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Lima Beans Neufchatel
2 cups fresh lima beans (or canned ones) 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 cup butter or margarine 1 1/2 cups milk 2 beaten egg yolks Cook beans in boiling salted water till tender. If using canned beans, heat in own liquor. Drain, remove skins by slipping them off, and return to pan. Add everything else except eggs, finish cooking. Just before serving, add the beaten egg yolks, and serve immediately.
A simple creamed lima bean dish thickened with egg yolk at the last moment. The whole thing hinges on how the yolks are handled.
- Never boil after the yolks go inEgg yolks stirred into hot milk will curdle into grainy threads at a simmer. Whisk a ladle of the hot liquid into the yolks first, return the mixture to the pan off direct heat, and stir over the lowest flame only until it thickens lightly and coats a spoon.
- Bring the yolks up to temperature"Just before serving" reads as barely cooked. Hold the thickened mixture at around 160F for a minute or so while stirring: it will set the yolks without scrambling them.
- Slipping the skinsFresh limas have a tough outer skin that pinches off easily once cooked and briefly cooled. Canned beans are usually already tender enough that skinning is optional, though the dish is smoother without them.
- Fresh limas vs. frozenFresh shell limas are hard to find outside late summer. Frozen baby limas are the closest substitute: cook them in salted water as directed, a couple of minutes less than the package suggests, since they finish in the milk.
- "Finish cooking" is vagueSimmer the drained beans in the milk and butter gently, uncovered, for about 8 to 10 minutes, until the liquid has reduced somewhat and tastes of the beans rather than of raw milk.
- SaltThe recipe is ambiguous about where the listed teaspoon goes: the beans are cooked in 'salted water' of unspecified strength, and the teaspoon may well be intended for the milk under 'add everything else'. Season to taste, and taste before adding any if you used canned beans, which are usually already salted.
- YieldTwo cups of beans in this much milk serves four as a side dish. It thickens as it stands and will not reheat well once the yolks are in, so make it to serve.