Here is another recipe greatly influenced by my lovely wife. I’m sure I am not the only one who spent their childhood eating canned green beans. Salty, mushy, and army green in color. Think M.A.S.H (damn that show was funny). The green beans that find their way on our plates today, however, are a far cry from the Jolly Green Giant and waaaay better.
My wife had an older friend named Charolette she had met at work. Their relationship grew quickly and became as close as you could get aside from family. She basically became a second grandmother to her. Charlotte had a very green thumb. Her vegetable and flower gardens were legendary and always included a row of green beans. They were so good I would eat them right off the vine. Every time we’d go to Charlotte’s house in the summer we would leave with a bag of produce, belly aches from laughing so damn much, and an eagerness to come back soon. Charolette was a dynamite cook, told a story like a sailor, and as sweet as the apricot pies she had stuffed in her freezer. It always felt like I was walking into my grandparents’ house when we would visit her and her husband Dicky. They were the best, one in a million.
Those green beans would come home and my wife would get to working on them, snapping off the ends and taking out any vein that she could. The vein is the fibrous string that runs down the length of the bean. Sometimes they will come out when you pop the ends off. Get them out if you can it will make for a better texture. Like most garden fresh vegetables I like to allow the natural flavor of the plant to be expressed with a minimalist approach. If you don’t have access to backyard beans, no problem, look for a vendor at your local farmers market or wait to see them on sale at your local grocery store, it usually means they are fresh and local. Ok I’m ready to eat, let’s cook
Garden Green Beans
- About 1 1/2 pounds fresh green beans
- 5 large cloves garlic
- 2 tablespoons grass-fed butter or ghee
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- Soup pot with lid
Method
- Peel and dice the garlic then set aside to rest (resting allows the garlic flavor to intensify)
- Pop the ends off the green beans, take out any veins you can and cut them in half
- Rinse the beans off but don’t dry them
- Melt the butter or ghee in the pot on medium heat
- Add the beans and salt then stir to coat them in the fat
- Cover then cook for 2 minutes
- Stir then cover and cook for 1 minute more
- Add garlic and 1 tablespoon water, stir then cover and cook for 1 minute
- Stir then cover and cook for 2 final minutes
- Stir then cover and let sit for 5 more minutes or until ready to serve
- We tore these up with last week’s fried chicken and some carrot/rutabaga mash
