Fava Bean and Summer Squash Chickpea Flour Crepes

At last week's Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market, Camas Swale Farm brought a bounty of spring vegetables, including delicate summer squash and fat fave beans.

Fava beans are best when shelled from their pods

and then released from their slightly bitter and tough skins. Peeling fave beans  is a true labor of love, and after all that investment of work they should be treated with reverence.

I decided to pair them with lightly sautéed summer squash and fresh herbs as topping for chickpea flour crepes as a stovetop version of farinata. 

The batter is simply chickpea flour and water with a bit of salt and olive oil. I found that I needed to keep my crepe pan quite hot and use plenty of olive oil to prevent the crepes from sticking, but once I mastered this, the crepes proved to be the perfect canvas for the fava beans, and a delicious post-market treat.

Chickpea Flour Crepes with Fava Beans and Summer Squash

makes about 4 crepes

Crepe batter

1 cup chickpea flour

1 cup water

1/2 tsp salt

2 Tbsp olive oil for batter and more for cooking

Crepe toppings

handful of fave beans

1 or 3 small summer squash

1 Tbsp olive oil

salt to taste

aleppo pepper or red pepper flakes to taste

chopped fresh herbs such as chives and thyme

1. Whisk together the batter ingredients into smooth. Let rest for at least half an hour, or overnight in the refrigerator.

2. Prepare the fave beans. Boil a small pot of salted water. Remove the fave beans from the pods. Blanche the beans in the boiling water for 1 minute and then strain and run under cold water. For each blanched bean, use a paring knife to make a small incision in the outer skin and pop out the bean from the casing with your fingers.

3. Cut the summer squash into 1/4 inch thick half moons or other pieces. Heat a crepe pan or nonstick skillet over medium hight heat. Add one Tbsp olive oil, the summer squash, salt and aleppo or red pepper flakes to taste. Sauté until the summer squash has a bit of brown blistering on its surface but is not yet mushy. Transfer the squash to a bowl.

4. Return the crepe pan to medium high heat. Add a generous amount of olive oil. When the oil is shimmering, pour in about 1/2 cup crepe batter and tip the pan in a circular motion to spend out the batter. Allow the batter to cook until it darkens in color slightly. Then use a spatula to flit the crepe  and cook briefly on the second side. Cook the remaining crepes. 

5. Top the crepes with the sauteed summer squash and fave beans sprinkled with chopped fresh herbs.

Spicy Lamb Sausages

This Fathers Day at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market, you can look forward to a selection of pastured chicken and grass-fed lamb cuts from Fair Valley Farm.
Good Food Easy at Sweetwater Farm will have the following offerings: 

Fresh
Leeks, scallions, baby stalks of garlic and garlic whistles, also called scapes (try in pesto)
Strawberries, available by the flat for $32 (make some retro tapioca flamingo pudding)
Artichokes and fava beans (large and baby)
Baby beets, turnips, and kohlrabi (try these brown butter turnips)
New potatoes (make potato salad with yogurt and horse radish)
Cauliflower and broccoli
Carrots, summer squash, and cucumbers (try Vietnamese spring rolls)
Chard, collard greens, and kale (make chips)
Fresh herbs (basil, oregano, sage, thyme) plus home-grown lemon grass!!
Lettuce, including ready-to-eat bagged mix

Preserves
From Sweet Creek Foods:
Dill Pickles, Chili Dill Pickles, Bread 'N Butter Pickles, Pickle Relish
Blueberry, Strawberry, Blackberry, & Raspberry Fruit Spreads
Enchilada Sauce and Salsa
From SLO Farm: Applesauce

Bean and Grains
Sweetwater Farm's polenta and cornmeal!
Assorted beans and grains from Camas Country Mill

For a Fathers Day or graduation celebration, I can highly recommend these spicy lamb sausages made with ground lamb from Fair Valley Farm. We had them last week with bread starter naan and grilled fava beans with sliced garlic whistles in place of the regular garlic.

These sausages also go wonderfully with mujaddara and spiced yogurt, shown below with an early attempt at no knead bread made with bread starter. This Sunday the whole family will be attending graduation in full academic regalia (or Harry Potter robes), and after teaching Bread 101, I think that I should wear an extra tassel of a head of wheat.

