First of all, one thing I love about French cooking is that it makes a very simple dish sound like something really fancy. Today for example -- If I called a family member and told them I was going to be making Haricots Verts a l' Anglaise they be running through the door, putting on their bibs (oh yeah, grandkids are liking the food too -- just ask 3-year-old Charlotte about bruschetta) and anxiously waiting the delicacy to be placed before them. I can't help smiling when I think of their happy faces reacting to the big bowl of buttered green beans being placed on the table.
Yep, apparently Haricots Verts is French for green beans. I don't have a French dictionary and I don't want to spoil the fun by looking up the actual meaning of the words on Google so I'm just translating these words based on the French and English names in "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." You see, Julia Child was apparently an exceptional linguist in addition to a master chef (or at least that's what I choose to believe because it makes this adventure even more fun). The other interesting fact about this cook book is that it does nothing to help me with the pronunciation of any of these words so my family will learn all kinds of wrong ways to describe these dish titles. As for me, I'm pretty sure "Haricots" is not supposed to be pronounced in a way that rhymes with "apricots" and "Anglaise" shouldn't rhyme with "mayonnaise" - but it does today. Perhaps I'll write another blog someday about my adventures learning French -- not.
The quest with this recipe began with a bag of fresh green beans that a nice neighbor had shared from their garden. They should have been picked a bit smaller but they were still nice beans. The other challenge for the quest was that I needed to make whatever I was going to do in about an hour because we had to leave on time for a trip to Philadelphia. Oh no -- I actually had to meet a deadline while cooking? That hasn't worked out particularly well in the past.
Julia came through -- as soon as I looked up green beans I found some wonderfully simple ways of preparing them and I, being the wise person I am considered the deadline Elizabeth was holding me to, chose the first and simplest version.
This is where the mysterious Blanche reappeared. You may recall that when I prepared the ratatouille I needed to seed and juice the tomatoes. That process began by blanching the tomatoes for ten seconds. To prepare any of the green bean recipes we first have to prepare "Haricots Verts Blanchis." Guess what, Blanche has a french cousin named "Blanchis." After considerable research, well none actually, I have reached the conclusion that the French do not boil vegetables. After all, why use a one syllable word when you could use two. Blanche spells her name either as Blanche or Blanch and is an unpredictable guest - for peeling the tomatoes she visited for 10 seconds but to prepare the green beans she hangs around much longer - between 10-15 minutes. I've got a feeling that she'll be dropping in during a lot of these vegetable recipies.
Blanch is a great helper though - for example, to complete a meal on time it is nice to prepare as much in advance as possible. With all of the green bean recipes I'll be trying, they all start out with blanching the beans for 10-15 minutes until they are "tender, but still retain the slightest suggestion of crunchiness." To serve them later, the cooking process is stopped by running cold water over them for 3 or 4 minutes and will keep the beans nice and colorful and fresh for up to 24 hours. Then, when ready, the final preparation also reheats them.
To finish preparing the beans today I simply had to toss the beans in a moderately hot saucepan (Isn't Julia great -- what in tarnation is a "moderately hot" pan? I suppose if the food comes out charred it is a smidgen too hot?) to evaporate the moisture that remained after draining the blanched beans Then salt and pepper was added and butter was melted in with the beans. Did I use a spoon to stir the beans, butter, and spices? Of course not! I tossed them. I'm getting that flipping skill down pretty well -- only lost three beans in the process.
That was it and they were actually very fresh and tasty! Simple and quick. Errrrr, almost quick. I did miss my deadline by about 15 minutes because of a little stove setting error. Did you know that water will apparently never boil if the electric stove is set to the lowest heat? First time ever -- but in my haste I looked at the wrong end of the know and had the opposite end pointing at the temperature I wanted (lowest instead of highest). **sigh**
Please remember that I did not prepare a complete meal, just green beans. Should I even admit what the rest of the meal was? Ummmmm, some not so traditional leftover Taco Salad! Definitely not a pairing Julia would agree with but I wanted to cook something and Elizabeth wanted to use up leftovers. Remember friends, compromise is a key to a happy marriage!
Bon Appetit!
Sounds great! Now I want to go get some fresh green beans!
Always compromise. The beans were great.