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White Beans, Bretonne
Soak one pint dried white beans in cold water for twelve hours. Drain and place them in a saucepan with two quarts cold water. Season with a tablespoon salt and a teaspoon white pepper, adding two medium white onions cut in halves, three small branches parsley greens tied with a sprig of bay leaf; add half-pound piece salt pork, cover the pan, set on the fire and let slowly cook for two hours.
Heat in a saucepan two tablespoons melted butter, add one medium chopped onion and three tablespoons flour; cook for five minutes, continually stirring meanwhile. Then strain all the gravy of the beans into this pan. Mix well and boil for two minutes. Remove all the ingredients from the beans, then add the cooked beans to the sauce; add a tablespoon chopped parsley, gently mix with a wooden spoon and serve.
A straightforward braise of white beans finished in a roux made with their own broth. The one thing to watch is the sauce: all the bean liquid goes into three tablespoons of flour, so how much you strain in decides whether you get a napping sauce or soup.
- A pint of dried beansMeasured dry, that is about 2 cups, roughly 14 oz to 1 lb. Cannellini, Great Northern or navy beans all suit; flageolets are the usual choice for this dish.
- Salt, twice overA tablespoon of salt plus a half-pound of salt pork will overwhelm the dish with most modern cured pork. Use a scant teaspoon at the start, taste when the beans are tender, and season at the end instead.
- "Slowly cook"A bare simmer with the lid on, not a rolling boil, which splits the skins. Two hours is right for older beans; soaked beans of recent crop can be tender in 60 to 90 minutes, so check from the hour mark.
- The bouquet"Three small branches parsley greens tied with a sprig of bay" is a bouquet garni; tie it with kitchen string so it lifts out whole. One bay leaf is enough for 2 quarts.
- Judging the sauceThree tablespoons flour will thicken roughly 2 cups of liquid. The pot will hold considerably more than that after two hours, so strain in what you need, boil it down, and keep the rest to loosen the beans at the end.
- The salt porkThe recipe says to remove all the ingredients from the beans, which discards it. Better to lift it out, dice it, and stir it back in with the parsley; the onions and bouquet are spent and should go.
- YieldServes six as a side dish, four as a main. Traditionally sent to table with roast or braised lamb.
Haricots à la bretonne is generally traced to Brittany, still the source of the coco de Paimpol, though the name is also often attributed to the sauce or garnish rather than the province; the pairing of white beans with lamb is the standard accompaniment to a French gigot. In classic French practice a sauce bretonne for beans is an onion base cooked in butter and enriched with white wine, tomato and garlic, so this version — a plain onion roux slackened with the bean broth — is a simplified treatment.