Dazz Switalla Flavour Secrets No.1 The Strand Chef www.no1thestrand.co.nz

I can remember when I was a small child how my father tended the garden and keep seeds for the next season; often broad beans and scarlet runner beans.

Broad beans were disgusting, grey and horrible for me back then and the scarlet runner beans were sliced and overcooked in true '60s style, but they had their own distinctive flavour.

Fast forward to years later and I spy some beans at a farmers' market: the infamous scarlet runner beans.

They were selling faster than other produce and the thought occurs ‘what's really going on?'

Why can't you buy scarlet runner beans at the supermarket? Why don't the commercial growers grow them? Are they too ugly, twisted and flat?
Surely they can't be too difficult to grow?

I'm assuming that the real reason is much like why you can buy fly paper at the supermarket, they work too well and are too cheap and they need to push the fly spray sales and dispensing systems. Round beans and the odd butter bean are the only beans I have seen at the supermarkets. It seems odd that in these days somehow some people can never experience the unique qualities and flavour because the big multinationals have dictated to the public what choices they have.

Thank God for $2 shops (fly paper) and farmers' markets (fresh produce).

Mediterranean-style runner bean salad

Ingredients
Serves two

200g runner beans
120g feta, diced
½ red onion, sliced
1 green capsicum,
sliced
200g cherry
tomatoes, halved
1 handful fresh pea shoots, chopped
1 cup cucumber, sliced
1 tsp wholegrain mustard
¼ cup olive oil
2-3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp sugar
Sea salt
freshly-cracked pepper

Method

Cut the beans up into suitable size bits and blanch in boiling salted water for two to three minutes, then cool. Assemble with the rest of the ingredients in a mixing bowl, adding the feta last. Season the salad with pepper and salt. Mix together the dressing by adding the olive oil, sugar, mustard and balsamic in a jarw with a lid and shake vigorously. Pour over the salad and mix. Serve immediately.