favas, scapes, and olive oil in the mortar/pestle:


On Whole Foods "Seeduction" toast topped with a hard Venetian cow's milk cheese, served with bitter greens, steamed carrots and shaved radishes dressed in olive oil and lemon:

I've cooked a lot with favas, and have a bit of an obsession with finding them in their freshest, most delicious state. Favas deteriorate rapidly. Just harvested, quickly blanched and eaten right away, favas taste an order of magnitude better than the same beans consumed just one day later.

Which brings me to my dilemma - one for which I seek the counsel of LTHForum's fava experts. I will come upon some very fresh favas in the morning, and while I'll definitely eat some immediately, others will wait for a party on Sunday. So I've got two choices: (1) peel and blanch right away, then keep for a day or (2) keep refrigerated in the pods for a day, then peel and blanch. Which will cause less deterioration?

there's only one way to find out!

Shuck



Blanch/shock/drain/skin



Eat, finally



Fresh fava and pecorino from Caputo's on Harlem.

Whole Foods LP had a huge selection of some great looking pods this morning. The beginning of the season is always the best.

I've had fava beans on my mind lately --- so much so that, not having seen any in nearby stores yet, I had to buy some frozen lima beans and boil and butter them and make them stand in for favas --- and I have not eaten, much less craved, lima beans for well over thirty years. I'm glad I was able to find this thread. It seems that I should be able to find favas by now, late April, in local grocery stores with a produce focus (e.g., Garden Fresh Market), and I plan to go looking in the next day or two. Just wondering, has anyone else seen fava beans recently in north suburban groceries stores such as Caputo's or Fresh Farms?