chinese style green beans

Still more green beans to eat …

Topped and tailed them, chopped into 2cm chunks (this is starting to sound like a repeat :).  Simmered for 6/7 minutes.   Drained and rinsed in cold water.

Chopped an onion and some garlic, oh and some fresh ginger.  Heated groundnut oil in the wok, added about a dessertspoon of mustard seeds and waited for them to pop.  Then hurled in onion, garlic and ginger and cooked until soft, splattering self in hot oil in the process.

Added the beans and some five spice powder,  stirred about for a couple of minutes, added a good splash of tamari, cooked for about 2 minutes.

I used too much oil, but it worked really well.  We had it with basmati rice, which had the juice of half a lemon added to it, which is really nice.

And now the green beans are all gone - hurrah!  But another veg box arrives tomorrow …

Tags: "green beans", stirfry, vegan, vegetarian

green beans and pasta

I reviewed the contents of the veg drawer last night - to my shame, there were two small turnips going mouldy, so they had to go.  A wide assortment of carrots was hurled into the slow cooker for carrot and coriander soup for lunch today.  And there were a lot of green beans.

We like green beans, but we tend to do the same sort of stuff with them every time, and I wanted to try something different, so this is what I did.  It was lovely - perfect summer food.

Topped and tailed the beans, and then cut them into chunks of about 2cm.  Set them to simmer for about  seven minutes, I guess.

Put on some pasta quills to boil.

Got Pete to grate a lot of parmesan, rummaged for the tired half lemon in the fridge, and went and cut some fennel fronds from the garden, which I chopped up small.

Combined beans, pasta, parmesan, black pepper, lemon juice, fennel and some cream, and scoffed from bowls.

Followed it with local strawberries and a home made brownie.  Lovely.

Tags: "green beans", pasta, quick, summer, supper, vegetarian

kabanos stew

Pete likes a kabanos sossidge with his lunch, and for years we bought packs of long ones (fnaar) from Costco.  Of late, sadly, they have only had the shorter kabanos in stock, which simply aren’t the same, and thus they don’t get eaten.

I opened the box in the fridge a few days ago, because I fancied a kabanos for my lunch, and horror - they were developing a bloom which looked very like mould.

So I chopped them up, discarding the suspect bits, and put them in the slow cooker.  Added 3-4 carrots, diced small, a chopped onion, the last of the mushrooms (which were a bit wizened) and a sliced yellow pepper.  And a tin of tomatoes, and a sloosh of red wine, and some savory from the garden.  No seasoning, as I though the kabanos would do that themselves.

And they did - cooked it all day on Monday, and drove ourselves wild with the smell, ate it with mashed potatoes and steamed green beans.  It made a tub for the freezer too.

At some point, we’re going to have to eat some of this stuff in the freezer, you know …

Tags: "green beans", kabanos, slow cooker

things to do with green beans

Seen on LiveJournal, and here as an aide memoire - sounds gorgeous:

Roast them. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, some garlic, chopped onions and pine nuts. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil and lemon juice and roast for about 15 minutes. You could also throw some pancetta in there.

Steam them and serve with some crumbled feta, mint and olives. Season and dress with olive oil and lemon juice.

Tags: "green beans", feta

thai vegetable curry

Using up: butternut squash, green beans, courgette

This is vaguely based on a recipe I saw on Come Dine With Me, a television programme here in the UK.  I was very struck by the potato element, which is:

One potato, boiled then cut into dice and deep fried.  Set aside for now.

Made a paste by blitzing a chopped onion, 3 cloves of garlic, about a square inch of ginger, a stalk of lemongrass, a dried chilli,  half a teaspoon of salt, and a tablespooon each of lime juice and  olive oil in a blender, and pureéd until it was transformed into a smooth paste.

Peeled the butternut squash that had been lurking in the fridge for a couple of weeks, removed and discarded the seeds, looked at it and realised it was *way* too much for this curry and returned half to the fridge.  Watch this space to see what I decide to do with the rest! Chopped the flesh of the remaining half into 1/2 inch cubes.  The green beans had been topped and tailed on Friday, and I chopped the courgette into smallish chunks too.

Put the paste into a large pan or wok and fried it gently for a couple of minutes, stirring all the while.

Added the veg, and stirred them about a bit, to coat them with the paste, then hurled in a tin of coconut milk. Put a lid on it, and simmered it for about 20 minutes, then uncovered it and cooked for about another 10. I added the fried spud a few minutes before the end (crystal ball job).

Ate accompanied by noodles cooked with a few drops of sesame oil.  I cannot begin to tell you how nice it was - it was ambrosial, utterly lovely.  The squash had started to break down, and had a texture that I can hardly describe.

This made enough to feed the two of us, with another meal’s worth gone into the freezer.

Tags: "green beans", butternut, coconut, courgette, curry, squash, squashh, thai, vegetarian

green beans with mustards

Another reminder of childhood - my grandparents grew green beans in the garden of their little terraced house in Gosport, on the Hampshire coast.  They trained them up a sort of teepee arrangement of canes, and I can still see their bright red flowers.

Riverford sent us a big bunch (were they a bunch?  Well, plenty, anyway).  Pete and I don’t really eat “meat and two veg” meals, and so it can be difficult to know what to do with such things.  But here’s what we did.

Top and tail the beans, and string them if need be - these were nice and young, and so didn’t need it.  Then I cut them into diagonal chunks of about 1/2″, and blanched them for five minutes.  Drained and set aside.

Then, in a wok (I like woks, ok?), I gently fried some black mustard seeds, a finely chopped shallot and some* garlic in groundnut oil.  Tip in the beans, add a good heaped teaspoonful of grain mustard, some tamari, a ground up dried chilli.  Warm it all through thoroughly, and serve with basmati rice.

There’s another bowlful of greenies left, which I shall deal with tomorrow.  I’m thinking feta, and lemon, and pasta, but that might change.  And the wretched slugs have eaten all my basil :(

*some being lots, in our case, but you might not want that much :)

Tags: "green beans", mustard