French Cooked Greenbeans

When I look back on the things I have posted this spring I see that this family really likes green beans!!  We have a lot of meals with green beans.  Makes sense though as we always grew them in our gardens and froze and canned them for the winter.   So it would follow you would accumulate a lot of ways to fix them as not to tie of eating them!!

This ia a little different way to go about it and works especially well if your fresh beans are young and tender as were the ones I found yesterday at Wright's Berry Farm, a local farmers market.

Start by breaking the beans to whatever size you like then after rinsing well with tap water set them aside and bring a larger kettle to boil with about 2-3" of water.  I add a little salt maybe 1/2 t. and a little vinegar, maybe 2 t.

I put about 4-5 C. ice in a large bowl and cover with tap water.  By now everything is in place so I toss the beans into the boiling water and bring them back to boiling for 1-2 minutes.  Using a slotted spoon or spider remove  the beans and deluge them directly into the ice water. They will turn a beautiful vibrant green.

I usually do this ahead.  I just completed this for tomorrows dinner.  I stashed them away after draining and drying them a bit on paper towels in a large zip lock bag.

Tomorrow shortly before serving time I will heat a couple of tablespoons of fat, (can be butter as the French would use or olive oil) till it is sizzling hot and toss in the beans and saute them for a few minutes.  Season with salt and pepper and serve.  I have sauted garlic and onion with the beans and shaken bit of red pepper flakes over it and I have sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds just prior to serving.  It all works.  It is just another way to serve them.