Basic cooked shell beans

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cateory: preparation_method

Basic cooked shell beans

Reviews: 198

Ingredients:

3 cups freshly shelled beans;
11⁄2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more to taste;
1 medium onion, quartered, leaving the root attached to hold the wedges together;
1 carrot, cut into chunks;
2 stalks celery, cut into chunks;
1 bay leaf;
3 short thyme sprigs;
3 whole cloves;
2 tablespoons extravirgin olive oil, butter, or bacon drippings;
Ground black pepper, to taste.

How to make
Basic cooked shell beans

Rinse the beans thoroughly in several changes of water to remove any bits of hull and stickiness. When the water runs clear, transfer into a large saucepan and add enough cold water to cover the beans by 1 inch. Stir in the salt, onion, carrot, celery, bay leaf, thyme, and cloves. Bring to a boil, skim off the foam, reduce the heat, and simmer until tender, 15 to 40 minutes, depending on the size and freshness of the beans. The beans must stay submerged, so add a little more water if needed. Taste and add more salt if needed. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside for at least 15 minutes to give the beans time to absorb the salt. Discard the onion, carrot, celery, bay leaf, thyme sprigs, and cloves. Stir in the fat. Season with pepper and more salt, if needed.
If you are going to eat the beans now, you can drain them or leave them in the tasty liquid. Serve warm. If you are going to store the beans to eat later or use in another recipe, leave them in the liquid. Let cool, then cover and refrigerate for up to 3 days.
Tips and Techniques. The combination of onion, bay leaf, and cloves is popular in classical cooking, but finding the small leaf and tiny cloves to remove before serving is like the proverbial needle in a haystack. To simplify the search, use the whole cloves as thumbtacks to attach the bay leaf to a wedge of onion. When you fish out the onion, the small bits come with it.

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Basic cooked shell beans