I have never before cooked fresh broad (fava) beans as I have not seen them
in the shops. Now I have a vege garden with a block of beans ready to pick
and I am not too sure what to do with them. I found recipes googling but
most are for the dried variety and the ones for fresh beans were mainly
along the lines of 'steam them for a while and then serve in a salad'. I
did this the other day and they were rather nice cooked about 5 minutes and
served in oil, lemonjuice and S & P. So my questions a

(1) When do you pick them for the best result, this seems to be a trade off
between size of bean (yield) and tenderness. Is there any way to determine
when they are at maximum size but still tender other than trial and error?

(2) Other than the salad approach what kind of recipe makes the best use of
this resource?

(3) Would any of the recipes for the dried variety be suitable and (other
than not soaking to re-hydrate the beans) how would I adapt them?

David