GARDEN FRESH : Beans at an Awkward Stage

Shelly beans are some of nature’s adolescents. Their skin is supple and smooth, and where once the line of the pods was flat, there are dear little bulges. They even have a pet name--shellies (and sometimes shuckies in the South).

Every bean you grow, if you don’t pick it at the green-bean-snap-stage, will pass through the shelly stage on its way to maturity or the dry stage. It usually takes a couple of weeks from snap to fresh-shelling stage, then another couple of weeks to the dry.

Over time, some beans have developed into superior sorts for shelling. In the same way, some beans that are scrumptious as shellies can be delicious as snap beans too. One such is Tongues of Fire. The flat, stringless, green-with-red-striped pods can be simmered briefly and served drizzled with butter.

The best shellies are rich and plush with a sweet-bean flavor. They can take lots of fresh herbs, garlic, shallots and onions without losing their identity.

Perfect examples of shellies are fresh lima and butter beans (also called “sievas” in the South). Cranberry beans for fresh-shelling are special to northern parts of the country. Green pods and cream seeds of cranberry beans are marbled crimson. However, few things in life are perfect, and most of these sensuous colors fade in cooking.

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Horticulturals are especially beautiful beans intended for harvesting at this stage. They are splashy--pods and often beans are dashed with some color of a sunset. Most often there are large beans in the pod, oval or rounded. Horticultural beans are the most decorative shellies in the border, and the one to grow where summers are cool.

Flageolets are what we regard as the generic French shelly beans--which the French often call chevriers. Flageolets are small and kidney-shaped, green when fresh and white when dried. I find them the most delicately flavored shellies. Meaty fava beans, which we’ll talk about another time, are immensely popular in Europe and the Middle East--they’re the shellies of early summer.

Southern peas, or cow peas, are another classic fresh-shelling bean. These are the delectable black-eyes, cream peas and crowders that come in silvers, pinks, buffs, browns, creams and lots of purples. The other day, I found shelly black-eyed peas at a roadside stand.

One cultivar of the Southern pea is called Zipper Cream because a seam unzips for shelling. Which brings up the point that--adolescents that they are--shellies can be a nuisance. Typical of their age, they want to make a big deal of it when they give up their precious beans.

To shell shelly beans, slit along a seam with a thumb nail, then usually you can pull the pod open and pop out the beans. If this doesn’t work, snap the pods open and push the beans out. If the pod is too leathery for that, slice a thin piece off the seam.

It’s too late to start them now, but to grow shellies come spring, most everyone agrees that pole cultivars have the best flavor, and certainly you can harvest them over a longer season than bush cultivars. However, if you sow a mixture of pole and bush shelling beans once a week for the first month of bean-sowing season, you’ll have shelly beans straight through late summer and fall.

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The way to raise good fresh shelling beans is the same as other beans: Ask a gardening neighbor about any diseases nearby and choose cultivars with natural resistance. Inoculate your seeds for greatest yield (the catalogue will explain). Sow in fertile soil that’s warm--bean-sowing season is usually March through August for most of Southern California, but May through July in the high desert, and just June in the mountain ranges. When blossoms form, mulch the plants with shredded newspaper or ground bark or such. Give full or half-day sun and keep the soil moist, particularly after the plants bloom. Support pole beans. And move the crop around the garden so three or four years pass before you return them to the same place (keeps disease at bay).

Harvest pods (or choose them at the market) crisp and plump with distinctive little bumps along the way.

Any recipe specifically calling for limas or fava beans will work with other shellies. And you can usually adapt recipes for cooked dried beans to shellies too, since both sorts of beans end up cooked in the dish.

