French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [150]
HARICOTS À LA CRÈME
HARICOT BEANS WITH CREAM SAUCE
Having soaked the beans, drain them, put them in a saucepan amply covered with fresh water, add a bouquet; cook steadily for about 1 hours after the water has come to the boil. Add salt only during the final 10 minutes. Drain, reserving the liquid for soup. Remove the bouquet.
For lb. of beans, fry a couple of rashers of streaky bacon cut into little pieces, in a little extra fat or butter. Put in the beans with 2 tablespoons of meat stock or of the cooking liquid; heat gently; add 2 or 3 tablespoons of thick cream and a tablespoon of finely chopped parsley, and continue cooking until the sauce has thickened, shaking the pan rather than stirring, so as not to break the beans.
If you have a little left over roast lamb or pork, it can be used instead of the bacon.
HARICOTS BLANCS MAÎTRE D’HÔTEL
DRIED HARICOT BEANS WITH PARSLEY BUTTER
Soak the beans overnight in plenty of cold water. Drain them, put them in a saucepan and completely cover them with fresh cold water by about 2 inches.
For lb. beans, add a piece of salt breast of pork or streaky bacon weighing about lb. Put in a bayleaf and a sprig of thyme and, if you like, a crushed clove of garlic, tied together. Bring slowly to the boil and cook steadily, but not at a gallop, for 1 hours. Strain through a colander, reserving the cooking liquid. Remove the rind from the pork; cut it into small strips. Return the beans and pork to the saucepan and add just enough of their cooking liquid, or better still, if you have it, good meat stock, to keep them from sticking. About pint is enough. Heat them gently. When they are bubbling, stir in a tablespoon of parsley butter (butter worked with very finely chopped parsley and flavoured with lemon juice). Turn off the heat and shake the pan until the butter has melted and amalgamated with the sauce.
Serve either as a dish on its own or with sausages.
Half a pound of beans is enough for three people, but it is worth cooking rather more than one needs for one meal. The beans left over, sieved, and heated up with the rest of the cooking liquid, and possibly a little stock added, make a good soup.
HARICOTS À LA BRETONNE
DRIED HARICOT BEANS WITH ONIONS AND TOMATOES
This way of cooking beans makes a dish which is a good background for eggs as well as a useful vegetable to serve with all kinds of meat and sausages.
Half a pound of medium-sized dried white beans, previously soaked, are cooked in water to cover by about 2 inches, with the addition of an onion stuck with a clove, a carrot, a small piece of celery, a bouquet of thyme, parsley and bayleaf. Add salt only at the end. When they are tender, drain them, reserving the liquid. Chop the onion which has cooked with them and fry it in butter; add 2 peeled and chopped tomatoes, fry 2 minutes, dilute with a little of the reserved liquid. Add to the beans; reheat them gently, adding, if available, a little juice from a roast, or meat glaze.
HARICOTS AU VIN ROUGE
DRIED HARICOT BEANS WITH RED WINE
Soak lb. of white haricot beans, preferably the long kidney-shaped ones called Soissons, in cold water for 12 hours. Put them on to cook in about 1 pints of fresh cold water with a piece of salt pork or streaky bacon weighing about 6 oz., or if you like 3 oz each of pork and bacon. Add a bouquet of bayleaf, thyme and a crushed clove of garlic. Cook at a moderate pace for 1 to 1 hours. Take out the pork; drain the beans, reserving the liquid. In a mixture of butter and olive oil, fry a finely-sliced onion, then add the pork cut into little cubes. After a minute or so pour in half a tumbler of red wine. Let it bubble fast for half a minute. Put in the beans, stir them round and add a little of the cooking liquid. Cook gently about 10 minutes. Before serving stir