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in several waters. Only the coarse stalks should be removed. Cook in the usual way, in a large saucepan containing a small amount of already boiling water or, if you prefer the English system, with only the water left on the leaves after washing. Add salt only when the spinach has boiled down. Drain, and when cool squeeze as dry as possible, then sieve or chop finely. In a fireproof porcelain or enamel-lined saucepan, melt 2 oz. butter; stir in the spinach; when warm, add pepper, salt if necessary and a pinch of sugar. Stir in gradually about 4 oz. of boiling cream (use, if possible, double cream for this dish) and, if not to be served at once, cover the pan, put an asbestos mat underneath and turn the flame as low as possible to prevent the spinach from sticking to the pan. Served as a separate course, as it should be, this will serve four or five people. It is, I think, one of the most delicious vegetable dishes in the whole of French cookery. Any left over (but there seldom is any) can be reheated in a double boiler. A scrap of grated nutmeg can be included in the seasonings.

FÈVES AU BEURRE

BROAD BEANS WITH BUTTER

Cook very young broad beans exactly as for haricots verts au beurre, page 261, and serve them either as a separate dish or with a plain roast chicken. When they are fully grown, skin them after they are boiled and before heating them up in butter. In France, it is traditional to flavour broad beans with savory (sarriette), but this is a herb which is both peppery and bitter and, to my mind, spoils the flavour of the beans.

PURÉE DE FÈVES

PURÉE OF BROAD BEANS

The tender pods of very young broad beans make an excellent purée. Top and tail the pods, break them into chunks and cook them in boiling salted water, with a couple of diced potatoes. Strain off the liquid (which can be used for making a potato soup) and put the vegetables twice through the mouli. Heat up in a double saucepan with a lump of butter, seasonings and a scrap of sugar. Stir in a tablespoon or two of cream before serving.

This makes a good background to fried or poached eggs or to lamb cutlets.

FÈVES AU JAMBON

BROAD BEANS WITH HAM

Boil 2 lb. of shelled broad beans and strain them, keeping a little of the water in which they have cooked.

Make a béchamel sauce according to the recipe on page 114, using the reserved liquid instead of part of the milk. Enrich the sauce with 3 to 4 oz. of cream, and when it is ready stir in 2 oz. of cooked ham or of unsmoked gammon cut into small strips. Add the beans (skinned, if they are old ones). Let them get thoroughly hot; stir in a little chopped parsley.

This is a slightly more refined version of the well-known fèves au lard, in which salt pork or bacon is used instead of the ham. If either of these are to be used, the pork must first be boiled and the bacon fried until the fat starts to run.

LES HARICOTS BLANCS SECS

DRIED WHITE HARICOT BEANS

The dried white beans commonly sold in English grocers’ shops as haricot beans are small and of variable quality; they must be carefully chosen, preferably from a shop which has a large turnover so that there is little risk of their having been in stock for too long a period. Haricot beans should not be more than a year old, or they will be impossibly dry and hard. In a friend’s house in the country I was once asked to cook some haricot beans; after two days and two nights in the oven of the Aga they were still like little stones. I then thought to ask my hostess how long the beans had been in her store cupboard. ‘Oh, only about four years, I think,’ was the reply.

The new season’s beans come into the shops about October or November, and a variety sold under the brand name of ‘Trophy’ is one I have found reliable, but the best are the medium-sized oval ones called Soissons, which can be found in Soho shops, and these are the ones most commonly used in France for cassoulets and all haricot bean dishes. A variety called Arpajon, very small and round, are rather more like the kind known to us as haricot beans.

Early in the season