Wednesday, November 11, 2009

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.

Slow-Cooked Florida Speckled Butter Beans and Sorrel made the Foodbuzz Top 9 today! The Foodbuzz Top 9 is a photo-driven collection of top-buzzed posts within the Foodbuzz community.  Congratulations again, and thanks for being a part of Foodbuzz!  Cheers, The Foodbuzz Editorial Team.

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17 comments:

  1. woo, FL shout out! ;) haha, but seriously, i would love to be chowing down on your dish right now. so comforting and classic. they taste like home.

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  2. I really love your photos, and I have never tried speckled beans! I've been trying to eat less meat and incorporate more vegetarian dishes into my meals so I enjoy coming here and looking at your recipes. Thanks for sharing :)

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  3. There's something about bean stews that is soooo luscious and warm. Pics are great as usual, too! Thank you!

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  4. coming to a close? oh no! i do love a nice long recipe that tastes like it took all day (and it did) but not really, since active time is miniscule. on the short list for this week for sure...

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  5. I love butter beans so much, and butter bean soup is one of my favorite things. I usually do it with rosemary, but I've never cooked with sorrel and now I am super intrigued!

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  6. Sounds wonderful, and I'm so jealous of your garden!

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  7. wowsers, SIX hours?! That would be very trying for a girl like me, but I think I'd be up for the challenge :) Your dish looks wonderful!

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  8. those speckled beans look soooo pretty! must give this a try!

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  9. Oh that is so delicious. I know I haven't tasted this yet.

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  10. Wow! Yummy bean dish. I keep on forgetting to soak my lima beans!

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  11. If you had a pressure cooker, you could cook those beans in 30 minutes!

    Check out my post on Lima Beans w/Ham. I know it's not vegetarian, but I often make beans this way without meat.

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  12. Beautiful, healthy, delicious... I could eat this everyday!

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  13. Interesting post! Love your recipe and will try it one of these day. Cheers.

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  14. During the chilly season here in Colorado, I cook dry beans and peas a lot. Nice idea to use sorrel. Will have to try it.

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  15. Delicious! And congrats on top 9!

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