Beans (Haricots) ‘Purée alla Brétonne.’
Wash the white haricot beans and let them soak all night. Boil them (changing the water) until tender, and mash them through a sieve. Season with salt, pepper, and butter, add enough cream (or stock) to make them of a proper consistency. Serve hot.
Beans (Haricots) ‘alla Romana.’
Cook the beans in an earthen pot in salted water, and let them drain. Meanwhile cut three onions into small pieces, stew them in an earthen pan until they are browned, then add the beans, with pepper, grated nutmeg, minced anchovies passed through a sieve, and some broth. Fry all together, and when the beans have absorbed all the liquid, squeeze the juice of a lemon over them and serve hot at once.
Beans (Haricots) ‘sautés.’
Melt two ounces of fresh butter in a frying-pan, add some parsley and half an onion chopped up together. Then put in the beans (already boiled), leave them to cook for eight or ten minutes, sprinkle them with salt, pepper, and the juice of a lemon, and serve up very hot.
Beans (Lima) ‘alla Crema.’
Put the beans into boiling salted water, cook well, then drain and dry, season with salt and pepper to taste, and three or four ounces of fresh butter, add a tablespoonful of flour and three-quarters of a pint of cream. Boil, and serve up very hot.
Beans (Dwarf Lima) ‘alla Portugese.’
Take a quart of young Lima beans, cook them in salted boiling water for half an hour, then drain and dry them. Melt four ounces of fresh butter in a frying-pan, add two tablespoonfuls of flour and three-quarters of a pint of milk, mix well together till they boil, then add two beaten-up yolks of eggs, salt, pepper, and a finely chopped onion. Pour over the beans and serve hot.