When I worked a job at the World Congress Centre, one of the chefs nicknamed me the hound dog for my persistance and ability to track down scarce or unusual ingredients. Funnily enough, that is exactly how I feel when trying to find something - first I get a scent, then I'm off baying at all and sundry. So it should come as no surprise that I've tracked down a source of tinned flageolet beans that were mentioned in a previous post.

I half remembered seeing them in a butcher's shop many years ago and when I went to check the shop had changed its name but still carried a stock of flageolets, Eureka! From there I emailed D'aucy in France who let me know the name of the distributor here and I'm now in contact with them and have at least one new option, the Renaissance Supermarket, Fitzroy St, St Kilda, who carry a full range of D'aucy products.

So let me tell you about the tinned flageolets. They were the rich, creamy ones that I remembered from La Madrague. I'm not saying that La Madrague opened a tin or anything like that, I'm sure they knew how to cook the dried ones, but now I have a great, easy option - it's like tasty beans on the table in ten minutes. My daughter M loved them as well, what's not to love with beans in a creamy, butter sauce with loads of garlic and parsley? She even helped herself to an extra scoop.

Which made what happened next a bit funny. I made up a pasta sauce with flageolet beans and pancetta a day or two later and served it on shell pasta. Shell pasta is great because it's hard for the kids to pick out the good for them bits of the sauce, like vegetables for instance. But after M had scoffed her pasta, there were random beans scattered around her plate.

It's the old story isn't it, one day a rooster, the next a feather duster.

Labels: D'aucy, flageolet beans