Recipe: Several Recipes Using Fava Bean for VAL

Cordero con Habas (Lamb & Fresh Fava Beans)
Yield: 6 Servings
Posted 10-17-93 by D. PILEGGI on F-Cooking

2 c Water
3 lb Lamb shank or breast of lamb, cut into 3" pieces
2 c Water
3 lb Fresh fava beans
1 ts Salt, or to taste
2 ts Sugar
4 Scallions, sliced into 1/2" pieces

Cook the lamb in 2 cups of water over moderate heat for 5 minutes, stirring several times. Drain well to remove excess fat. Add the 2 remaining cups of water to the pan, cover, and cook over low heat for 1 hour. This should tenderize the lamb. Trim the fava bean pods on both ends. Cut the pods into 3 equal pieces. Add them to the lamb with the salt, sugar, and scallions. Cover the pan and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes, or until the favas are tender. Adjust the salt. The preparation of this Passover dish exemplifies the Turkish preference for the natural taste of ingredients. Only the simplest of seasoning are used here to allow the flavor of the favas to dominate.

Fava Beans And Linguica Stew
Yield: 4 Servings
Source : Recipe by RUTH ANN SANTOS

4 c fava beans; shelled
1 c linguica and bacon; sliced
1/2 onion; minced
2 cloves garlic; crushed
salt to taste
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tb sugar
hot chili pepper to taste
1 sprig mint; chopped

Shell beans. In a saucepan, fry linguica (Brazilian sausage) and bacon, add onion, garlic, pepper and mint, saute, then add fava beans. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Add hot water slowly, just enough to cover beans, add paprika, sugar and salt. Cover and simmer until bans are tender. Beans turn brown when done. If you like poached eggs in with the beans, add eggs when beans are almost done. Serve over toast. Serves 3 to 4.

Fabada -- Asturian Ham And Beans
Yield: 1 Servings
From: "Cooking in Spain" by Janet Mendel

1/2 kg fabes (dried white beans, fava beans))
400 g morcilla
400 g chorizo, smoked
400 g cured pork hand (shoulder) or ham
100 g streaky salt pork
1/2 tsp saffron
1 bay leaf

"This is Spain's most famous bean dish, wonderfully flavoured, robust food from the northern regions. The fabes are big, fat white beans which cook up soft without disintegrating. Where unavailable, substitute the bigger dried lima beans or butter beans, or any large white bean. The morcilla and chorizo should be, if possible, from Asturias, where they are oak-smoked. Lacon is cured pork hand. If not available, use ham. Salt beef, salt-cured pig trotters and hard longaniza sausage are also used.

The day before; put the beans to soak in plenty of water. Put the lacon or ham to soak overnight in hot water. blanch the salt pork in boiling water for five minutes. The following day: wash the sausages to eliminate excess smokiness. Drain the beans and put in an earthenware casserole or large cooking pot and add water to a depth of two fingers. On a hot fire, bring to the boil and skim off the froth. Toast the saffron in a frying pan, crush it in a mortar and dissolve in a little water and add to the beans. Add the lacon, ham and salt pork to the casserole, pushing them to the bottom of the beans. Cover and cook five minutes and skim again. Now add the chorizo and morcilla, boil five minutes and skim. Add bay leaf, cover and cook very slowly, two or three hours. Add cold water occasionally just to keep the beans barely covered so they don't dry out and split. Do not stire, but shake the casserole from time to time. When beans are quite tender, let them sit for 20 minutes to blend and mellow the flavours. If too much liquid remains, puree some of the cooked beans in the blender and add them to the casserole to thicken the sauce. Serves 4