Category: Food: Recipes

Enjoying String Beans: Where to Find Great Recipes

Yesterday, we told you a bit about string beans. Today, we'll give you some ways to enjoy them once you've brought them home from the market.

Bean Recipes

It may also be that French onion soup mix green bean casseroles linger in the minds of some non-bean eaters. But with our exposure to more ethnic food these days, you can discover what other cultures do with beans and then create your own versions.

Three cookbooks were by my side as I researched this topic: The New James Beard, Vegetable Love by Barbara Kafka, and Salad as a Meal by Patricia Wells.

James Beard expressed my feelings that beans should be cooked, "… until the raw taste disappears but they still retain a fresh taste and a crispness to the bite."

Barbara Kafka has a great recipe for long-cooked Romano beans and Patricia Wells took string beans to Salade Nicoise perfection and beyond.

Romano bean

The Romano bean is a favorite with Italian cooks and it is one bean that needs a long, slow cooking method to tenderize its tough shell. Yesterday, Russ Parsons explained why you no longer have to sting beans. When it comes to this flat wide bean, Parsons suggests that you, “Simmer freshly chopped tomatoes, onions, garlic and pancetta; add Romano beans and stew until they’re tender, which could take 45 minutes or even longer. The texture is silky and the depth of flavor is amazing.” For a summer cookout, this could be a great slow cooker recipe.

Spicy Green Beans

Asian cooks like to add spice to beans. In a traditional Sichuan spicy green bean recipe, the beans are stir-fried in a very hot wok until they are tender, wrinkled, and slightly charred in a few spots. They are sauced with a mixture of rice wine, chili bean sauce, sesame oil, sugar, and salt. Finally, the beans are removed from the pan and chilies. Sichuan pepper, garlic, ginger, and scallions are stir-fried for about 30 seconds and then the beans are returned and mixed.

Bean Salad

In summer, you can add as many types of cooked beans as you like to your favorite vinaigrette and make a 3, 5, or 7 bean salad. This is a healthy side dish that you can bring to a potluck or keep in the refrigerator to make meal planning simpler during a busy week.

Last year, I reviewed the delightful cookbook, Morning Glory's Farm Food. One of the recipes I loved was for the Green Bean and Pasta Salad shown in the photo above in the book.

Now that you are no longer someone who “doesn’t know beans” about beans, I hope you’ll celebrate when you see a bin of beans at the market. I recommend buying a bunch and doing something different with them that will make you “full of beans.”

What's on your Food Lover's shopping list?

Details:

Words: Penny Cherubino (Adapted for the web from one of her Fresh & Local Newspaper columns.)
Photos: ©2015 Penny & Ed Cherubino

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September 17, 2015
Enjoying String Beans: Where to Find Great Recipes

Yesterday, we told you a bit about string beans. Today, we'll give you some ways to enjoy them once you've brought them home from the market.

Bean Recipes

It may also be that French onion soup mix green bean casseroles linger in the minds of some non-bean eaters. But with our exposure to more ethnic food these days, you can discover what other cultures do with beans and then create your own versions.

Three cookbooks were by my side as I researched this topic: The New James Beard, Vegetable Love by Barbara Kafka, and Salad as a Meal by Patricia Wells.

James Beard expressed my feelings that beans should be cooked, "… until the raw taste disappears but they still retain a fresh taste and a crispness to the bite."

Barbara Kafka has a great recipe for long-cooked Romano beans and Patricia Wells took string beans to Salade Nicoise perfection and beyond.

Romano bean

The Romano bean is a favorite with Italian cooks and it is one bean that needs a long, slow cooking method to tenderize its tough shell. Yesterday, Russ Parsons explained why you no longer have to sting beans. When it comes to this flat wide bean, Parsons suggests that you, “Simmer freshly chopped tomatoes, onions, garlic and pancetta; add Romano beans and stew until they’re tender, which could take 45 minutes or even longer. The texture is silky and the depth of flavor is amazing.” For a summer cookout, this could be a great slow cooker recipe.

Spicy Green Beans

Asian cooks like to add spice to beans. In a traditional Sichuan spicy green bean recipe, the beans are stir-fried in a very hot wok until they are tender, wrinkled, and slightly charred in a few spots. They are sauced with a mixture of rice wine, chili bean sauce, sesame oil, sugar, and salt. Finally, the beans are removed from the pan and chilies. Sichuan pepper, garlic, ginger, and scallions are stir-fried for about 30 seconds and then the beans are returned and mixed.

Bean Salad

In summer, you can add as many types of cooked beans as you like to your favorite vinaigrette and make a 3, 5, or 7 bean salad. This is a healthy side dish that you can bring to a potluck or keep in the refrigerator to make meal planning simpler during a busy week.

