Fresh Cranberry Beans

It's always a pleasure to stop by the strawberry farm along Hwy 12 to buy some fresh-from-the-fields sweet, juicy, gorgeous strawberries. Now they also have a selection of veggies that they have grown right there in the fields by the Laguna. Recently they had a bag of fresh cranberry beans for sale. I've never cooked with fresh cranberry beans. In fact I've rarely cooked with fresh shelling beans of any kind, but I've been trying to add whole grains and legumes to my diet and this seemed like a great thing to add.

A quick surf on the Internet yielded a recipe for a salad made with the beans, herbs, cherry tomatoes, red onion, cucumber, and and olive oil and red wine vinegar dressing. The beans are cooked until tender at a simmer and you add things like celery tops and carrots (which get discarded) to give the beans more flavor as they cook.

I really liked the flavor combo when I made the salad as written, but it needed more vinegar since the beans, as beans often are, were bland. We have also cut back on the oil we use both in cooking and at the table, so I would reduce the olive oil by two-thirds. There was waaaay more oil than I like.

Shelling the beans was sort of relaxing. Sweetie helped me and we were sitting outside with the dog enjoying the summer day as we worked. They are really pretty beans. The pods are streaked with dark pink and the beans look like porcelain, with ivory background and dark pink streaks. When they cook they turn sort of gray so enjoy them while you shell them.

Some of the pods had started to dry out so I kept them intact and laid the pods out on the porch railing in full sun to dry completely. Now I have about 1/2 cup dried beans, too.

The bag of beans yielded about 3 1/2 cups total. I cooked 3 cups of beans and used 2 cups for the salad. Now I get to try them in another recipe, as long as it only needs 1 cup cooked beans. For now, here is the promised Cranberry Bean Salad with Cucumbers, Tomatoes and Herbs.

Cranberry Bean Salad
Insalata di Fagioli Borlotti
from La Tavola Marche
serves 4

2 cups fresh borlotti or cranberry beans
couple of handfuls of cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 medium red onion, sliced thinly
1 cucumber, peeled & sliced
fresh herbs of your choice, chopped: marjoram, oregano, Italian parsley or basil work well
4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive
salt pepper
vegetable scraps

In a pot with plenty of water, bring the beans to a boil with vegetable scraps: celery tops, dried out carrots, half an onion sitting in your fridge - toss it in! (The veggies give the beans a bit more flavor.)

Bring to boil then lower to simmer 20-30 minutes until the beans are tender.

Drain beans and discard the vegetables.

In a bowl combine the beans, tomatoes, onion, cucumber. Add in the herbs.

Combine the oil & vinegar then toss with the salad.

Season with salt & pepper.

Let stand 10-15 minutes to let the flavors come together. Recheck your seasonings (taste it) and adjust. Serve.

I would recommend increasing the vinegar by 1 tablespoon and decreasing the oil by two-thirds because the beans need that ooomph of vinegar and I don't like so much oil in my salads. Otherwise it worked perfectly...I went with fresh oregano, Italian parsley and basil for my herbs.

Greek Omelet for Breakfast

This morning seemed like a good one to try out a recipe that I had been thinking about. I wanted to see if i could combine some Greek flavors in an omelet.

First I toasted a tablespoon of pine nuts in a small dry cast iron skillet. A few sprigs of fresh oregano from the garden were washed and minced. A couple of tablespoons of feta cheese were crumbled. About 1/4 cup of spinach was chopped, steamed and then squeezed dry in paper towels. Some of that delicious Stonyfield farms plain Oikos Greek style yogurt was ready for topping the omelet. I used three eggs worth of egg substitute, but three eggs, lightly scrambled in a bowl would work, too.

This made an absolutely delicious breakfast omelet! It was light and fluffy and full of savory goodness. the yogurt tied it all together.

This also made the perfect dish to enter into the "O Foods for Ovarian Cancer Awareness" event and contest. Since I lost a dear niece to ovarian cancer a few years ago I know how terrible this disease is. There are no obvious warning signs so it is often not diagnosed until very late. We miss J so much!

