In Marugame last week I was given an appetiser of beans that looked and tasted like gigantes, braised in sweet soy. Despite the braising, the beans stayed al dente and the skin poppingly firm. No idea how they did it, and my Japanese is limited to "that was delicious" and "one more lemon sour please" so I couldn't ask.
I have a default long haul flight uniform (leggings, tank with built-in bra so underwire doesn't set off the security alarm, light jumper) that works for me in all climates. Landing in SEA I take off the jumper, returning to London I add a cardigan and a scarf for the tube journey home. The whole ensemble fits in my smallest packing cube and lives in my hand luggage, so if I have a night flight out of Asia I can dress appropriately all day, have a baby wipe shower in the airport loos, and then get changed into what are effectively airplane pyjamas. No seams to dig in, nothing to ride up or down, just comfy black layers. Aside from replacing individual components as they wear out, it's been the same look on over 1000 flights since 2010, whatever the weather where I am or where I'm going. (Although pre-covid I paired it with heeled ankle boots and since 2020 it's been platform trainers.)
There should be a Paid Subscribers Only facility for replies - this 'recipe for travel' is worth its weight in flyer miles! I'm impressed you can live out of hand luggage for several days, let alone months. I will be reading your Substack with fresh respect.
I love beans in whatever form! Haricot beans with tuna and chopped raw onion and a dash of (homemade) salad dressing, plus a handful of lettuce and some tomatoes and olives - quick, tasty and easy lunch. Cheap, too ... I have a Three Sisters bed in my garden
That's one of my favourite dishes - even just reduced down to Tonno e Fagioli. So interesting to learn you have a Three Sisters planting. The Ancients had so much to teach us.
I've been a fan and customer of Steve Sando's Rancho Gordo beans for more than a dozen years. His version of the gigante bean is called Royal Corona. I'm not sure where they are grown, but whenever they are in stock on the website, I order some. They are marvelously creamy inside, with a hearty, earthy flavor. When I cook beans, I soak them overnight with a bit of baking soda to soften the skins. And I pressure cook them with salt and aromatics: onion, carrot, bay leaf, and an herb bundle of thyme, parsley, rosemary and celery leaf tied inside a leek leaf. When the beans have absorbed the aromatic-flavored broth during as they've been softening, they are flavorful enough to eat just with a drizzle of olive oil and some good bread. And even more wonderful in a Greek-inspired treatment such as you recommend. I cooked a pound of them a few weeks ago, and froze half the batch. I'll have to dig them out of the freezer and follow your lead.
Royal Corona sound sublime. I don't have a pressure cooker, but do just as you to soften and flavour beans for cooking on. One night, I ate them - all of them, they were so good - exactly as you write, simply with several grinds of black pepper and a glug of newly bottled olive oil. Are you familiar with that Thomas Hardy scene where the sheep get so bloated from over-eating clover they need their stomachs piercing to release the gases? Me. What an uncomfortable night.
LOL! Poor Martin, if he was sharing your bed that night. Garrison Keillor told a funny story about riding in an elevator with one other man, who expelled a long, sulfurous fart just before he exited the car. The door then closed, trapping Keillor inside, alone with the noxious fumes, as the elevator descended to the next stop, where several people entered, horrified by the smell, glaring at Keillor, who piteously protested: "It wasn't me!"
Your observations of over optimistic Brits arriving home in skimpy holiday clothes reminded me of our return from a winter holiday in the Gambia clad only in the minimal outfits we had needed whilst waiting for our aircraft on the baking hot tarmac of our departure airport. We were therefore ill prepared for the scenes of complete whiteout around Gatwick which prevented us from even reaching our car let alone driving it.
Only by donning virtually every piece of clothing in our suitcases were we able to keep warm enough not to freeze until we eventually got to our car and the warm clothes we had left in it. How we actually made it home and what we found there is an even longer story!
Okay, I’m in Valencia for a few more weeks and am going to make that fava bean recipe as soon as I find some of those beans. Where was this recipe a couple years ago when my love of favas in Italy led me to bring home a bag of the dried beans? Thank you for the inspiration.
Haha! Isn't Life always about timing? But now your time is right! (I got a bit fed up in Puglia with fava bean puree with bitter greens. Too often a little putty-like.
In Marugame last week I was given an appetiser of beans that looked and tasted like gigantes, braised in sweet soy. Despite the braising, the beans stayed al dente and the skin poppingly firm. No idea how they did it, and my Japanese is limited to "that was delicious" and "one more lemon sour please" so I couldn't ask.