Last year, I reviewed the delightful cookbook, Morning Glory's Farm Food. One of the recipes I loved was for the Green Bean and Pasta Salad shown in the photo above in the book.

Now that you are no longer someone who “doesn’t know beans” about beans, I hope you’ll celebrate when you see a bin of beans at the market. I recommend buying a bunch and doing something different with them that will make you “full of beans.”

What's on your Food Lover's shopping list?

Details:

Words: Penny Cherubino (Adapted for the web from one of her Fresh & Local Newspaper columns.)
Photos: ©2015 Penny & Ed Cherubino

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September 17, 2015
In Appreciation of String Beans

I often wonder why there’s no excitement among farmers market shoppers when the first, fresh beans of the season appear on the stands. I see people buying them by the bagful but I don’t hear much happy chatter about this very useful vegetable.

Some people may have memories of canned green beans, overcooked green beans, and even undercooked green beans depending upon what was in fashion when they were introduced to this vegetable. And, for cooks, it may also be that they think beans take a lot of fussy preparation.

String or Snap

I do recall sitting with a basin of green beans beside my Aunt Sophie, patiently pulling the strings off the sides. I know now that was because she chose to grow a very old variety that still had strings.

In his article "Buy this now: Beans, with 12 recipes," one of my favorite food writers, Russ Parsons, explained that this was unnecessary, “Most green beans had this string until the 1890s (hence the names ‘string beans’ and ‘snap beans’). It was an early New York plant developer named Calvin Keeney who bred the first stringless beans, which were introduced by Burpee in 1894.”

Today, most beans do not have to be destringed. You can just line up your beans on a cutting board and tip and tail them by cutting off a sliver of the stem and end. I actually find no need to remove the tip, so I just remove the stem. Then you can snap or cut the beans to the desired length for your dish.

Tomorrow, I'll share some of my favorite ways to prepare beans and some cookbooks I use to find great bean recipes.

What's on your Food Lover's shopping list?

Details:

Words: Penny Cherubino (Adapted for the web from one of her Fresh & Local Newspaper columns.)
Photos: ©2015 Penny & Ed Cherubino

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Thanks to Friends Who Make Marmalade and Share!

Sunday Cat Sophia Says, "Let me in Whee-ooh …"

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September 16, 2015
In Appreciation of String Beans

I often wonder why there’s no excitement among farmers market shoppers when the first, fresh beans of the season appear on the stands. I see people buying them by the bagful but I don’t hear much happy chatter about this very useful vegetable.

Some people may have memories of canned green beans, overcooked green beans, and even undercooked green beans depending upon what was in fashion when they were introduced to this vegetable. And, for cooks, it may also be that they think beans take a lot of fussy preparation.

String or Snap

I do recall sitting with a basin of green beans beside my Aunt Sophie, patiently pulling the strings off the sides. I know now that was because she chose to grow a very old variety that still had strings.

In his article "Buy this now: Beans, with 12 recipes," one of my favorite food writers, Russ Parsons, explained that this was unnecessary, “Most green beans had this string until the 1890s (hence the names ‘string beans’ and ‘snap beans’). It was an early New York plant developer named Calvin Keeney who bred the first stringless beans, which were introduced by Burpee in 1894.”

Today, most beans do not have to be destringed. You can just line up your beans on a cutting board and tip and tail them by cutting off a sliver of the stem and end. I actually find no need to remove the tip, so I just remove the stem. Then you can snap or cut the beans to the desired length for your dish.

Tomorrow, I'll share some of my favorite ways to prepare beans and some cookbooks I use to find great bean recipes.

What's on your Food Lover's shopping list?

Details:

Words: Penny Cherubino (Adapted for the web from one of her Fresh & Local Newspaper columns.)
Photos: ©2015 Penny & Ed Cherubino

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September 16, 2015
Stuffies or Stuffed Clams are Easy and Fun

Stuffed clams, or stuffies, are a great all season appetizer. You can buy them in some frozen food cases or fresh from places like James Hook & Company on the waterfront.

Here is the final product from Paul O'Connell's stuffed clams.

How2Heros has a video of Chef Paul O'Connell preparing a chef's version of this Southern New England classic.

And, they have a very traditional home cook's version of Stuffed Quahogs with Bea Viera, mother of how2heroes CEO Lynne VIera.

Chef O'Connell's version is loaded with tips and options for ingredients and seasoning. He shares why he makes many small decisions about the size of the chop and the ratio of clams to stuffing.

Bea Viera adds some clam broth to her version of stuffed quahogs.

Bea's version is shorter and shows you how she has made this dish over many years. You are in the kitchen with her and she shows you how to make a familiar product for those who long for a taste of this traditional recipe.

