'Willpower & sheer idiocy combine in harmony'
I LOVE tomatoes and runner beans. Trouble is, they both tend to come in gluts. These recipes are easy and adaptable so you don't waste a thing.
Dealing with tomato & runner bean gluts
Simply roasted runner beans
2lbs (1kg) runner beans
Enough extra-virgin olive oil to coat beans
1 teaspoon sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Preheat oven to 200 degrees C, Gas Mark 6.
Wash, dry and top and tail beans, removing any strings.
Put beans on a baking tray and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
Make sure the beans are evenly coated and spread out into one layer.
Roast for 20-25 minutes, turning after 15 minutes, until beans have brown spots - this may sound odd, but they taste great.
Antipasto runner beans
IT'S a bit of a cheat this one, but one I found by accident. I roasted a massive tin of runner beans, far too many for us to eat, so I let them cool and put them in the fridge.
Turns out they're brilliant cold, the flavours really develop, especially on the beans that have been cooked long enough to get brown patches (the sugars inside are caramelising).
They make a lovely antipasto ingredient - serve them with sunblush tomatoes, salami, olives and ciabatta for lunch or a sharing first course.
ALLOW approximately 6oz (150g) of trimmed beans per person.
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
North Shields smoked garlic sea salt* (or ordinary will do)
Freshly ground black pepper
Good sprinkling paprika
4-6oz (100-150g) freshly grated Parmesan cheese (Pecorino Romano or Gran Padano will work)
Preheat oven to 220 degrees C, or Gas Mark 7. Line a baking tray with foil. Top and tail the beans, and then put them in a freezer bag.
Pour the oil into the bag, then add the salt, pepper and paprika. Shake the bag to make sure everything is mixed and covered with oil.
Leave the mixture to marinate for 15-20 minutes (or while your oven heats up).
Pour the mixture evently on to the tray and bake for 10 minutes. Shake the tray again to turn them, then give them another five minutes.
Remove from oven, grate cheese over the top and serve.
*For stockists and more information, log on to www.boulevardcuisine.co.uk
Parmesan roasted runner beans
Basic tomato paste for the freezer
After 15 minutes: the bigger, riper fruits have split, encourage the others to do likewise with a masher.
A few hours later and reduced to a paste.
NECESSITY was the mother of invention here - I had little space to store big pots or jars of sauce. The idea is to make it really concentrated, so it takes up as little space as possible in the freezer.
Odori: one onion, carrot, stick of celery, finely chopped; bunch flat-leaved parsley, chopped; 1-3 cloves garlic, according to taste
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3lbs ripe tomatoes, washed
Salt, pepper and sugar (optional), to taste
In a wide, shallow non-stick stockpot, fry the odori in the oil over a medium heat until soft.
Add small tomatoes whole or roughly chop large fruits, removing any hard core. Allow the whole fruits to pop their skins and cook down a little on a medium heat, then with a potato masher, gently squash the fruit to extract their juice (Don't go mad, or you'll get it in your eye. It stings, I know.)
Season with salt and pepper. If your tomatoes are very acidic or (heaven forbid) the tasteless supermarket variety, a large pinch of sugar will balance acidity or boost flavour.
Leave to reduce on a very low heat with the pan lid off for a couple of hours, stirring occasionally, until as thick as chutney.
Pack into boxes, cool completely, label and freeze. A box the size of a Chinese takeaway carton will serve a family as a sauce base for pasta - remember, it's very concentrated.
Drying beans for winter storage
IF you live in a dry climate, you can let the bean pods mature and dry on the plants, but that's rarely possible in the UK.
The full-grown pods should turn yellow and dry, but if the weather is damp in October and mould becomes a problem, dig up the whole plant and hang it upside down in a warm place to dry.
I use the paired beans to hang over staging in the conservatory to dry.
A word of caution – dried beans have a concentration of the toxin lectin phytohaemagglutinin that must be removed by cooking.
A recommended method is to boil the beans for at least 10 minutes; undercooked beans may be more toxic than raw ones.
Flatulence caused by beans can be eased by cooking them with summer savory, anise, coriander or cumin!
To reconstitute, remove discoloured and shrivelled beans or debris.
Put them into a bowl approximately three times the size of the quantity you have to allow for expansion.
Cover with water and leave overnight. Add a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda if you live in a hard water area – DO NOT add salt.
When the beans have reconstituted, rinse them thoroughly a couple of times with clean water then cover with fresh water, bring to the boil and simmer until they’re soft-ish – start trying them after about an hour.
If they are still hard or gritty, give them another 30 minutes.
Dried beans will keep in an airtight jar for at least a year, and you can safely germinate a new crop from two-year-old saved beans.
