6th Avenue: Round 3 - Crostini with Fava Beans, Chevre, Mint, and Lemon

After I finished the farmers market demo today, I did a mock up of the entire process for all of you that couldn't make it tonight.  The audience was very interested in many of the little steps so I thought I'd share them with you.

For this recipe you will need:

Fava beans
Fresh goat cheese
One lemon
A few leaves of mint
A baguette
One clove of garlic
Olive oil
salt and pepper
a pot of boiling water and an ice bath

Step 1:
Remove the beans from their pods:

Blanch the beans in rapidly boiling salted water for two or three minutes, until they are tender and their jackets split.  Immediately drain and shock in ice water.  They should look like this:

Step 2:
Make some crostini by slicing the baguette on a slight bias, then fry them in olive oil over a medium flame until they look like this:

Sprinkle with some salt, and rub with the garlic clove, then set aside to cool.

Step 3:
Take the beans out of their jackets and place on the cutting board.  Add a little bit of salt and pepper, a bit of lemon zest, and some thinly sliced mint.

Now, mince it up:

Step 4:
Assemble the crostini by spreading a bit of the chevre on each crostini (add a little bit of milk or cream to the cheese if it is too dry to spread easily), then spoon on some fava mixture.  Press lightly to help the topping stick to the crostini.

And you're done!  Serve with a crisp white wine, such as sauvignon blanc or sancerre, or a dry sparkling wine.