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

I had many wonderful meals at a little French restaurant, smack bang in the old industrial heart of South Melbourne. La Madrague was started by Jacques and Annie Heradeau in 1979 and they ran it for 24 years before selling it in 2003. There were many things on the menu that I tried for the first time here including bone marrow sauce (sauce bordelaise) and a sinfully decadent chocolate fondant dessert.

But one of the dishes that has stuck in my mind is the wonderful flageolet beans that they served in a creamy sauce of garlic and parsley. There was plenty of garlic in it, in fact for me it was the large presence of garlic that made the dish. For years I have wanted to recreate this dish at home, but for the most part was unable to locate flageolet beans either tinned or dried.


Flageolet beans are a small green pulse much loved by the French and they have a particular affinity for lamb. Some consider them to be an immature kidney bean, but here is a very scholarly article about them.

Recently I was very happy to find a supply of the dried beans at The Essential Ingredient in the Prahran Market and embarked upon a journey to recreate my taste memory. Besides the garlic my other strong memory of flageolets was their creaminess and it was this that has proved to be my stumbling block. When I got home with my treasure, I consulted a few cookbooks to determine how long to cook the beans; the general consensus was for between one and two hours after a preliminary soaking.

So I followed the directions to the letter, but after an hour and three quarters of simmering they really weren't creamy at all, there was a definite crunch to them. Afterwards I rang the store to find out more and after being questioned if I added salt to the cooking water (I didn't) there was no real answer. The beans still tasted great, but they weren't melting in the mouth.

This last weekend I went again, this time I simmered them for two and a half hours, but I would have to say they were still al dente and I was becoming concerned that they would fall apart. They were again very moreish but without the texture I was looking for. So now I'm down to this. Do they in fact need to be cooked longer, perhaps three hours or more or was La Madrague in fact using tinned flageolets which would be creamy and soft?

If any readers know the answer to either, I would love for you to let me know. Because when I find out I will post a recipe for them that will knock your socks off. Also if you could let me know where to find tinned ones as well.

In an aside when I was googling flageolets I discovered it was a name for a musical wind instrument related to the tin whistle. Do you think the consumption of flageolet beans would make you a better player? Probably!

Labels: flageolet beans