Friday 4 March 2011

EVIL WEEVILS

We have had beans for tea four times this week. Last Saturday morning was spent sorting out the edible ones from those with weevil holes in. We rejected the holey ones and soaked the rest. After a few hours they had swollen up and some revealed a small grey blotch on them. If you pierce one of these you will usually find a little weevil inside – by now well past resuscitation. The problem is that  some of these little blighters get through the system even after double scrutiny, and end up in the pot to become part of  bean stew (Sunday), bean stir fry (Monday), bean, cabbage and potato hash (Tuesday) and, having been deep-frozen overnight, bean and tomato spaghetti( Wednesday). The thing is to add sufficient onion, garlic and spices to mask any weevil  flavouring and just go for it!
I have had no repercussions of the gastro-colonic- urinary kind, so I assume they are non-toxic and may even contribute to my protein intake - though they are evil-looking weevils. I just hope I never have to pick one out of my teeth!   If anyone has a suggestion as to a more efficient way of detecting and sorting beans a la weevil,  so I don’t have to regularly spend half my weekend dealing with them I would be grateful. I suppose one answer would be to opt for the Heinz variety!
Another amazing lightning display last night - or was I hallucinating following an excess of 'bush meat'?

1 comment:

  1. So Lea, I read all about weevils on line, the adult weevil lays the egg inside the grain, and leaves no evidence. Then it hatches. So you are supposed to when you buy any grain, lay them on a flat surface and according to your technology, put them in the oven on low, the freezer or the microwave for a couple of hours before you store them. This will kill any yet to hatch (I've never done it, mind to check) Also apparently they don't like bay leaves, so put some bay leaves in with them. (I bought some in Abuja - haven't looked anywhere else)

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