Spicy Lamb Sausages

adapted from David Tanis, makes 8 sausages

1 lb ground lamb

1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp coriander seeds
1/4 tsp cardamom seeds (from the inside of the green pods)
pinch cinnamon
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne, or to taste
several grindings of freshly ground black pepper
plenty of salt

1. Spice the ground lamb at least 2 hours before cooking or preferably overnight, to allow the flavors to blend. Use a spice mill or mortar and pestle to grind cumin, coriander,and cardamom seeds. In a mixing bowl combine the ground spices with the lamb, salt, cinnamon, paprika, and cayenne. Mix well with hands to incorporate. If you like, fry a little piece of the mixture in a small skillet, taste for seasoning and adjust salt. Refrigerate the spiced lab until you are ready to cook. Then form into 8 patties.

2. Light a charcoal grill or use a grill pan. The heat should be moderate. Grill sausages, in batches if necessary until just cooked through. Serve warm.

Market Start and Grilled Fava Beans

The Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market starts this Sunday June 1! You can look forward to whole pastured chickens and a selection of grass-fed lamb cuts from Fair Valley Farm, and Good Food Easy at Sweetwater Farm will have the following offerings: 

Fresh
Artichokes
Baby Beets 
Broccoli
Cabbage (Green, Red, Napa, & Savoy!)
Carrots
Cauliflower
Chard
Collard Greens
Cucumbers
Fava Beans (large and baby)
Fresh Herbs (cilantro, dill, oregano, sage, thyme) plus our own home-grown lemon grass!!
Garlic (baby stalks)
Kohlrabi
New Potatoes
Spring Onions
Summer Squash
Fresh Strawberries!

Preserves
From Sweet Creek Foods:
Dill Pickles
Chili Dill Pickles
Bread 'N Butter Pickles
Pickle Relish
Blueberry, Strawberry, Blackberry, & Raspberry Fruit Spreads
Enchilada Sauce
Salsa
From SLO Farm: Applesauce

Bean & Grains
Our own Polenta & Cornmeal!
Assorted from Camas Country Mill

With those baby fava beans, I can highly recommend trying them grilled whole, which we had last week for my husband's birthday dinner, along with crispy salmon and sorrel sauce. See you at the market!

Grilled Fava Beans

from Ignacio Mattos, published by food52

1 pound fresh fava beans in their pods, the younger the better
1 teaspoon fleur de sel
1 teaspoon ground chile pepper
1 teaspoon picked rosemary
3 to 4 cloves chopped garlic
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more to finish
2 tablespoons water
1 lemon
7 or 8 canned anchovies in oil, chopped finely
1 handful toasted bread crumbs (optional)

1. Mix first 7 ingredients together in a large bowl. Toss to coat the fava pods, then place them on the grill over medium-high heat.

2. Grill favas for several minutes, until charred, then flip them over and char the other side, cooking until the pods seem about to open. You can use a grill pan for this.

3. Remove pods from grill, return them to the mixing bowl, and squeeze the lemon over them. Toss the pods to coat. Check the seasoning, and add salt if necessary.

4. Add the anchovies to the bowl, mixing well.

5. Place the pods on a serving platter, drizzle to taste with olive oil, and sprinkle the bread crumbs on top, if using. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Buckwheat Noodles with Fava Beans and Arugula

Major news alert: the fourth season of the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market is scheduled to start on Sunday June 9th. The market will be held each Sunday during the summer from 10 AM to 2 PM at the Sun Automotive lot on the corner of Agate St. and 19th Ave. You can make the corner you one stop shopping for the week with a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as jams, sauces, and preserves from Sweetwater Farm, pastured meats from Fair Valley Farm, and baked goods from Eugene City Bakery. 

Despite the sometimes blustery weather we've been having, spring is really here, as evident by the increasing diversity of local produce available. Some of the earliest treats are gem-like fava beans that always seem so special to me that I feel compelled to pair them with homemade pasta. This year, I strayed from Italy toward Asia, inspired by a recipe for buckwheat pasta from The Greens Cookbook, which seemed like a perfect use for the last of my Lonesome Whistle Farm buckwheat flour. These homemade soba noodles were delicious tossed with plenty of peppery arugula and foraged fresh herbs (mint, fennel fronds, and chives) and served with baked salmon. Remember to mark your calendars for the June 9th and please spread the word by printing this poster and putting it up around the neighborhood.

