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Green Beans

Thu, 01/14/2010 - 18:10 — Bryan Lambert

 

For the longest time, I thought I didn't like green beans. I mean, clearly I didn't like green beans - I wasn't under some freakish delusion. They were nasty. Mushy, vegetal, bitter, and all-arouind unpleasant.

It wasn't until my first CSA season, really, that I discovered I do like green beans. I just like them in a very, very specific way. First and foremost, they need to be fresh. Not canned, not frozen. Fresh and as thin as possible. The bagged beans in the produce section are nice, because they're washed and trimmed already. That's enough of a chore to make me instinctively avoid them as a casual staple. Costco sells a very nice bag of "French Beans", which are even nicer than the grocery store bag beans, but they come in two pound bags, so I have to be prepared to eat them for a while if I get them.

Second, they  need to be cooked right. And by "right", I mean not much at all. I go with high heat, ideally in cast iron, for 3-4 minutes, tops. Then I hit it with a small amount of liquid - ideally an acid like lemon juice or rice wine vinegar - for another 30-45 seconds. Remove and serve while they've still got a lot of crunch to them and almost no bitterness. If I'm having the green beans as a side dish alongside some nice pan-roasted meat, I'll often take the meat out of the pan, crank the heat back up to high, and cook the green beans in the same pan, picking up extra bits of flavor from whatever I did to the meat.

For seasonings? Always salt, sometimes pepper, and often garlic powder, plus possibly a hint of whatever spices I'm using in the main part of the dish just to bring them together. For example, last night's supper was built around leftover Bombay potatoes Cathy made on Monday, so the mahi mahi was dusted with a bit of rogan josh curry powder, and a small shake went into the green beans as well.

And that's pretty much the only way I like the things. No casseroles, no frozen microwave "steam-paks", just a quick saute or stir-fry and straight to the plate. If you also hate green beans, but never had them like this, it might be worth a shot.

 

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Try steaming rather than

Thu, 01/14/2010 - 20:39 — jon (not verified)

Try steaming rather than boiling (for the same amount of time), it preserves the flavor better.
Also once cooked, try tossing them around in a little bit of olive oil, salt and crushed garlic!
 

Green Beans

Fri, 01/15/2010 - 15:27 — ADD (not verified)

Also amazing roasted in foil after tossing in olive oil with some sea salt -- totally addictive.

Steamed beans with new potatoes, butter, and salt

Fri, 01/15/2010 - 21:06 — Liz minus password at home (not verified)

I grew up stringing and snapping freshly-picked beans at my Grandma's, snacking on raw chunks of them while I worked.
 
A few years back, I dragged my parents to the St. Paul Farmers' Market and we picked up string beans and little new potatoes. We boiled the potatoes and steamed the beans, then threw them together with butter and salt and pepper, and that was pretty much the whole meal, probably with some bread on the side. It sounds unutterably bland, but man, the flavors are just pure and simple and delicious. I do that whenever I remember in the summer, which is sadly rare.
 
I do like the frozen and canned ones, although fresh is definitely best. I am very fond of green bean casserole, preferably with tater tots on top and curry powder in the mushroom soup. I also have a weakness for Veg-All and canned wax beans, but I'm pretty sure that's less about the actual vegetables and all about the weird salty alien flavors they get. Could I be more Midwestern, with that paragraph there? (Yes, actually - I could eat meat.)

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