I've learned something important

[Green Aura]

Never, and I mean NEVER, cook broad beans in the same pan as spuds!

We had our first harvest of beans yesterday, not a huge amount, but enough. I hate the skin on them so I thought I'd chuck them in with the spuds for a few minutes, refresh them with cold water, peel them and then chuck them in some boiling water with some peas.

Great plan except the beans turned my spuds grey! Not very appealing on the top of the fish pie. It didn't alter the taste but I had to eat it with my eyes shut

So I won't be doing that again, even if it did save heating and washing an extra pan

[Helsbells]

Tee hee, how unfortunate!

[frozenthunderbolt]

Interesting! That would suggest that the broad beans leeched iodine into the water the reacted with the starch in the potatoes - turning them black ish, COOL! Any more sciency folk have a better explanation?

[Keaniebean]

Arghhhhh, you just gave me flashbacks to secondary school Frozenthunderbolt. I need to go lie down

[Millymollymandy]

Just imagine you are eating some fancy coloured spud - I had an interesting purple/gray mash concoction on my plate recently in an Italian restaurant - it was absolutely the most delicious mash I've ever eaten and I had heard of those purple spuds - checked with the owner and he says they are flown in from South America (naughty!) but it didn't look terribly appealing, I must say.

Anyway how come you're eating broad beans before me? You are up in the frozen wastes......

I probably have a few to harvest, plus a few peas, but not enough for 2 of us.

However we have plenty of mange tout, rapidly going over them.

Edit: just thought - I could recreate the fancy purple spuds by boiling my ordinary spuds in with purple curly kale.......

[Green Aura]

Polytunnel, MMM. You can buy those purple spuds and grow them yourself - flown in from South america , my a$$ Look for swedish blue or scottish blue - both of those should keep their colour when cooked. Can't say I fancy them myself but I'm not a huge spud lover - rice any day for me.

[Millymollymandy]

They probably are flown in to France (for the restaurant trade?) because you can't get seed potatoes for them here nor can you buy them in the shops. Least I've never come across them. Way too exotic this is the country that doesn't eat parsnip or corn on the cob or spring greens or PSB or curly kale or runner beans or proper spring onions and I've only just seen a cos lettuce for sale last year for the first time!!!

And the polytunnel explains it. (duh!) Just picked a couple of giant pods of broad beans this morning but they're still only small and green inside - but I like them like that before they get the nasty skin forming!

[oldfella]

Wrong part the country, MMM down here we can get Parsnips, and corn on the cob in the market, and have even seen it in Lee Kirks shoppe.

[Millymollymandy]

Oh we can buy parsnips here cos they sell them for the British! I just said that the French don't eat them. But yeah different parts of the country do sell different things, at least I could buy corn on the cob over near Geneva, and cos lettuce.

[MKG]

Every year I say this. I hate broad beans of the mature variety. But pick them three to four inches long and eat the lot - pod and all - with butter. HEAVEN!!!!!!!!!

And I think you're right, FTB - I can't think of any other reaction which would safely turn starch dark. On the other hand, I do believe that potatoes (and carrots) in their original form were nothing like the stuff we have now.

Mike

[Green Aura]

They didn't go blue, just a really grotty grey - a bit like boiled jerusalem artichokes only more so. Don't know what it was but it won't be repeated

[happyhippy]

Well it sounded good in theory!

[oldfella]

That's the problem with theorys, well my theorys anyway