Rosemary Bean

Rosemary Bean This started out as a vegetarian dish that just got better and better. The non veggie option is mentioned at the end.
The main flavour is Rosemary, I am lucky to have lots of weeping rosemary in my garden. The early flowers bring a nice blue colour in spring. The main ingredient is flageolet beans, these are one of the highest carriers of protein you can find.
The smelly ingredient is ripe camembert or brie.

This recipe is for 6 people.

INGREDIENTS:

two tins of flageolet beans, 2 onions, 3-4 good sized sprigs of rosemary or 4-5 teaspoonfuls of dried rosemary, 6 medium tomatoes, 1 complete round of eager camembert, balsamic vinegar, garlic, some red wine, pepper and salt, some parsley for decoration, olive oil. (6 large lamb chops for the non veggie version)

Requires one medium saucepan and a grill pan or oven dish. On the boat I have a better grill than oven but at home I use the oven.

1 Chop the onions finely and put in the pan

2 Add the fresh rosemary very finely chopped or dried rosemary.

3 Add some pepper and salt to taste

4 Peel 3-4 cloves of garlic and very finely chop and add to pan. (Why waste space with a garlic crusher?) Its far more important to have a pestle and mortar.

5 add some olive oil and gently cook .

6 When the onion is soft add a couple of dashes of balsamic vinegar, half a small glass of red wine, and all the beans - I do not drain the tins of beans but you may need to check the instructions on your tins. Simmer for about 4-5 minutes.

7 Remove the contents from the pan and put in grill tray or oven dish.

8 Place on top of the beans thinly sliced tomatoes until a complete cover has been made.

9 Cook until tomatoes are just going soft.

10 Slice up the camembert as best you can and make another layer on top of the tomatoes,

11 Cook briefly until cheese is spreading out.

12 Serve with a sprig of parsley on top.

Serve some chunky brown bread or Nan breads with it.

Goes well with a good red wine.

The Non veggie version.

Grill some lamb chops and put the bean mixture straight on top of the lamb once the lamb is cooked. Everything else is the same. Enjoy!