No butter. No cream. No Wine. Was this reallllllly a French recipe? How can it be? Doesn't that violate the basic the first three essential principles of French cooking? Julia put it in her cookbook, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," so Haricots Verts A La Provencale ("Green Beans with Tomatoes, Garlic, and Herbs") must be French. This was, by far, the healthiest French dish I've prepared and it was downright delicious! Fresh green beans, fresh tomatoes, fresh onions, fresh garlic, and fresh parsley -- it doesn't get any fresher than that.
I started off getting to use one of the techniques I'd learned early on in my cooking quest -- peeling, seeding, and de-juicing fresh tomatoes. It made a lot more sense this time around, having done it before, and went much much quicker than the first time when I was trying to figure it out. This technique really does refine the dish a bit by eliminating the tomato seeds and it also keeps the dish from being watery from all of the tomato juice. Here's how I did it.
This dish used 4 firm, ripe tomatoes (to go with 3 pounds of green beans). Each tomato was placed in boiling water for 10 seconds to loosen the skin. I used a paring knife to cut out the stem and then it was easy to catch the edge of the skin and peel it off the tomato. After that was done to each tomato, they were sliced in half crosswise (not lengthwise down through the stem). It sounds like it will be really messy but it isn't - to juice the tomatoes I just firmly squeezed them and the juice and seeds pretty much pop out into the waiting bowl.
Here's a pro tip for you -- remember to reread the whole recipe before proceeding. I was about to dump out the juice when my sous chef, Elizabeth, asked if she could have it to add to some chili she was making. Then, a few minutes later, I got to the step in my recipe where it said I was to add the tomato juice to the pan (or use water if not enough juice). I used water.
Well, once the tomatoes were juiced they were then set aside until it was their turn to jump into the pan.
Two large onions, about 2 cups, were sliced up and cooked slowly in a couple of teaspoons of olive oil. Julia called for 1/2 cup of oil but I felt like that was going to be too much and it all seemed to work out with the smaller amount of oil. The onions were cooked slowly, just enough to make them translucent but not browned.
While the onions were cooking I prepared an herb bouquet of two large, mashed cloves of garlic, a couple of bay leaves, about 4 sprigs of fresh garlic, a couple of cloves, and 1/2 teaspoon of thyme. I've long since learned that my sweetie doesn't appreciate me giving here these kinds of bouquets so I just tied everything up in a cheesecloth.
The tomatoes, onions and herb bouquet were then all simmered together for about 30 minutes. I added 1/4 cup of water (since I'd given away my tomato juice!) as well as a little salt and pepper to taste. While they were simmering, I blanched the green beans (Haricots Verts Blanchis) for about 9 minutes. After being drained, the green beans were added to the onions and tomatoes (I even remembered to remove the herb bouquet) and simmered together for about 8 minutes. About a 1/4 cup of chopped fresh parsley was also tossed in and was a nice addition. Julia suggested covering the pan and then removing the lid to evaporate the liquid. I took a chance and never covered the dish. It worked out well -- I've learned that sometimes the times Julia suggests tends to make the beans a bit soggier than we like.
These smelled great as they cooked and tasted even better when the were eaten. A nice surprise was the next day -- we had some leftovers and they were great as well. As they sat overnight some of the flavors became a bit more pronounced and it was delicious. If your ready for some healthy French food, or even just in the mood for a bit of a lighter side dish, this is it!
Bon Appetit!
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