Anyone who hasn’t realized that men (and women) run primarily on food and affection hasn’t been paying attention. Which is why cooking matters. That health thing, too, of course. We are what we eat and all that. But the flavors. The textures. The amazing variety we can create with the fresh ingredients we are so blessed to have here. That’s what really gets us to the table. Unfortunately for a lot of us, raised on microwave meals and fast food, our taste buds have been taught to love the heaps of fat, salt and sugar that those ready-made calorie-delivery-systems pack.
It’s no wonder so many people A) think they don’t like vegetables, therefore B) don’t have a repertoire of good recipes for them, and C) view them as penance rather than pleasure.
Take beans (34 calories/cup, plenty of potassium). Leaving aside the whole organic/non-organic issue (and it’s a legitimate one), the ‘fresh’ green beans you get in most supermarkets are usually pretty well traveled, often more so than those who are eating them. It’s not surprising then, that there’s a night-and-day difference between the quality of those road-weary haricots verts (slim little French green beans) in the supermarket and those that were picked either the morning of or the evening before the farmer’s market or the farm stand and travelled maybe 15 miles tops.
Time to retrain the taste buds. It’s a quality of life issue. Yes, cooking takes time – often when we don’t feel like thinking about it let alone doing it. And yet reintroducing ourselves to the pleasures of good food, the shared table, the unbearably self-righteous sense of doing well by ourselves and by those we love totally trumps so-called convenience. (Most of the time.).
Fresh-picked green beans, which are just coming into the markets now, are terrific in a lot of different dishes. For a quick, easy side dish for a chop or hamburger, sauté fresh green beans with cherry tomatoes, onions, garlic, oregano and lemon basil and a little sugar and red wine or red wine vinegar. On Food 52, Amanda Hesser raves about a green bean dish she had at Jaleo with Serrano ham and apricots plumped in sherry. Sounds fab; I plan to try it this week. Link’s below.
Green beans are great in casseroles, like the ground pork and fried rice casserole link below, or gratinéed with herbs and fish or chicken — cheese makes everything yummy — or done in papillote (a sealed parchment packet that looks like a big Cornish pasty) with a piece of fish, corn, tomatoes, herbs, onions, a dash of white wine. This only takes about 5 minutes to put together and about 15-20 minutes to bake in a 400 degree oven. Serve it with a big dab of sour cream or crème fresh (and a glass of white wine of course).
Green beans make a great lunch or light supper when combined with ham and seasonings, and are terrific on hot days in cool main dish salads like chicken with green beans or green beans, tuna and potato salad with mustard- or herb-y vinaigrette. They’re delicious ingredients in a salad when steamed barely tender-crisp (or cooked in a little browned butter and water for extra flavor), added to roasted beets and dressed with raspberry vinaigrette. Steam them tender-crisp and when cold, wrap them in horseradish, mustard and sour cream dressing with a little chopped scallion, or sauté them with some chopped dried tomato in olive oil for about 3 minutes, cool to room temp, mix with a little lime basil and a bit of sliced sweet onion and top with toasted pine nuts. Add feta or blue cheese for a filling lunch.
Green beans are really easy to pickle too, and they make a snappy addition to a dry martini or add a tart green contrast to a bit of weekend lunch with a crust of bread, a beer, some cheese and thou. Food plus affection.
Green Beans and Fish en Papillote
You can actually put almost anything you want into a papillote. Just keep in mind that the fish will most likely take about 15 minutes, so what you add needs to take no more than that while it’s steaming in all those lovely flavors inside the pouch. I’ve added little new potatoes here, but as mentioned above, you could substitute fresh corn cut from the ear as a yummy carb alternative and use cherry tomatoes instead of mushrooms. Cilantro is a good herb to add with the corn-tomato combo.
4 fish fillets
1 pound green beans
½ onion, sliced
½ sweet pepper sliced thin
4 small new potatoes, halved
6 small mushrooms, halved
fresh herbs – dill and parsley or lime basil and parsley are particularly nice
salt and freshly ground pepper
¼ cup white wine
Crème fresh/sour cream sauce:
½ cup crème fresh or sour cream
1 Tblsp Dijon or other richly flavored mustard
tsp of the fresh herbs you used in the papillote
Most of us don’t have parchment lying around (you can get it pretty easily these days, though), but most of us do have tin foil. In a generous piece of whichever, put down first the onions and peppers and mushrooms (or corn and tomatoes), lay on the fish fillets, then the potatoes and lastly the beans. Add herbs, salt and pepper and splash in the wine. Close it up well so there are no leaks or you’re likely to come back to a dried-out dinner.
Bake on a sided baking sheet (just in case there’s a hole anywhere and juices do escape) in a 400F degree oven for about 15-20 minutes. Be careful opening it. You’ll get a big blast of steam. It’s a good idea to have oven mitts or rubber gloves on when you do open it an lean back a bit so you don’t get it in the face.
For sauce, mix crème fresh or sour cream with the herbs and mustard. Serve it on the side.
https://www.food52.com/blog/2138_green_beans_with_apricots_and_serrano_ham
https://www.food.com/recipe/chicken-green-bean-and-walnut-salad-63556
https://allrecipes.com/recipe/fiances-favorite-savory-green-beans/detail.aspx
https://www.livestrong.com/article/435046-how-to-make-ground-pork-green-beans-and-fried-rice/
https://www.food.com/recipe/green-bean-and-wax-bean-salad-with-tabasco-vinaigrette-247460
https://allrecipes.com/recipe/cascadia-fideua/detail.aspx
https://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Yummiest-Green-Beans-Ever/Detail.aspx
https://allrecipes.com/recipe/southern-green-beans/detail.aspx
https://allrecipes.com/recipe/green-beans-with-almonds-and-caramelized-shallots/detail.aspx
https://allrecipes.com/recipe/japanese-style-sesame-green-beans/detail.aspx
https://allrecipes.com/recipe/grandmas-green-bean-casserole/detail.aspx
https://allrecipes.com/recipe/dads-pan-fried-green-beans/detail.aspx
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