Since you don’t have to worry about capturing the beans at the barely tender stage of snap beans, shelly beans are a lovely vegetable for entertaining--you can precook them. On the other hand, timing is unpredictable with these (and all) teen-agers because you usually don’t know at which stage you’ve got them. Average simmering time is 25 minutes, but I’ve had batches that took 45. I find four cups of liquid to one cup of beans is a safe proportion. A fine point about cooking shellies is that the aim is to have nearly all the pot liquor absorbed by the beans at the end so only a rich spoonful remains. You’ll get this trick down when you get to know the beans. I cook them in advance, then heat them up for a few minutes in a little butter just before serving. As a side dish, a little chopped chervil or Italian parsley is all they need.

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One of the tastiest ways to cook shelly beans is to saute thinly sliced onions in a little olive oil, then add the beans with garlic, tomatoes and summer savory or oregano or marjoram to taste (the tomatoes unseeded and unpeeled, of course). Simmer with mild broth.

And flageolets, whether fresh, shelled or dried, are traditional Sunday fare in France, roasted in the dish with a little stock and the juices of the meat.

Cooled cooked shellies also make a refreshing salad. The French advise flavoring them with chopped onions, parsley, chervil and chives, then dressing them with oil and a lusty vinegar. Spoon onto delicate leaves such as butter lettuce. You might sprinkle the top with edible flower petals such as calendulas or nasturtiums. Fine to accompany something grilled.

As for cooking Southern peas, Hastings’ marvelous seed catalogue from Atlanta suggests “for a sensational taste, try serving with a topping of chopped tomato, sweet pepper and onion--and a dash of vinegar.” Which is not to forget the blazing Pickapeppa sauce.

I must say these sexy young things acquit themselves admirably.

Sources:

Fresh : Limas, cranberry beans and perhaps flageolets are available at farmers’ markets. Ask the produce manager at your supermarket if they can be ordered. Sometimes they’re packaged shelled.

Seeds : Flageolets and other superb shellies can be ordered from the Vermont Bean Seed Co., Garden Lane, Fair Haven, Vt. 05743. For inoculant, bean sheller and all other beans try Hastings, P.O. Box 115535, Atlanta, Ga. 30310-8535.

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The name “succotash” is thought to have evolved from the Narragansett Indian word for ear of corn, “misickquatash.” Apparently the Indians introduced quatash to Colonial cooks, and the name had as broad an application as “corn stew.” There was corn in the pot all right, and likely beans--both of which could be fresh or dried. There also could have been anything else from the larder, such as chickens, salt pork, turnips--and bear fat.

Eventually, succotash came to be thought of in the North as fresh-shelled cranberry beans and corn, and in the South as corn and lima or butter beans. Here in the West, it can be any shelly we like. Having made this dish with a number of different beans, I must say that the more delicate the flavor of the bean, the finer the blend with delicate corn. Flageolets are my preference.

The beans may be cooked a few hours in advance, but the corn must be cooked at the last minute. So they’ll be as moist as possible, cut kernels from the cob just before cooking. Setting the ear in a deep bowl while cutting keeps kernels from flying across the room. Break up clumps before measuring.

FRESH SUCCOTASH 4 cups boiling water, about 1 cup fresh-shelled beans (about 1 pound unshelled) 1 cup corn kernels (about 1 1/2 ears) 3 tablespoons whipping cream 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into small pieces Salt Freshly ground pepper

Bring 4 cups water to boil in broad, heavy saucepan. Drop beans into boiling water over high heat. Return to boil, then turn heat to low, cover, and simmer until tender. Stir occasionally so beans do not stick, 15 to 45 minutes, depending on size and age of bean. If additional water is needed, add it boiling. Beans may be kept in cool place until needed.

Drain bean liquor into cup. Return 3 tablespoons to beans with corn and cream. Stir, cover and cook over medium heat, shaking pot, until beans are hot, liquid has been absorbed and corn is tender but still slightly crisp, 5 to 6 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in butter. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve at once in small bowls with big spoons. Makes 4 servings.

Each serving contains about:

227 calories; 92 mg sodium; 15 mg cholesterol; 6 grams fat; 35 grams carbohydrates; 11 grams protein; 3.06 grams fiber.