One of my chores when I was a kid was to “top and tail” and remove the strings from the green beans we’d harvested from the garden. The baskets of fresh-picked green beans sometimes seemed endlessly high and I often questioned why I had to go to all that trouble to remove something as harmless as tops and tails. Today I appreciate the simplicity of the task. I love fresh green beans so much that I miss them terribly when they’re out of season. You can cook the beans as long as you like; the longer they cook, the sweeter they get.
Recipe information
Yield
makes 4 to 6 servings
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Prepare a large bowl of ice water and bring a large saucepan of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the green beans and cook for 30 seconds. Drain the beans and immediately submerge them in the ice water to stop the cooking. Let the beans sit in the ice water for a couple of minutes, and then drain thoroughly.
Step 2
In a large skillet, heat the butter over medium-low heat. When the butter has melted, add the garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 2 to 3 minutes; do not let the garlic brown. Stir in the green beans and cook gently until crisp-tender, 10 to 12 minutes, or until softer to the bite—this is how I like them—20 to 25 minutes. You want to hear a gentle sizzling sound as they cook, but no more than that. Add salt to taste and serve.
from aunt elsa’s kitchen
Step 3
Placing green vegetables in boiling water for less than a minute and then plunging them into ice water—what professionals call blanching and shocking—keeps them very green and pretty. You can skip this step if you don’t have time to wait for the water to boil.
