After decades of insisting that practically raw was the only acceptable way to eat a green bean, food authors from The New York Times to the Food Network are now trumpeting the merits of the slow-cooked bean.
Some act like they invented the idea. Others say they discovered some Old World cook clinging to forgotten modes of bean cookery -- a Swiss tante, usually, or somebody's Italian grandma.
Nobody thought to look south of the Mason-Dixon Line, apparently. I (Tara) don't know about you, but I never encountered a crunchy green bean until I took a trip north as a kid. There the beans were skinnier than a pencil, bright green, and they squeaked in my teeth like the raw beans you snitch while you're stringing them. Kind of tasty, but -- you know -- raw. Not like the way our grandmas cooked beans: for hours, or maybe in a pressure cooker, with some chopped onion and strips of bacon, until everything was tender and limp, and you mopped up the smoky, spicy bean juice with your roll.
Years later, when I started cooking for Rob, he informed me he didn't like green beans. Turns out he had never eaten a green bean that didn't come out of a can. I bought some long, skinny Asian beans, sauteed them in butter with hot pepper and cumin and sesame seeds, and had myself a convert ... to crunchy beans, anyway.
Crunchy beans have their place. Stir-fry them in oil and Chinese spices, or blanch the first baby beans of the season and toss them into a salad. Good stuff. But for a while, we never saw a mainstream recipe that cooked green beans any other way. Ten years ago, a Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel food writer called "overcooked green beans ... one of my perverse pleasures, one that I never admitted. ..." Cook's Illustrated assured readers it had the best "old- fashioned" recipe for Green Beans with Bacon and Onion, which consisted of crispy crumbled bacon and skinny little crunchy beans. No. No no no no. I mean, that would probably taste OK, but "old- fashioned" it's not. And -- for all of us who have vegetable gardens -- what, pray tell, are you supposed to do when you skip a day picking beans and they actually get a chance to grow up? Ten years ago, any food writer who didn't want to get laughed back south of the Mason-Dixon Line would insist that you throw those "mature" beans in the garbage. That's stupid, and luckily people are starting to figure it out. Tyler Florence has a good recipe on the Food Network for slow-cooked green beans with bacon, and Emeril has a good one that calls for a ham hock.
More than one bean convert traces the epiphany back to a 1991 Atlantic Monthly article by Corby Kummer. The gist of it was that with green beans, you can achieve good color or deep flavor, but not both. If you want a bright green color, you need to barely blanch your beans. But if you want the fullest bean flavor, you've got to cook your green beans for a long time. They'll wilt and darken - but they'll taste fantastic. Greek-Style Green Beans Serves 6 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil 1 medium onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, chopped 1 pound green beans, trimmed 1 1/4 pounds (about 3 large) tomatoes, chopped 1/2 cup dry white wine 1 teaspoon dried, crumbled oregano 1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper HEAT oil in a 5-quart pot over medium heat. Add onions and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. ADD garlic and cook about 30 seconds. Add beans, tomatoes, wine, oregano, salt and pepper. BRING to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer until beans are tender, about 20 to 30 minutes (depending on the thickness of the beans). Nutrition information: (per serving): 178 calories, 110 calories from fat, 13 grams fat, 2 grams saturated fat, 0 milligrams cholesterol, 403 milligrams sodium, 12 grams carbohydrates, 6 grams sugar, 4 grams fiber. The Main TipYou can cook green beans by size: Skinny, crisp, young beans are fine barely steamed. But if you're going to cook them a long time, more mature beans or those bred to be big, like flat Roman beans actually work better. Reach Robert J. Byers at robbyers@wvgazette.com or 348-1236. (c) 2008 Sunday Gazette - Mail; Charleston, W.V.. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.
