Slow-Cooked Florida Speckled Butter Beans and Sorrel

Sadly, lima bean season is coming to an end.  Eating freshly picked butter beans for the last few months has been a revelation and the limas will be sorely missed.  To celebrate the last big harvest of the year, we use a slow Mediterranean cooking technique to highlight the rich buttery flavor of these beans.  Sorrel freshly-picked from the garden adds a mellow lemony flavor.  This is a weekend recipe -- total cooking time approaches six hours although the active time is barely 20 minutes.

Slow-Cooked Florida Speckled Butter Beans and Sorrel
serves 4 - 6

Ingredients

1      cup      fresh Florida Speckled Butter Beans
                   (or other fresh lima beans),
                   removed from pods
4      Tbs     olive oil
2       cups   vegetable stock
2                 onions, sliced thinly
5                 garlic cloves, sliced thinly
1                 dried red chile (small), diced
                   (we used a dried cayenne from the garden)
1                 bay leaf
1      cup      sorrel, thick stems removed and blanched
                   (about 2 cups when fresh)
                   salt and black pepper to taste

Procedure

1. In a big pot of boiling water, cook beans about 10 minutes.  Drain.
2. Put beans back in same pot, cover with fresh water, and simmer for 1 hour.
3. While beans are cooking, combine onions, garlic and chile with 3 Tbs olive oil in a 2 qt. pyrex dish.  Mix well, cover with aluminum foil, and bake at 300 for one hour.
4. When beans are done, drain and add to onion mixture in the pyrex dish.  Add vegetable stock and bay leaf.  Return to oven, covered, for one more hour.
5. Saute the blanched sorrel in 1 Tbs olive oil until soft and set aside.
   
6. When beans have been in the oven one hour, remove from oven and add sorrel.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Return to oven, uncovered, and bake 15 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and let sit 3 hours before eating to allow flavors to develop.  Keep at room temperature -- do not refrigerate.
8. Serve with cheese bread and thick Greek yogurt.

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