{"id":74,"date":"2012-08-04T22:32:49","date_gmt":"2012-08-05T02:32:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/jadickin\/?p=74"},"modified":"2012-08-07T08:59:22","modified_gmt":"2012-08-07T12:59:22","slug":"bean-poles-and-pole-beans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/jadickin\/2012\/08\/04\/bean-poles-and-pole-beans\/","title":{"rendered":"Bean poles and pole beans"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pole<\/a>

Pole Beans, early summer, Zakarpattia<\/p><\/div>\n

Beans have considerable significance in the cuisine of Zakarpattia.\u00a0 One of my favorite dishes is terta fasol’<\/em> (mashed beans), made from dried kidney beans boiled and smashed with oil and large amounts of fresh chopped garlic <\/em>, served as a spread with fresh bread.\u00a0 The dish seems faintly out of place, more akin to Georgian lobio<\/em> or Egyptian foul<\/em> than a homey Slavic meal.\u00a0 Dried beans are also used in soups and a few other dishes but it is pole beans that are a real staple throughout the region.\u00a0 Nutritious and fast-growing, pole beans, called lopatky<\/em> in Zakarpattia, figure large in summer fare.\u00a0 Equally important, from a cultural standpoint, is the techka<\/em>, or bean pole, which serves many purposes, from bean pole to kindling to improvised weapon.\u00a0 Most notably, the bean pole is the equivalent of the American rolling pin as a symbol of domestic discord.\u00a0 To say that one has seen a neighbor chasing his or her spouse wielding a techka<\/em> is to state unequivocally that there is trouble in paradise.\u00a0 Made from strong, straight sticks about 2 inches in diameter and 7 feet tall, techky are kept from year to year, and establish order in the neat garden plots that adjoin many a house in the region.<\/p>\n

In the photograph included with this post you can see many features of the Zakarpattia landscape – a stucco house with a garden right outside; a large square hayrack nearby, and row upon row of lopatky<\/em> marking the family garden, where potatoes, feed corn, squash and beets are all grown.\u00a0 Here the lopatky<\/em> are just flowering, but as soon as the pods begin to ripen, they are brought directly to the table.\u00a0 One of the most important dishes prepared from lopatky<\/em> is “serbanka,<\/em>” a soup made from sour milk, paprika, porkfat, new potatoes, and pole beans.\u00a0 Indeed, the soup has its own verb serbaty<\/em>, which is colloquially used as a general term to mean “to eat soup” or “have a light meal.”\u00a0 Serbank<\/em>a is somewhat of an acquired taste – you learn to love the flavor of the sour milk as a savory base or you don’t.\u00a0 Lopatky<\/em> are also served as a main dish – boiled and then sauteed with oil and garlic.\u00a0 Cooked new potatoes can be added to the mix to beef up the dish, which is also served with bread.\u00a0 Lopatky<\/em> can be prepared with lard or vegetable oil, and are a favorite choice for a main dish during Orthodox Christian fasts, when believers do not consume dairy or animal products aside from fish.\u00a0 I can not imagine the Zakarpattia landscape – cultural or physical, without rows of leafy green columns wrapped around bean poles, or a Zakarpattia table without a plate or two of lopatky<\/em> at the end of a summer’s day.<\/p>\n

Serbanka<\/strong><\/p>\n

10-15 pole beans, strings removed and cut in thirds<\/p>\n

10 small new potatoes or 2 large potatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces and boiled<\/p>\n

1\/4 cup onion, chopped<\/p>\n

1.5 tbsp lard, bacon grease or vegetable oil<\/p>\n

1 cup buttermilk, or 1\/4 cup sour cream\u00a0 (for a fat free option, try fat free Greek yogurt)<\/p>\n

1\/2 tsp sweet paprika<\/p>\n

1\/2 tsp. salt<\/p>\n

Heat oil in a large saucepan.\u00a0 Add boiled potato and onion.\u00a0 Saute over medium heat until onion is slightly browned.\u00a0 Add pole beans and cook, stirring, for one minute.\u00a0 Add paprika, salt and 2-3 cups water.\u00a0\u00a0 Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer until beans are tender, about 20 minutes.\u00a0 Add buttermilk and cook 15 minutes more.\u00a0 Adjust salt to taste.\u00a0 Serve with fresh bread.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Lopatky with garlicread.<\/p><\/div>\n

Lopatky (Pole Beans Zakarpattia Style)<\/strong><\/p>\n

1 lb. pole beans such as Roma, strings removed and cut into 2-inch pieces<\/p>\n

3-4 large cloves garlic peeled and finely chopped<\/p>\n

3 tbsp. olive oil<\/p>\n

salt and pepper to taste<\/p>\n

Boil the beans for 15 minutes or until just tender.\u00a0 Drain.\u00a0 Heat oil in large skillet.\u00a0 Add garlic and saute 1 minute.\u00a0 Add pole beans and salt.\u00a0 Cook, stirring for 5 minutes more.\u00a0 Adjust salt and pepper to taste.\u00a0 Serve with starch of choice (potatoes, pasta, rice, bread).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beans have considerable significance in the cuisine of Zakarpattia.\u00a0 One of my favorite dishes is terta fasol’ (mashed beans), made from dried kidney beans boiled and smashed with oil and large amounts of fresh chopped garlic , served as a spread with fresh bread.\u00a0 The dish seems faintly out of place, more akin to Georgian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":268,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5701,38571,38570,38574],"tags":[38575],"class_list":["post-74","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food","category-language-and-culture","category-ukrainian-culture","category-zakarpattja","tag-pole-beans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/jadickin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/jadickin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/jadickin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/jadickin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/jadickin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/jadickin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/jadickin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74\/revisions\/90"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/jadickin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/jadickin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/jadickin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}