Combine tomatoes, oil, mint, parsley, lemon juice, pepper and salt in a large bowl. When beans are cool, spin in a salad spinner until the beans are dry. When beans are tender, drain and immediately put into an ice bath until the beans are cool.Cook until green beans are a bright green color and are tender. Boil 2 quarts of water in a large pan.2 ounces feta cheese (crumbled) or more to your taste.1 1/2 pounds green beans (trimmed and cut into 1 to 2 inch lengths).Accoding to Cooks Illustrated (quoting McGee), “when vegetables are cooked in salted water, sodium ions displace some of the calcium ions in their cell walls…causing the vegetable to soften.” Seems that the magic in cooking tender vibrantly-green green beans is cooking them quickly in very salty water. (They also featured the original version of this recipe.) Their article drew upon the writings of food expert Harold McGee ( On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of The Kitchen). So, this recipe, with its feta and mint, is a tip of the hat to that early Mediterranean love affair with the bean.īut first, a bit of food chemistry… This month, in their July-August issue, Cooks Illustrated Magazine ran a piece about cooking green beans. Here is a 1543 European woodcut of a man ravenously-consuming green beans from the Americas–either that or he is shouting at the beans. In the European part of that exchange, the cultivation of the beans quickly spread throughout the Mediterranean region with the new crop becoming particularly popular in Greece, Turkey and Italy. Europe, Asia and Africa got potatoes, tomatoes, vanilla and beans.) America got, among other things, coffee beans, bananas, olives and onions. (You remember the Columbian Exchange from your history classes. When the Europeans arrived in the Americas, green beans became part of the great Columbian Exchange. Green beans originated in South America–probably Peru– thousands of years ago and their cultivation was spread to other parts of South America and northward by migrating Indian tribes. Green beans are the most popular edible pod bean in the United States. I’m far from alone in enjoying green beans. Along with tomatoes, zucchini and beets, he has beautiful bush beans and a few days ago I was lucky enough to get some of his first beans. On occasion, he lets me come down and dig around to get my fix. Gene, my good friend and neighbor, has a flourishing vegetable garden this year. Oh, how I wish I had a vegetable garden! I would try my hand at growing everything.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |