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I can’t get enough of these.
in the US, we can’t get chauchas fresh, and only one company (Allen’s) sells canned ones. They are completely divine.
We call them Italian green beans. But, serafina , are they actually Italian?
Does anyone have a favorite way of preparing them?
We call them runner beans.
Rice we call them “piattoni” (large and flat beans) or also “taccole”.
I rarely cook them as the hard filament is a hassle to peel or spit. How do you cook them?
I do not know the name of the flat ones in your picture. I do not like them as much as the more common green bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) or french green bean (haricots verts). I've had both a few times the past month from verdulería. They seem to be available in cycles.
We have them fresh all summer in the northeast states. I have grown here in Argentina the past four or five years, but only harvest late spring.
Usually I pan fry on the cast iron plancha without water. Tiny bit of EVO at first uncovered to brown, then cover which finishes using their own moisture. 5-6 minutes in total.
We call them runner beans.
Indeed.
My missus steams them. When cold she drizzles them with EV Olive Oil and freshly squeezed lemon juice. Then stuffs them in her mouth using her fingers!!
I can't be arsed with them here or in the UK.
For donkeys' years we used a special tool for removing the string and when cooked fresh from the garden with a roast lamb, they are delicious.
A very naive question: can you just plant the little round beans to grow the plants?
Most likely yes. If the chauchas came from a plant that was grown from Heirloom seeds, then any seeds you collect from the store bought beans will grow to be same. Though if your store-bought beans came from a hybrid plant, then it is less likely to grow with the same characteristics as the parent plant. Most industrial suppliers will use hybrid seeds to grow their plants, since they know exactly what to expect. Then buy new seeds to grow another crop since saving any seeds is not productive. For you at home, maybe that is fine.
So if you want to grow a new plant, you need to know the exact variety to learn if it is an Heirloom. Something which is close to impossible in Argentina. Beans are beans and if you try to ask the seller the variety you get the ‘ni idea’ hand gesture 💁🏻♀️ response.
Thanks for explaining this, aficionado . From the seed collecting instructions on the Gurney’s site, I can see that, even if these are heirloom beans instead of hybrid, I’d need to have access to the actual plant, to wait until the seeds dry, before harvesting them.
But it looks as if the chauchas we are so crazy about are these:
The first two boxes have green beans, you can see the tomatoes plant in the third one. Sorry for the finger, I was there harvesting green beans. My mother freezes those in excess, after bleaching them.
Personally, I don't think it is necessary to freeze them for the use I give them. Once frozen, vegetables inevitably becomes soggy when thawed. However, they are still good to be cooked.
I have a large supply of various frozen veggies for my Indian rice recipes. The only thing that I cook beforehand are chickpeas. For cauliflowers and broccoli, I simply cut them in florets, wash, dry, and freeze. For the green beans, I wash them, cut off the extremities, cut in one inch bits, and freeze. I do not pre-cook them, given they will cook with the rice and become soft.
Same for the carrots (diced) and the squash (also diced in larger chunks).
My favorite green beans recipe is simply to boil them, and then sautée in a pan with EVO and some garlic (whole, to be discarded afterwards). I slightly char them, if I am patient enough.
If you want more of a kick, you can add red chili flakes, or melt herrings in the EVO.
Yes, growing veggies is a popular pastime in Italy. Green beans and tomatoes are omnipresent, often in several varieties.
My uncle had a large vegetable garden and he used to plant at least 3 kinds of green beans and tomatoes. The reason is very simple: each kind was ready in a different period of summer, so he was sure to have veggies all round.
My mom's garden is much smaller. The tall tomatoes plant in the picture above are small round tomatoes. She has a few plants that grow larger tomatoes.
When I had my own garden, my favorite tomatoes was the cherry zebra (sweeter than most tomatoes):
From the seed collecting instructions on the Gurney’s site, I can see that, even if these are heirloom beans instead of hybrid, I’d need to have access to the actual plant, to wait until the seeds dry, before harvesting them.
Right, letting the fruit or vegetable whither and dry, or to become past ripe is the best way to collect most seeds. There are a lot of best practices. Growing from beans you purchased can work, if you let them dry, even if not production quality. That is the reason to just buy new seeds every season from someone following those professional techniques. If you only want to grow 5-20 plants the cost is minimal. MercadoLibre or other storefronts have most heirlooms and others that cannot be found at the garden stores in Argentina. Google found this one. https://dinkos-semillas.com/shop/legumbre/chaucha-roma/
