Green Bean Recipes

[waldorf]

I too look forward to garden fresh green beans... prepared in any fashion.... Recently, I tried Paula Wolferts Melt-in-Your Mouth Green Beans with Turkish Pepper (p.53 Slow Med Kitchen). The recipe is similar to others posted here... with one significant difference - 5-7 hours in a slow cooker with an overnight rest to mellow the flavours. Wow!

[fifi]

I too look forward to garden fresh green beans... prepared in any fashion.... Recently, I tried Paula Wolferts Melt-in-Your Mouth Green Beans with Turkish Pepper (p.53 Slow Med Kitchen). The recipe is similar to others posted here... with one significant difference - 5-7 hours in a slow cooker with an overnight rest to mellow the flavours. Wow!

I have got to try this. I have the book, the slow cooker and everything but the Turkish pepper flakes. Does anyone know what is different about Turkish pepper flakes? Is there a reasonable substitute? I really don't want to wait on mail order.

[alacarte]

Rachael Ray made haricots verts "fries" the other day.

The hot dog chain F&B serves haricots frites -- they are garlicky and divine!

[sparrowgrass]

I make Dilly Beans--I don't like them , but they sure go over well at potlucks. You can use the same recipe for little okra pods.

Dilly Beans

For 10 pint jars (you can cut this recipe in half, if you want.)

Snap beans: young, straight, stems removed, enough to tightly fill 10 pint jars (about 5 pounds?)

Garlic: 1 or 2 cloves per jar

Red pepper, hot, whole, dry: 1 per jar or 1 tsp red pepper flakes

Dill heads, fresh: 1 head per jar, or 1 tsp dill seed per jar.

Brine:

Water: 5 cups

Vinegar, cider or white: 5 cups

Pickling salt: ½ cup

Brine: Bring the water, vinegar and salt to a boil.

Assembly: In each canning jar (use wide-mouth jars) place a good-size dill head in the bottom.

Pack whole beans (tips trimmed) vertically in the jars over the dill head. Pack the jar rather tightly.

Push a peeled clove of garlic down the side of the beans about half way. Use 1 or 2 cloves, the second one on the opposite side.

Similarly, push a dry red pepper down the side about half way, using 1 or 2 peppers. The tightly packed beans will hold the peppers and garlic in place, adding to the appearance.

Pour boiling brine over the beans to cover.

Cap the jars tightly and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

[MsMelkor]

Blackened with Cajun spices and dipped in a mustard remoulade sauce.

[ludja]

Lots of good dishes mentioned already. Here are a few others that I like:

A classic Genoese dish: Gnocchi with pesto sauce and green beans or pasta w/boiled potatoes, green beans and pesto (Absolutely delicious combination; my favorite use for pesto).

Classic green bean salad with simply: cooked and chilled green beans, onions or shallots, s&p, vinegar and oil. At home we make it "Austrian-style" using Austrian Pumpkin Seed Oil for some or all of the oil. (The dark black oil is very interesting looking to those not familiar w/it but best of all it has a great pungent taste.) I probablly make this salad more than any other in the summer. It goes great with almost all bbq/grilled food: fresh, green and vinegary.

(One variation I'll "allow" on the simple green bean salad is to add halved cherry tomatoes...)

Had an interesting green bean dish at Hawthorne Lane (in SF) once: tempura green beans as a garnish with soups. In their version, the soup was an Asian-inspired seafood soup but I imagine they would go well with a number of different soups.

Edited July 27, 2004 by ludja (log)

[ludja]

We like to blanch them and toss them in a Japanese Goma-Ae sauce (made from toasted ground sesame seeds with soya, sugar and dashi broth) which can be used on any green vegetable. The most common way it is eaten is with spinach but you can use any leafy green or green beans or even broccoli.

The recipe is from Torakris' eGCI Course on Japanese Cooking:

Thanks for passing this idea on Jason... looks and sounds like a delicious and versatile prep with different vegetables, including green beans.

