SUCCOTASH RECIPE

(KEYWORDS: SUCCOTASH RECIPE, succotash recipes, sufferin succotash, creamed corn succotash, easy succotash)

I'm sure you too have odd strange memories from you childhood that spring uninvited into the conscious brain. I had one this week: creamed corn succotash. I even remember the name, though it's fully fifty plus years since my father's succotash passed through my lips. Such was the power of it!

The South African lima bean is perfectly horrid. Hard, starchy and tasteless. It's white with pink stripes, whilst I LOVE the bean family, from childhood I couldn't stomach our first limas.

Then Papa, when I was about ten years old, went to visit his father in Pine Beach, New Jersey. And came back with a highly contraband packet of lima bean seeds. Little pale yellowy-green beans, I still remember them like it was yesterday.

Into the garden they went, along with a couple rows of Hickory King, our favourite corn. Three months later, aged still only ten, I had my first creamed corn succotash. I still remember it like it was yesterday. I suppose we enjoyed it a few times, and then pah, no more. Papa cuckolded another man's wife and that was that: no more succotash recipes. And a few other things too.

And then the smuggled-in green American lima beans, fresh from the garden together with our own corn. Yum!

Oh, one other thing! I was made to sit on the verandah with a large bowl of pods and forced to shell them. Now that wasn't fun, but in retrospect, since I love tasty food, it was worth the effort and brings back such happy memories. Quality food usually requires some effort.

INGREDIENTS

• 3 lbs. fresh green lima beans

• 4 ears fresh corn

• If all members of the family have disgustingly low cholesterol, then 1/2 cup light cream. Otherwise a little butter.

First the limas

Pour a cup of boiling water into a pot, and bring it again to the boil. Add the beans, place the lid on the pot and bring it to hard boiling. If necessary add some boiling water so the beans are just about covered. Leave the lid off for a few minutes so that some of the water can boil off, and then replace the lid and simmer until tender. About fifteen minutes depending on how old the beans are. When tender, drain the limas, keeping the water for the corn, or mealies as we call them in South Africa.

EASY SUCCOTASH

1. Bring the lima water back to the boil, and add the mealie cobs and boil hard for about five minutes.

2. Allow the corn to cool sufficiently so you can cut the kernels from the cob. Use a sharp knife.

3. Toss the limas and corn kernels into a pot and add the cream or butter, salt and pepper, and perhaps a slither of finely chopped chili and garlic. Even a few slices of radish to give it a bit of spice. Bring gently back to the boil, stirring, and serve either as a side-dish or main meal. It's delic with fish, scallops or shrimp, if you're not a vegetarian.

RADISH NUTRITION ...

GLYCEMIC INDEX

Both corn and lima beans have a low glycemic index cooked in this way. Although they are faily high in starch, the sugars are slowly released in the blood stream without producing an insulin rush.

What helps in particular is the protein in the beans - that keeps the total GI low.

If you are seriously overweight then this dish is not for you. The best way to lose weight is to cut out the starch in your diet altogether. GLYCEMIC INDEX and Carbohydrate Count Chart.

FREE WEIGHT LOSS PROGRAMS ...

HONEST INJUN

I got this recipe from my New Jersey cousin, and for me it's still untried. I have such good memories... but fifty years is a long time. She sent some green lima bean seeds in the post and they are already about 3" high. It's a little late in the summer to be planting pole beans, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

We'll be posting photos as they progress. Meantime, the corn is in full flower. Corn on the cob, one of my favourites. From the can, or made into cornflour it's high GI, but from the cob it's low GI. Good stuff. I've put up a scarecrow and so far the vervet monkeys are staying well away.

GREEN BEAN SUCCOTASH RECIPE

This one's tried and tested, and much loved. Green pole beans instead of lima beans... GREEN BEAN SUCCOTASH RECIPES ...

You don't have disgustingly low cholesterol...?

Really it's not so difficult. Start with my wife Helen's salad every day, or perhaps five days a week, and making your own hummus. It's easy. Add a bowl of oats for breakfast, and an apple a day, and hey presto, I can give you a reasonable assurance your cholesterol will start to behave. FOODS THAT LOWER CHOLESTEROL ...