Think Of Green Beans As More Than Plate Decor
Green beans used to be an afterthought. You’d go to the jolly ho-ho-ho green giant aisle of the supermarket and buy a can. Later you’d heat up the contents to have something colorful to move around on the dinner plate next to the hamburger and mashed potatoes.
Those green beans (string beans, if you prefer) were tasteless, boring and utterly uncontroversial. You’d eat them or not, depending on how argumentative you were feeling, because mom said they were good for you.
The rule was to cook them until they surrendered. It’s a fate that sometimes befalls even fresh green beans, as I can tell you from my experience at a holiday dinner.
A certain relative - who shall remain nameless to protect the Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! - brought out a platterful of these sorry, squishy not-so-green vegetables to go along with the turkey.
“How long did you cook these?” I asked.
“Oh, not too long. Maybe 35, 45 minutes.”
That amount of time in the steamer is the green bean equivalent of the half-life of carbon.
Ever since the first Szechuan restaurant appeared, offering a staple of crunchy and spicy green beans, we’ve known they need not be gummy or bland. Three to five minutes in a steamer is fine: just warm in the middle but still al dente. A few more minutes are OK if you prefer them softer, but if you go longer than 12 minutes, I’m not coming over for dinner.
Pick the crispest, prettiest beans you can find. A woman once thought I was out of my bean-pickin’ mind for doing a kind of “I love it, I love it not” at a supermarket green-bean bin. Her approach was to just grab a bunch. That’s fine if you want about half your beans to be too brown, too scrawny or already limp.
The recipe for green bean and garlic soup is adapted from “Mediterranean Light: Delicious Recipes from the World’s Healthiest Cuisine,” by Martha Rose Shulman (Bantam). The string bean salad is from “Nouvelle Chinese Cooking” by Karen Lee with Alexandra Branyon (Macmillan).
Green Bean and Garlic Soup
6 cups water
1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
1 sprig (or 1/4 teaspoon dried) thyme
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon olive oil
10 garlic cloves, minced or put through a press
1/2 pound green beans in 1 1/2-inch lengths
1 egg
Freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
Croutons
Combine the water, salt, thyme, bay leaf and olive oil in a soup pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and squeeze in the garlic. Add the green beans and simmer, uncovered, for 10 to 12 minutes. Adjust seasonings.
Beat the egg in a bowl and ladle some soup into the egg, stirring. Return to the pot, stirring all the while. Add pepper. Let simmer a few minutes, tasting to make sure the flavors blend. Serve, topped with parsley and/or croutons.
Yield: makes 4 servings.
String Bean Salad With Double Sesame Dressing
1 tablespoon unhulled sesame seeds
1 1/2 pounds green beans
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons light soy sauce
2 tablespoons spicy mustard sauce (mustard sauce from a Chinese restaurant works fine)
2 teaspoons sugar
3 tablespoons oriental sesame oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/4 cup finely chopped scallions, white and green parts
1/2 cup finely chopped red sweet peppers and yellow Holland peppers
Place wok or nonstick pan over high heat for about 1 minute, or until it smokes. Add the sesame seeds. Turn the heat to low and dry cook for 3 to 5 minutes, or until brown. Empty onto a flat plate.
Steam the string beans 3 to 5 minutes, or until they have softened but still have some crunch. Remove and plunge them into a bowl of ice-cold water. Drain, dry, remove stem ends and place in large bowl.
To make dressing, mix the vinegar, soy sauce, mustard sauce, sugar and sesame oil. When thick, add the garlic, scallions, and red and yellow peppers. Add to string beans and mix well. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.
Yield: makes 4 to 6 servings.