Aah Beans

I love a good bean, actually I love good beans - french, round, green, snake, broad, sprouts - all fresh, crisp and delicious. Sometimes when I think about what’s for dinner and there’s beans involved I get that “Oh yes” feeling. 

You might just be thinking “how can someone get excited over a bean?”  Ah, this is a question that needs to be answered... so, I’m going to be your bean counter...

BEANS NUMBER 1

Green beans topped and tailed, then steamed and served with whole rich roasted cherry tomatoes and garlic, topped with fresh shavings of parmesan freshly ground pepper

BEANS NUMBER 2

Broad beans shelled, blanched, chilled and then combined with finely sliced fresh fennel dressed with lemon juice, salt and fruity olive oil

BEANS NUMBER 3

Snake beans blanched then plunged into iced water to stop the cooking. To go with this -fresh chopped cherry tomatoes, dried shrimps, roasted peanuts, splash of fish sauce, a little sugar and a good squeeze of lime, all thrown into a mortar and bashed with a pestle to release the flavours. Mix this with the drained beans. Wow...

BEANS NUMBER 4

Fresh crunchy bean sprouts - you’ve got to get them fresh and use them straight away -  they turn soggy, rank and inedible very quickly.

Fry cubes of soft tofu with finely chopped garlic, ginger and red chilli until tofu is brown. Throw in spring onion chopped into 4cm lengths with a glug of oyster sauce, a splash of water and then mix through crunchy bean sprouts. Squeeze a little lime juice over for taste

I could go on, but you get the idea. Beans are grand, beans are fab, beans are just the best. 

Anybody else have a bean story - beans number 5, 6, 7 and more? I’d love you to share.