THIS MONTH IN THE delicious. KITCHEN...

As the delicious. food team cook and test recipes, there’s constant tinkering and fervent discussion: timesaving ideas; new tricks we’ve heard of; some technique we’ve dreamed up and want to try… Then there are the questions and input we get from colleagues as they come to see what’s cooking. On these pages, our aim (with help from our regular experts) is to reproduce that test kitchen atmosphere, sharing the most useful ideas and tips we’ve discovered. It’s cookery gold!

RUNNER BEANS

MAKE THE BOUNTY LAST

Runners are best when home-grown and smallish (less than 20cm long). Eat them as fresh as you can, and preserve the rest rather than letting them go limp in the fridge.

FREEZE

Trim beans and remove any stringy edges (a veg peeler is good for this), then slice into 2-3cm lengths. Bring a large pan of well salted water to the boil. Plunge in the beans and boil for 2 minutes. Drain and run under a cold tap until completely cold. Spread on a tray to freeze, then pack into freezer bags for up to 6 months.

PRESERVE

Runner beans take well to powerful flavours, so this piccalilli-style chutney is ideal. Prepare 1.2kg runner beans as for freezing (see above). Chop 500g onions and simmer with 300ml white wine vinegar for 20 minutes. Mix 4 tsp cornflour with 4 tsp mustard powder, 2 tsp ground turmeric, 4 tsp brown mustard seeds and a splash of vinegar to make a paste. Add to the pan with another 300ml white wine vinegar and the beans. Simmer, stirring, until thickened. Add 500g light brown sugar, then simmer for an hour, stirring often. Bottle in sterilised jars, seal and leave to mature for 2 months before eating.

For a video on how to sterilise jars see:deliciousmagazine.co.uk/videos/how-to-sterilise-jars

THE PERFECT (POSH) CHEESE MATCH