(REMINDER: Must catch up in reading all our egullet on-line classes.... )

[purplewiz]

How about grilled on the BBQ?

I took some fresh beans, cut off the tips, tossed with olive oil and some seasoned salt, and cooked them on the grill. If you put them down perpendicular to the openings on the grill, they don't fall through :-).

I let them go until they were starting to char, about 2-3 minutes, rolled them over, did about the same on the other side. Tossed them with a little more olive oil and served.

My husband, who basically doesn't like green beans, has requested them again. Soon.

Marcia.

[Marlene]

I confess, I've never blanched. I know, I know. I wouldn't know how to begin.

Tonight's dinner is roast pork and roasted potatoes with green and yellow beans. I usually just steam them, and toss them with a butter, lemon, garlic and toasted sesame seed mixture.

[Mabelline]

Doesn't anyone worship at the shrine of the yellow wax beans??? I love them. They are a good meat substitute, I reckon, if that was my inclination, for they have a true 'taste like meat' phenomenom to them.

[Jinmyo]

I use either haricot verts (actually imported from France) or Chinese long beans or, if available, tiny fresh green beans from local growers or, if there is just no other option, regular big thick woody green beans sliced lengthwise at leas once if nott twice.

Blanch, shock.

Toss with taramasalata. Excellent salady thing.

Or with sesame oil and lime or yuzu, season, salmon roe and slivered scallions. Great with seared scallops.

Or heated with butter and roasted garlic and pepporoncino. Nice with most roasts.

Or: minced as a layer in a sandwich such as roasted lamb shoulder or braised beef. Or even salmon or tuna salad with a bit of minced hard-cooked egg. Great with much Dijon on pain de levain with a side of frites.

Then of course there's deep-frying the little lads.

[Monica Bhide]

Blanched, sautéed briefly with a fruity olive oil, a minced chilli or two, and garlic. A squeeze of fresh lime upon finishing and garnished with Thai basil salt (salt dehydrated in the oven with minced basil, put into a pepper grinder, and ground like freshly cracked pepper over the beans). Heaven.

Man this does sound really really good

[KatieM]

I've seen these called Roma Beans at the greenmarket

Yep, those are Roma beans. Or squirt beans as my brother and I used to call them. I guess because they kind of squirt when you bite into them? We grew squirt beans, regular string beans, wax beans, and sugar snap peas when I was growing up. I loved summer. In the summer we ate all kinds just barely cooked until tender. My mom canned all the regular green beans and wax beans. The extra squirt beans were frozen (they don't can well). The sugar snap peas never lasted long enough. We just ate them.

Doesn't anyone worship at the shrine of the yellow wax beans???

Yes! I do! I think they go especially well with pork chops and mashed potatoes. At least, that's what we always ate them with. I suspect this was because of my mother's subconsious need to serve an all-white food plate (or beige, I guess). Any other Scandinavian-Americans that can relate to this phenomenon?

[chow guy]

My wife loves my "boozy beans"

I saute minced garlic, sliced onions with a pinch of fresh marjoram in EVO then add the beans, chopped tomatoes, a little stock and some white wine or vermouth, salt & freshly ground pepper. Cover and cook till tender.

[NancyH]

Chowguy - what is "EVO"?

[Knicke]

NancyH, I'm almost positive he meant "EVOO", which is extra-virgin olive oil.

But please, chow guy, correct me if I'm mistaken!

[NulloModo]

I totally forgot to pack a lunch yesterday, which resulted in me running out to pick up whatever was fast during my planning period.

It ended up being Popeye's (naked chicken combo if you must know, it is actually pretty darn good) and I was surprised to find that they offer green beans there. I wasn't expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised. Very flavorful, nice and soft cooked beans, lots of ham bits, all in all, probably the best fast-food side I have had in a long time.

[petite tête de chou]

How about steaming them ever, ever so briefly, chill well and dip each bite into extra special evoo with salt and freshly ground pepper?

With white wine...and French bread.

On a dock somewhere?