.......a couple of days ago I harvested my Borlottis and made a half-remembered dish with them....onion, chilli, beans, ham from the hock + the ham bone + for the last 10mns or so, filled pasta with ham..was gr8!!!
So.....any chance that I can repeat it using the big beans from shelled runner beans, anybody know?
PS and if not....what on earth can I do with them? ::) ;D
Thanks
Don't know what to cook (I am a real beginner when it comes to cooking).
But what ever you do, make sure they are thoroughly cooked otherwise you could make yourself ill.
http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,55296.msg562536.html#msg562536 (http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,55296.msg562536.html#msg562536)
we use them in soups and stews, lovely :)
I've occasionally eaten a few very fresh mature runner seeds raw without ill effects - I've done this several times but I would NOT recommend eating more than 2 or 3 in 24 hours even if you're a big adult with a cast iron digestion like me.
They taste like rehydrated peanuts but definitely treat with respect.
It's interesting that they taste as good as borlotti and pea/bicolour beans. I find they also as good or better when cooked.
The levels of phytohaemoglutinin are probably higher in mature beans and may be higher still in dried beans.
Kidney beans are worse by a large factor.
All these food beans are entirely safe when boiled to tenderness.
Incidentally my research threw up one interesting fact - they have to be cooked above 80C or the problem is unaffected - there's even a suggestion that using a slow cooker without boiling them first could make the problem worse.
The big raw beans from inside runner beans can go straight into soups stews or similar and can be frozen. Almost every one on our allotments do this and I know when I was a kid. Any beans which were big and stringy we always took the beans out and added them to the tender green slices to use as a vegetable, the colours looked good on the plate.
The only thing I do with dried ones is keep them for planting next year and I can not discover for absolute certain if the chemical change occurs in them which makes it necessary to boil them for ages, if they are used for food.
A lot of people say things like 'I think so' but we can all say that.
I cannot find any prepacked anywhere with cooking instructions on either and have been looking for years, more out of curiosity than anything else.