Sweet soy (Kecap Manis?) sounds an excellent suggestion. But I also think butter beans would be palatable wth torn up copies of the News of the World.
I have a default long haul flight uniform (leggings, tank with built-in bra so underwire doesn't set off the security alarm, light jumper) that works for me in all climates. Landing in SEA I take off the jumper, returning to London I add a cardigan and a scarf for the tube journey home. The whole ensemble fits in my smallest packing cube and lives in my hand luggage, so if I have a night flight out of Asia I can dress appropriately all day, have a baby wipe shower in the airport loos, and then get changed into what are effectively airplane pyjamas. No seams to dig in, nothing to ride up or down, just comfy black layers. Aside from replacing individual components as they wear out, it's been the same look on over 1000 flights since 2010, whatever the weather where I am or where I'm going. (Although pre-covid I paired it with heeled ankle boots and since 2020 it's been platform trainers.)
There should be a Paid Subscribers Only facility for replies - this 'recipe for travel' is worth its weight in flyer miles! I'm impressed you can live out of hand luggage for several days, let alone months. I will be reading your Substack with fresh respect.
Thank you very much for the high praise! It's advice borne of a million delays and 12h+ layovers...
I love beans in whatever form! Haricot beans with tuna and chopped raw onion and a dash of (homemade) salad dressing, plus a handful of lettuce and some tomatoes and olives - quick, tasty and easy lunch. Cheap, too ... I have a Three Sisters bed in my garden
That's one of my favourite dishes - even just reduced down to Tonno e Fagioli. So interesting to learn you have a Three Sisters planting. The Ancients had so much to teach us.
It even works in the North-east of Scotland!
I'm impressed.
Thanks! Those Native Americans knew a thing or two!
I've been a fan and customer of Steve Sando's Rancho Gordo beans for more than a dozen years. His version of the gigante bean is called Royal Corona. I'm not sure where they are grown, but whenever they are in stock on the website, I order some. They are marvelously creamy inside, with a hearty, earthy flavor. When I cook beans, I soak them overnight with a bit of baking soda to soften the skins. And I pressure cook them with salt and aromatics: onion, carrot, bay leaf, and an herb bundle of thyme, parsley, rosemary and celery leaf tied inside a leek leaf. When the beans have absorbed the aromatic-flavored broth during as they've been softening, they are flavorful enough to eat just with a drizzle of olive oil and some good bread. And even more wonderful in a Greek-inspired treatment such as you recommend. I cooked a pound of them a few weeks ago, and froze half the batch. I'll have to dig them out of the freezer and follow your lead.
Royal Corona sound sublime. I don't have a pressure cooker, but do just as you to soften and flavour beans for cooking on. One night, I ate them - all of them, they were so good - exactly as you write, simply with several grinds of black pepper and a glug of newly bottled olive oil. Are you familiar with that Thomas Hardy scene where the sheep get so bloated from over-eating clover they need their stomachs piercing to release the gases? Me. What an uncomfortable night.
LOL! Poor Martin, if he was sharing your bed that night. Garrison Keillor told a funny story about riding in an elevator with one other man, who expelled a long, sulfurous fart just before he exited the car. The door then closed, trapping Keillor inside, alone with the noxious fumes, as the elevator descended to the next stop, where several people entered, horrified by the smell, glaring at Keillor, who piteously protested: "It wasn't me!"
Hahaha. Perfect manoeuvre!
Your observations of over optimistic Brits arriving home in skimpy holiday clothes reminded me of our return from a winter holiday in the Gambia clad only in the minimal outfits we had needed whilst waiting for our aircraft on the baking hot tarmac of our departure airport. We were therefore ill prepared for the scenes of complete whiteout around Gatwick which prevented us from even reaching our car let alone driving it.
Only by donning virtually every piece of clothing in our suitcases were we able to keep warm enough not to freeze until we eventually got to our car and the warm clothes we had left in it. How we actually made it home and what we found there is an even longer story!
Dreadful for you, but your tale did make me grin.
Okay, I’m in Valencia for a few more weeks and am going to make that fava bean recipe as soon as I find some of those beans. Where was this recipe a couple years ago when my love of favas in Italy led me to bring home a bag of the dried beans? Thank you for the inspiration.
Haha! Isn't Life always about timing? But now your time is right! (I got a bit fed up in Puglia with fava bean puree with bitter greens. Too often a little putty-like.
Keep your eyes skinned! Walk with care.
Julia, we arrived in Vitrac, adjacent to Sarlat. Hope we are stopped by the Chief of Police.