretty delicious too. I need to explore okra a little further...
Awww, Cathy -- you know typos are no problem here. Sometimes I cringe when I go over my old posts! Try good quality frozen baby limas -- they'll be closer to fresh than the dried beans, which are also delicious.
Posted by: Julie | October 10, 2007 at 08:28 AM
I love beans...they are one of my favorite thing to eat. The different colors, shapes, and flavors are amazing.
Posted by: Jessica | October 10, 2007 at 09:35 AM
Awwwww, babygirl, you know how to get me where I live. Lima beans were my favorite vedge when I was a kid, and I still love 'em today. The smell of a lima fresh from the pod makes my toes curl.
Last Saturday, at the market, I found fresh okra. If it's still there this weekend, I'm thinking of making the succotash recipe Laurie Colwin gives in More Home Cooking (onion, red pepper, beans, corn, okra, a little ground ginger). Lloyd and I are going to Mystic for our anniversary next week, so I can't cook anything big & fancy this weekend, but I figure a little pot of succotash will carry us nicely through the weekend.
Silly me. I go on and on without telling you how beautiful this post is. This post is beautiful.
Posted by: Bakerina | October 11, 2007 at 08:36 AM
Guess what Julie! They had both limas and cranberry beans at my little (3 stands) local farmers market! I didn't recognize the limas and only found out what they were when I asked while paying for my purchase, so I didn't get any (I've way overbought for the week), but I did come home with the cranberry beans which I'm fixing for lunch. If the limas are there next week I promise I'll buy some :)
Posted by: Cathy | October 13, 2007 at 01:01 PM
Heya Julie - I love this kind of food. Maybe it's nerdy to be a bean freak but a bean freak I am. I think the term "3 Sisters" is also used because the three crops benefited growing together (the beans would grow up the corn stalks and provide nitrogen for the other plants and the squash would fan out and help suffocate any weeds.) Just another reason for the old saying "what grows together goes together."
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