Tallgrass Kitchen: Green beans and bacon.
On fall fashion runways, grenadine red may be the new black, but I think green beans may be the new zucchini in our gardens.
It was a banner green bean year. Every neighbor and farmer I talk to are looking for recipes or preservation techniques or shoving handfuls into my pockets to take home. I’ve seen tables at farmers markets devoted primarily to an enormous pile of tangled, pale green beans.
My grandparents grew green beans every year, but I only ever had them prepared one way: sautéed with onions and bacon. Simple, but delicious. Typically they were accompanied by the season’s first potatoes, boiled and served with butter and sliced fresh tomatoes, which they liked to sprinkle with a little sugar.
Everything was fresh from their small backyard plot, and this was their go-to early autumn meal. Dessert was usually whipped cream and sugared strawberries that they had picked and put up earlier in the season or blueberry muffins.
If you have too many, green beans can be added to casseroles, soups or stir-fries. To preserve them, blanch and freeze them or pickle them into tart dilly beans.
Or go global: I’ve seen green beans with Asian flavors on menus, typically with lots of sesame oil, garlic and chile.
Prepare slender, emerald beans by boiling or sautéing and pair them with any number of flavor combinations. They hold up well to bright flavors such as lemon and parsley, but they also add freshness to decadent combinations such as Parmesan and walnuts or mustard and prosciutto.
My mother always served them with a cheese sauce. She probably used Velveeta, but a simple roux with blue cheese or aged white cheddar would be delicious. Try tossing with oil, roasting with garlic cloves until blistered in spots and then tossing with soy sauce or kimchi. Or make a green bean tempura. My kids love green bean “french fries.”
Here is a more modern take on my grandparent’s preparation of choice. The flavor is amped with a bacon fat vinaigrette, and onions are swapped out in favor of more delicate shallots. From realsimple.com, this recipe modernizes the classic combination of green beans, onions and bacon. Bacon fat is used in a vinaigrette, and delicate shallots replace chunkier diced onions.
Green Beans with Bacon Shallot Vinaigrette Makes 8 servings
1 tablespoon salt 2 pounds trimmed green beans 6 bacon slices 2 shallots, sliced 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar 2 tablespoons Dijon or whole-grain mustard 2 tablespoons olive oil Additional salt, if needed
Bring a large pot of water to boil and add 1 tablespoon salt. Stir to dissolve and then add green beans. Cook 4 to 5 minutes until bright green and just tender. Remove from water to a colander and run under cold water to halt cooking. Drain and put in a serving dish.
Cook bacon in a skillet until crisp and remove to a paper-towel lined plate. When cool, break into pieces.
You should have about 2 tablespoons of bacon fat in the skillet. If you have excess, remove it. Warm pan over medium heat and add shallots. Cook until soft, about 1 minute. Turn off heat and whisk in vinegar, mustard and olive oil. Add additional pinch of salt, if necessary.
Toss cooked green beans with vinaigrette and stir in bacon.