Be sure to visit Michelle at Bleeding Espresso to learn more about this event, but you can also go to the bottom of this post. Even if you are not interested in entering the event, remember that this is a silent killer. The end of the post also has the symptoms and a way to support Ovarian Cancer Research.

Greek Omelet
serves 1

1 tablespoon pine nuts
1 teaspoon butter or olive oil
3 eggs, lightly scrambled, or equivalent amount of egg substitute
1/4 cup chopped, steamed spinach, squeezed dry in a towel or paper towels
1/2 teaspoon fresh oregano, minced, or 1/8 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon feta cheese, crumbled
salt and pepper to taste
Stonyfield Farms plain Greek style Oikos yogurt

In a dry small cast iron skillet over high heat, toast the pine nuts until lightly browned in places, stirring often. Set aside.

In hot skillet, melt the butter or heat the oil. Add the eggs and let sit for a half minute, then with a fork move the cooked eggs into the center of the pan, letting the uncooked eggs flow to the outer edges. Add the spinach, oregano and feta cheese to the pan, salt and pepper to taste, then cover and cook for another 20 seconds. Uncover, use fork to fold omelet in half and slide it onto a plate. The eggs should be golden brown.

Garnish with a couple of tablespoons of the Oikos yogurt and then sprinkle with the pine nuts. Serve at once while hot.

CONTEST RULES
O Foods Contest for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, and for the second year in a row, Sara of Ms Adventures in Italy and Michelle of Bleeding Espresso are hosting the O Foods Contest to raise awareness of this important health issue.

There are TWO WAYS to take part in the O Foods Contest:

ONE: Post a recipe to your blog using a food that starts or ends with the letter O (e.g., oatmeal, orange, okra, octopus, olive, onion, potato, tomato); include this entire text box in the post; and send your post url along with a photo (100 x 100) to ofoods[at]gmail[dot]com by 11:59 pm (Italy time) on Monday, September 28, 2009.

PRIZES for recipe posts:

1st: Signed copy of Dolce Italiano: Desserts from the Babbo Kitchen by Gina DePalma, Executive Pastry Chef of Babbo Ristorante in NYC, who is currently battling ovarian cancer, inspired this event, and will be choosing her favorite recipe for this prize;
2nd: Signed copy of Molto Italiano: 327 Simple Italian Recipes to Cook at Home by Mario Batali (winner chosen by Sara);
3rd: Signed copy of Vino Italiano: The Regional Italian Wines of Italy by Joseph Bastianich (winner chosen by Michelle).

OR

TWO: If you’re not into the recipe thing, simply post this entire text box in a post on your blog to help spread the word and send your post url to ofoods[at]gmail[dot]com by 11:59 pm (Italy time) on Monday, September 28, 2009.

Awareness posts PRIZE:
One winner chosen at random will receive a Teal Toes tote bag filled with ovarian cancer awareness goodies that you can spread around amongst your friends and family.
———
From the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund:
Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from gynecologic cancers in the United States and is the fifth leading cause of cancer death among U.S. women; a woman’s lifetime risk of ovarian cancer is 1 in 67.

The symptoms of ovarian cancer are often vague and subtle, making it difficult to diagnose, but include bloating, pelvic and/or abdominal pain, difficulty eating or feeling full quickly; and urinary symptoms (urgency or frequency).

There is no effective screening test for ovarian cancer but there are tests which can detect ovarian cancer when patients are at high risk or have early symptoms.

In spite of this, patients are usually diagnosed in advanced stages and only 45% survive longer than five years. Only 19% of cases are caught before the cancer has spread beyond the ovary to the pelvic region.

When ovarian cancer is detected and treated early on, the five-year survival rate is greater than 92%.

And remember, you can also always donate to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund at our page through FirstGiving!

Please help spread the word about ovarian cancer.Together we can make enough noise to kill this silent killer.