Getting Fancy with Fava Beans
30 Jul 2007
Fava Bean & Cream Cheese Rotollos
Adapted from The Produce Bible's Fava Bean Rotollo with salad greens
Makes 6 to 7 bite sized pieces
1 lb fava beans in their pods
1 clove garlic, crushed.
2 t olive oil
1 t butter
3 eggs
2 T fresh basil, roughly chopped
3 T plain cream cheese
manchego cheese (or parmesan)
salt & pepper to taste
Remove the fava beans from their pods. Bring a pot of water with a touch of salt in it to a boil. Add the favas and cook for about 2 minutes. Then, remove from the heat and run under cold water. Squeeze each bean until it pops out of it's thick skin.
In a small skillet, heat 1 t of olive oil, and add the garlic. Cook for about 1 minute, and add the fava beans. Saute for about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
Preheat the oven to 315F.
Whisk the eggs together with about 1/2 of the basil and a bit of salt an pepper, and set aside.
Line a baking sheet with parchment and set close by the stove.
Place a large, heavy bottomed skillet on the stove on high till hot. Now, turn down the heat to medium-high, and add the butter and allow it to melt. Add the remaining olive oil and stir to combine. Pour the egg mixture into the center of the skillet, trying to create a fairly circular and thin layer, a bit thicker than a crepe. It doesn't need to reach the sides of the pan. Cook until the whole egg mixture is set on the bottom. It will still be a bit runny inside, but just a little. Then, carefully slide the flat egg disc onto the parchment with the wet side up, close to the bottom edge of the parchment.
Dot the egg with the cream cheese, and sprinkle the whole thing with the favas, remaining basil and a bit of salt and pepper. Grate the manchego cheese all over, making sure you get plenty on the sides. Then, using the parchment as a guide, carefully roll the whole thing up as tightly as you can. Then, roll into the parchment, and carefully fold under the ends to keep it in the log shape and place in the center of the baking sheet.
Bake for 10 minutes. Unwrap and allow to cool slightly on a rack with the seam down for a few minutes.
Carefully remove the roll from the parchment. Slice into rounds.
These are tasty served on their own, perhaps on toothpicks, or with some fresh romaine hearts, drizzled with a good olive oil, salt and toasted pine nuts.
(In case you were wondering, I am an Amazon affiliate, and purchases from links in this post to Amazon may earn me a nickel or two... so thanks!).
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30 Jul 2007
So, I had these fava beans. And I needed to figure out what to do with them. When I bought them at the market, I was going to do a simple mashed fava bean spread for some little grilled toasts. Simple and yummy. And, quick, if you discount the time it takes to prepare the fava beans in the first place.
Prepping favas is one of those things that is really more work than it should be. There are two steps of shelling: once from the big pods, and then once from the beans themselves. If they weren't so darn tasty, I'd never bother. Particularly, since I can never quite remember how to do the second step... do I start with boiling water or cool water, how long to I boil, etc. It's not that it's hard... it's just that some information just never sticks in my head, and how to prepare fava beans is one of them. So, I turned to my trusty produce bible to refresh my memory and there was this recipe for fava bean rotollos.
It's not the kind of recipe that I am normally inclined to make. Not that there is anything wrong with the ingredients... fresh basil, some cheese, eggs and favas. You really can't go wrong there. It would make a great omelet. Which in fact, is basically what the rotollos are. They are just a super-fancy omelet. A kind of omelet with an updo. An omelet that is, perhaps, trying just a little to hard to be something special, when it would be pretty special as it is. But then, we can all use a little fancy in our lives now and then, even if it isn't at all necessary, right? So the rotollos got to be my fancy for the day.
Really, they aren't much harder to make than your standard 3-egg omelet and it is kind of fun to be able to eat an omelet with your fingers, just popping one after another of the bite-sized pieces into your mouth. There's a bit more time for the baking after the egg is initially set in the skillet, but the rolling is even easier than trying to get the perfect omelet flip in the pan. The combination of cream cheese, fava beans, basil and machego cheese is delectable, but I can imagine using this same basic recipe with all kinds of interesting fillings. Lox, capers and cream cheese for a start. Or, maybe make a sweet concoction of tart pie cherries and mascarpone, all rolled into a slightly sweetened egg batter. Hmm. In fact, I might just have to go get fancy again right now.
Fava Bean & Cream Cheese Rotollos
Adapted from The Produce Bible's Fava Bean Rotollo with salad greens
Makes 6 to 7 bite sized pieces
1 lb fava beans in their pods
1 clove garlic, crushed.
2 t olive oil
1 t butter
3 eggs
2 T fresh basil, roughly chopped
3 T plain cream cheese
manchego cheese (or parmesan)
salt & pepper to taste
Remove the fava beans from their pods. Bring a pot of water with a touch of salt in it to a boil. Add the favas and cook for about 2 minutes. Then, remove from the heat and run under cold water. Squeeze each bean until it pops out of it's thick skin.
In a small skillet, heat 1 t of olive oil, and add the garlic. Cook for about 1 minute, and add the fava beans. Saute for about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
Preheat the oven to 315F.
Whisk the eggs together with about 1/2 of the basil and a bit of salt an pepper, and set aside.
Line a baking sheet with parchment and set close by the stove.
Place a large, heavy bottomed skillet on the stove on high till hot. Now, turn down the heat to medium-high, and add the butter and allow it to melt. Add the remaining olive oil and stir to combine. Pour the egg mixture into the center of the skillet, trying to create a fairly circular and thin layer, a bit thicker than a crepe. It doesn't need to reach the sides of the pan. Cook until the whole egg mixture is set on the bottom. It will still be a bit runny inside, but just a little. Then, carefully slide the flat egg disc onto the parchment with the wet side up, close to the bottom edge of the parchment.
Dot the egg with the cream cheese, and sprinkle the whole thing with the favas, remaining basil and a bit of salt and pepper. Grate the manchego cheese all over, making sure you get plenty on the sides. Then, using the parchment as a guide, carefully roll the whole thing up as tightly as you can. Then, roll into the parchment, and carefully fold under the ends to keep it in the log shape and place in the center of the baking sheet.
Bake for 10 minutes. Unwrap and allow to cool slightly on a rack with the seam down for a few minutes.
Carefully remove the roll from the parchment. Slice into rounds.
These are tasty served on their own, perhaps on toothpicks, or with some fresh romaine hearts, drizzled with a good olive oil, salt and toasted pine nuts.
(In case you were wondering, I am an Amazon affiliate, and purchases from links in this post to Amazon may earn me a nickel or two... so thanks!).
blog comments powered by Disqus
Lara Ferroni is a former tech geek turned food geek who spends her days exploring the food culture of the Pacific Northwest. As a food writer and photographer, you might spy her learning to make kim chee in the back rooms of a local church, foraging for wild berries, or snapping away in the some of the Seattle and Portland's finest kitchens. You can find her work in publications such as Epicurious.com, Gourmet.com, Edible Communities (Seattle, San Francisco), Seattle Magazine, Seattle Metropolitan as well as numerous cookbooks, including Doughnuts: Simple and Delicious Recipes to Make at Home.
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