In both cases the recipe with measurements is supplied on the linked to page.

Make Stuffies Your Own

Stuffies are a lot like a Thanksgiving bread stuffing. And, like stuffing it is a dish that has as many recipes as cooks and one you can feel free to adlib.

Many of my Portuguese friends do as Chef O'Connell does and add spicy chouriço to their stuffies. But, you can take them in a different direction and switch to sweet or hot Italian sausage.

One of my aunts always made them with bacon and cooked the onions and celery in the bacon fat.

I've also made these with frozen clams and baked them in a muffin tin. In clam shells, popped out of muffin tins or baked in a ramekin these make a great appetizer, a quick supper, or the perfect dish to bring to a potluck.

What do you put in your stuffies?

What's on your food lover's shopping list?

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Screenshots via www.how2heros.com

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August 27, 2015
Quick Refrigerator Pickled Beets with Shallots

Ed and I both love pickled beets and it's one of those side dishes that I can ad lib with what is around the kitchen.

This week's batch has shallots and a shot of wasabi powder. (Horseradish is a very traditional beet seasoning but I didn't have any fresh horseradish, so I used the powdered kind better known as wasabi powder.) If you happen to have some real wasabi or real dried wasabi, that would be even better.

I like to give the shallots a head start in the pickling base. Here, one thinly sliced shallot was broken into rings and is pickling in a mixture of seasoned rice vinegar, with wasabi powder, ground black pepper and salt to taste. I let that sit while I prepare the beets. Once the beets are added, they only need a good mix and maybe 15 minutes of sitting to be ready to eat. But, they're great for the next few days.

While I often make this with oven-roasted beets from the farmers market, I do keep packaged, steamed beets on hand in the refrigerator and used those for this recipe. So, even if you don't cook, you can make pickled beets. The packaged products are tasty and keep for a good long time in the refrigerator.

To keep the mess under control, I empty the package into my work bowl, then lift out the beets one at a time and cut them in my hand with a small knife, just the way your grandmother probably did. My hands cleaned up a lot easier than a cutting board. But, if you feel safer using proper knife technique and a cutting board, you should do that.

While I don't preserve these beets with the proper canning method, I do transfer them to a canning jar for their trip to the refrigerator. You can add oil to this mixture or substitute your favorite vinaigrette for my seasoned vinegar mix.

What's on your Food Lover's shopping list? Consider buying a few extra canning jars, if you don't already have an ample supply.

Details:

Words: Penny Cherubino
Photos: ©2015 Penny Cherubino

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August 20, 2015
Current Crush: Avocado Toast

I did notice the avocado toast on the Select Boston menu, but I was so busy trying all the lovely seafood that I neglected that option.

Then, one afternoon, Ed and I were sitting at the bar when we were joined by Kelly, a long time neighbor and dog walking friend. Being a former California girl, she ordered the avocado toast and sang its praises. Our next visit we followed her smart example.

Now, this dish is in our, "have-the-makings-on-hand" for a quick supper rotation. Penny made the batch above on Iggy's sliced Francese. We usually have a loaf of that in our freezer. The sourdough flavor plays well with the avocado.

The avocado was mashed and mixed with a bit of lime juice and salt. The toasted bread was rubbed with garlic, drizzled with a tiny bit of olive oil, spread with avocado mixture. A final sprinkle of flaky Maldon Sea Salt and Espelette Pepper added just the right bit of seasoning.

A big thank you to Chef Michael Serpa of Select for introducing us to great avocado toast and Espelette pepper. One is a new item in our quick supper list and the other is adding a delightful flavor to our pepper "palette."

Do you get food crushes? Do you love avocado toast? What's your favorite avocado toast combo?

What's on your Food Lover's shopping list?

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2015 Penny Cherubino

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August 6, 2015
Current Crush: Avocado Toast

I did notice the avocado toast on the Select Boston menu, but I was so busy trying all the lovely seafood that I neglected that option.

Then, one afternoon, Ed and I were sitting at the bar when we were joined by Kelly, a long time neighbor and dog walking friend. Being a former California girl, she ordered the avocado toast and sang its praises. Our next visit we followed her smart example.

Now, this dish is in our, "have-the-makings-on-hand" for a quick supper rotation. Penny made the batch above on Iggy's sliced Francese. We usually have a loaf of that in our freezer. The sourdough flavor plays well with the avocado.

The avocado was mashed and mixed with a bit of lime juice and salt. The toasted bread was rubbed with garlic, drizzled with a tiny bit of olive oil, spread with avocado mixture. A final sprinkle of flaky Maldon Sea Salt and Espelette Pepper added just the right bit of seasoning.

