Category: Meals

Doublable Beans

Ingredients:

red onion
walnut or olive oil
salt
balsamic vinegar
capers
black pepper
Lima beans

Chop a large red onion into slivers, and put into a mixing bowl along with a teaspoon of highly-flavoured walnut or olive oil, a quarter teaspoon of salt, a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, a dozen capers cut into quarters, and some freshly ground black pepper. Mix well, cover, and allow to stand at room temperature while you cook the beans.
Have soaked two cups/300 grams of fine dried Lima beans (Phaseolus lunatus) overnight in water to cover. Cook them, adding boiling water only as necessary, until they are very soft.
Drain the beans gently in a colander. With a slotted spoon, pick out about a quarter of the total volume of whole and attractive beans, and put them while they are still hot in the vinegar and onion mixture. Mix gently.
Stir the remaining liquid that the beans cooked in over a brisk flame until it is reduced by half. Mash the rest of the beans coarsely with a fork, mixing in a little of the reduced cooking liquor. Keep the consistency stiff. Gently mix the result with the vinegar, onion and bean preparation. Adjust the seasoning, but remember that it is probably going to taste saltier when it has cooled.
You can serve some of this in radicchio or forced endive leaves, endives Belgiques, while still warm, but the real glory of the dish is not realized until it has been refrigerated overnight. Then it can be used to fill sandwiches of any description, or served with hot pita bread or crackers.
This is a favourite for victualling a walk in the woods.

Notes:

Recipe Index

More Meals:

Polenta Bombe |  Black Bean Buns  | Cool Dumplings in Hot Sauce | One Pot Hot | Black Bean Pie |  Straight from the Pot | Homely Ravioli  | Lima Bean Stew  | Cabbage Rolls with Kasha and Lentils | Timbale of Lentils and Rice | Panisse Euclid |