Buckwheat Pasta with Fava Beans and Arugula

serves four

pasta
1 cup buckwheat flour
2 cups white flour
1/2 tsp salt
4 eggs
~1/4 cup water

toppings
1 lb fava bean pods (or as many as you can shell and peel)
2 large handfuls arugula 
plenty of fresh herbs, such as mint, fennel fronds, and chives
olive oil
zest and juice from one lemon
salt and fresh black pepper to taste

1. First prepare your pasta toppings. Remove the fava beans from the pods. If you are willing to do the extra work, blanch them for 1 minute in boiling water and then remove the inner green parts of the beans from the paler casing. Zest and then juice the lemon. Rinse and roughly chop the arugula and fresh herbs.

2. Set a large pot of salted water boiling on the stove for the pasta.

3. To make the pasta dough, combine the ingredients in a food processor and mix. The buckwheat flour absorbs liquid, so you will probably need to add a little water for the dough to just starts to come together in a ball. 

4. Pat the dough together into a log, cut into about 12 pieces, and pat flat. 

5. Use a hand crank pasta machine to roll out the dough, starting with the widest setting and narrowing it by increments of 2, ending on the second to last thinnest setting. Then cut the dough into fettucini.

6. Cook the pasta in rapidly boiling water until the noodles are just cooked but still have some bite, about 2 minutes. 

7. Drain the pasta and dump it into a large serving bowl. Pour over olive oil, lemon zest and juice, arugula and fresh herbs, and fava beans and toss well. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy.

Springtime Pasta with Fava Beans and Ham

Here's a springtime recipe in anticipation of the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market starting up on June 19. I'd never cooked fava beans before, but when my son grabbed one from a stall at the Saturday Farmers Market and tried to chomp it, I was intrigued, so we bought a bag. 

One reason I've shied away from this springtime delicacy is the labor involved: the beans need to be shelled and then each bean needs to be blanched and peeled. I realized though that for a three year old, shelling beans is fun, not labor (as is foraging for mint in our back alleyway, a perfect partner for these beans). I was also emboldened by Jamie Oliver's claim that favas (Brits call them broad beans) don't required peeling if they are small. It was worth a try.

We had some leftover Easter ham frozen away, which I diced up, along with the mint.

In keeping with the child labor theme of the meal, I recruited my seven year old daughter to make us fresh pasta,

while I prepared an easy sauce to go along with it. I sauteed the ham with the mint, some baby spinach, and a splash of white vermouth,

cooked the fava beans along with the pasta, and tossed the pasta in the sauce. 

The final dish was delicious and the mint-flavored ham went perfectly with the fresh fava beans. But I must admit that the beans would have been even tastier if peeled. Another task to start training the kids to do.

Fresh Pasta with Fava Beans and Ham

For the pasta
4 eggs
3 cups flour
pinch of salt


1. Combine the ingredients in a food processor and mix. The final dough should be moist enough that it just starts to come together in a ball. Use a little more flour or a dribble of water to achieve the right consistency. 


2. Pat the dough together into a log, cut into about 12 pieces, and pat flat. Set a large pot of salted water boiling on the stove.


3. Use a hand crank pasta machine to roll out the dough, starting with the widest setting and narrowing it by increments of 2, ending on the second to last thinnest setting. Then cut the dough into fettucini.


4. When the sauce is ready, cook the pasta in rapidly boiling water until the fettucini are just cooked but still have some bite, about 2 minutes. You can cook the fava beans with the pasta if you are not planning to peel the individual beans. 


For the sauce
1 lb of fava bean pods, or as many as you are willing to shell
5-6 springs of mint
3/4 cup cubed ham
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp olive oil
~6 handfuls of baby spinach leaves
1/4 cup white vermouth
salt and pepper to taste


1. Remove the fava beans from the pods. If you are willing to do the extra work, blanch them for 1 minute in boiling water and then remove the inner green parts of the beans from the paler casing. Or just reserve the unpeeled beans and cook them with the pasta.


2. In a large pan that can hold all of the pasta, melt the butter and warm the olive oil. Add the cubed ham and saute for a couple of minutes. Add the chopped mint and continue to cook for another minute. Add the baby spinach and the fava beans, if you bothered to peel them, and cook until the spinach just starts to wilt. Add the vermouth, cook one more minute, and then turn off the heat. 


3. Toss the cooked pasta into the sauce to coat. Serve immediately with plenty of freshly grated parmesan cheese.