Cleaning out the freezer: fava bean soup

So, last week, it was pointed out to me that I'm not w riting as much as I used to. Of course, my saying that's true is kinda redundant, isn't it? Fact is, when you cook and eat seasonally, once you go through one season, you sort of repeat yourself. I mean, if you like roasted jerusalem artichokes, and you eat them in season, unless you have a new "WOW" approach to them, you'll repeat your recipe. Nuthin wrong with that as a matter of cooking. There IS something wrong with repeating the text of that recipe, over and over and over again. So, that's the reason for my absence: if I don't have something new to give you, why do you want to hear about the nineteenth time I made meatballs (Actually, I have a new meatball recipe to give you. Patience. But here's a hint. If you go find the meatLOAF recipe), you're on your way.

Going back to eating seasonally, it is about this time of year THAT I GET BLOODY TIRED OF IT. This is when I start saying that if I eat one more tuber, one more beet salad, one more fried parsnip, I will positively lose it. Somewhere around mid March, you will see me looking, enviously, at Peruvian asparagus and wondering "How bad could it be?" Yes, Annalena admits her weaknesses. Usually, I can get through them, but sometimes, well, no.

Thank God for freezers. One of the lessons we learned from our predecessors is to "put food by" for when there isn't any. Now, of course, we are in an age of surfeit, where none of us really have a situation where there is no food (I speak generally here, fully aware of economics of food and those who don't get any , or don't get enough). But there are times when "what's readily available," just doesn't work. I am fully aware of that, and I know enough about putting food by that I freeze the things we like that will stand freezing. And when we get to mid February, with April and the first fresh things really not that far away, it's time to start using them.
In the realm of vegetables, the aforementioned asparagus do not freeze well. Forget it. In fact, there aren't that many that do. Industrially frozen spinach is, of course, available and a horror. So is broccoli and, for that matter, asparagus. Avoid them. Peas are good, freezing them yourself is better. So, too, with corn. Shell beans freeze well. And so do fava beans, and that's where we turn now.

Fava beans are a vegetable which I've written about before as being a test: you have to like them a LOT, because they are a LOT of work. They come in these big, soft pods that are completely unusable for anything but compost. And the beans themselves have a shell on them that is frequently inedible and has to be peeled off. One way to do it is to drop them in boiling water, for a minute or two, and then ice water. Then pop them out. BUT.... I do it by freezing them, thawing them, and then popping them out of the thawed beans. This works really well, and I learned that the great Paula Wolfert does this too. If she does it, how bad can it be?

Over the summer, I froze over five pounds of fava beans. And they are sitting there in the freezer, staring at me reproachfully, because if I don't use them now, comes the spring, they will be neglected. So, out came two pounds for soup.

I am told that if you live near a Middle Eastern or Greek neighborhood, you can buy frozen or canned peeled fava beans. If you have access to this, by all means, use them. If not, do what I do and freeze them. Then thaw them and pop them out of the shells. Yield wise, you will not get many. A heart two pounds of fava beans is going to yield about 2 heaping cups of useful vegetable. This, however, is the hardest work you're going to do in making what is a really great soup that will remind you of spring.

You'll need a vegetable "mirepoix," so let's review: mirepoix is two parts onion, to one part carrot, to one part celery. With fava beans, which work so well with garlic, add three nice sized, peeled cloves to that mixture and either chop em fine, or as I do, use your food processor. As Madonna said "that's what it's for."

Since favas are really a Meditteranean thing, use olive oil for this soup. Slick a pot with good olive oil, and then add that mirepoix to it. Add a big teaspoon of salt and stir it up. If you happen to have some rosemary or thyme around, feel free to add a little. Thyme is better if you have both. When you see the water going off, then add two quarts of liquid. Now, here you have a dilemma. I like chicken stock, and I dilute it, half and half , with water, for this soup. If you are going completely vegetarian, I would suggest using just water, and perhaps the "savior" of vegetable soups everywhere, the rind of a parmesan cheese piece. Commercial vegetable stocks, in my opinion, are just vile. Or, you could do a quick stock by boiling a carrot, a peeled onion cut in quaraters and a few stalks of celery in two quarts of water, with salt, for fifteen minutes. It's really your call.

Once y ou add your liquid, add your beans. Lower the heat and simmer for about twenty minutes. The beans will not take that long to soften, but you DO need that time, because they are very dense.

While this is happening, if you want a more substantial soup, cook about a cup of small dry pasta in a separate pot. I used orzo because I had a box I needed to finish. Stelline, tubettini, quadratini, or any soup pasta (ask your Italian grocer), will know what you need. When the pasta is cooked, drain it and put it in lots of cold water, to cut the cooking. Otherwise, you won't have soup, you'll have "sop," because the pasta will soak up all of the broth.

DONE. Now, if you want to present this as a full, but light Mediterranean meal, perhaps some bread and cheese will be enough, and a salad of fennel with some blood oranges.

Cooking a meal like this is really the essence of simplicity, and it teaches you: plan. The favas will be in seaons soon, and the work you put in , in June, will reward you in February when you are so tired of celery root (although I'm not.. yet), that you just can't look at that gnarly beast for a while.