A big thank you to Chef Michael Serpa of Select for introducing us to great avocado toast and Espelette pepper. One is a new item in our quick supper list and the other is adding a delightful flavor to our pepper "palette."

Do you get food crushes? Do you love avocado toast? What's your favorite avocado toast combo?

What's on your Food Lover's shopping list?

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2015 Penny Cherubino

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August 6, 2015
Local Corn? Native Corn? To Peel or Not to Peel? and Other Corn Questions

Sweet Corn from local farms is the only kind that we buy around here. Over on Chowhound there has been an interesting "Native Corn" discussion going on all month. This was triggered by the early appearance of sweet corn in the Boston market.

For our take on the subject, we're updating some information we ran back in 2010. What was true then is even truer today.

“Knee high by the Fourth of July” is a nice rhyme, but this year some farmers were actually able to bring their golden ears to market by Independence Day.

Early hybrid corn varieties not only extend the corn season, but also stay sweeter longer than the heirloom versions.

Great Varieties with Great Names
Ask about the variety of sweet corn a farmer is selling. That way you’ll begin to develop your own "favorites list." Look for these in local markets: Honey & Cream, Silver Queen, Sugar & Butter, Sundance, Sugar Buns, and Early Sunglow.

And, if you find one with “Mirai” in it’s name, grab it. It’s rare, but Penny says it’s one of the best she’s ever tasted.

To Tear or Not to Tear
One Cape Cod farm where we buy corn has a sign that reads, “Sweet corn 50¢ an ear, tear the husk and it’s $2 an ear.”

You don’t have to tear down the husk and make part of the farmer’s crop unsaleable to buy great sweet corn.

Look for corn that has moist, dark-brown, almost sticky silk and a husk that doesn’t feel dry. You can feel the kernels by pressing gently on the husk to determine if the ear is fully developed and plump.

Corn should not be peeled down until just before you’re ready to drop it into a steaming cook pot.

Do you have a sweet corn question? If so add your sweet corn thoughts or questions in the comments below. Tweet them to @BostonZest or send us an email. We'll talk to our favorite farmers and try to get an answer.

Related Links:

Cooking Sweet Corn: Microwave, Grilling, and Elote!
Penny’s Corn & Potato Salad

Penny’s weapon of choice for working with corn is her favorite Shun Santoku Knife. But, if you like gadgets, they make a lot of them for sweet corn.

Details:
Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2010 – 2015 Penny Cherubino

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July 23, 2015
Local Corn? Native Corn? To Peel or Not to Peel? and Other Corn Questions

Sweet Corn from local farms is the only kind that we buy around here. Over on Chowhound there has been an interesting "Native Corn" discussion going on all month. This was triggered by the early appearance of sweet corn in the Boston market.

For our take on the subject, we're updating some information we ran back in 2010. What was true then is even truer today.

“Knee high by the Fourth of July” is a nice rhyme, but this year some farmers were actually able to bring their golden ears to market by Independence Day.

Early hybrid corn varieties not only extend the corn season, but also stay sweeter longer than the heirloom versions.

Great Varieties with Great Names
Ask about the variety of sweet corn a farmer is selling. That way you’ll begin to develop your own "favorites list." Look for these in local markets: Honey & Cream, Silver Queen, Sugar & Butter, Sundance, Sugar Buns, and Early Sunglow.

And, if you find one with “Mirai” in it’s name, grab it. It’s rare, but Penny says it’s one of the best she’s ever tasted.

To Tear or Not to Tear
One Cape Cod farm where we buy corn has a sign that reads, “Sweet corn 50¢ an ear, tear the husk and it’s $2 an ear.”

You don’t have to tear down the husk and make part of the farmer’s crop unsaleable to buy great sweet corn.

Look for corn that has moist, dark-brown, almost sticky silk and a husk that doesn’t feel dry. You can feel the kernels by pressing gently on the husk to determine if the ear is fully developed and plump.

Corn should not be peeled down until just before you’re ready to drop it into a steaming cook pot.

Do you have a sweet corn question? If so add your sweet corn thoughts or questions in the comments below. Tweet them to @BostonZest or send us an email. We'll talk to our favorite farmers and try to get an answer.

Related Links:

Cooking Sweet Corn: Microwave, Grilling, and Elote!
Penny’s Corn & Potato Salad

Penny’s weapon of choice for working with corn is her favorite Shun Santoku Knife. But, if you like gadgets, they make a lot of them for sweet corn.

Details:
Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2010 – 2015 Penny Cherubino

Related articles

Our July Sparkler Is Bursting with Bubbles! Jean-François Mérieau Bulles (2009)

Edible Boston's Summer 2015 Issue Has Arrived!

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July 23, 2015