How To: Make Green Beans In Less Than Six Hours
Perhaps you’ve heard: today is Thanksgiving, that day when everybody spends hours upon hours cooking so that everybody they love can enjoy a half-hour meal before retiring to the nearest fainting couch to die of turkey poisoning. In the spirit of possibly shaving a few minutes out of that laborious process, I offer you the following green beans recipe.
Step One: Ignore Grandma
Somehow, there is a generation of Americans that has gotten it into their heads that properly cooked green beans should take as long as it does for a single sailor to circumnavigate the globe. That often means putting a hamhock into boiling water, adding beans, and turning everything off weeks later, long after the beans have turned to mush. The appeal, I suppose, is that you can start your green beans approximately six months before Thanksgiving itself. But seriously, this is insane. Green beans can and should be prepared much, much more quickly.
Step Two: Get A Good Skillet With A Lid, Some Green Beans, and Your Oily Liquid Of Choice
For those who are vegetarians, I recommend your favorite flavorful oil. For those who aren’t, I recommend bacon. I used to make this with either salt pork or fatback but in my experience, bacon simultaneously manages to taste better while being more appealing to everybody else eating with you. (A word of warning: do not use “healthy” bacons like turkey bacon. You will not end up with enough liquid fat.)
Step Three: Get Your Oily Liquid Of Choice HOT
No matter what oily liquid of choice you’re using, you want it to be the hot. This means getting it that way. If you’re just using your preferred oil, put it in a hot pan until it crackles. If you’re teasing the liquid out of a meat, you’re going to want to cook whatever you’ve chosen until crispy. It will also help to dice the meat beforehand (we’re going to use it later). After crispiness has been achieved, remove the meat from the pan.
Step Four: Add Beans
After your oily liquid of choice is hot, add the beans. This is going to be noisy. You’re going to stir the beans around the pan until they’re coated in whatever you’ve got in there. This is going to take three to four minutes.
Step Five: Add Water and Cover
Add a quarter cup (or a bit more) of hot water to your pan. This is going to be incredibly loud, as it will turn to steam immediately. Be wary of that. Ideally, hold the cup of water in one hand and a lid in the other. Slam the lid down as soon as all the water is in, then allow it to cook for three to four minutes.
Step Six: Uncover
Take the lid off the beans. They will be a bright green color. There should be a hint of water left in the bottom of the pan or, perhaps, more than a hint, depending upon how much you added at the outset. Let them cook uncovered for another four minutes. Taste. Are they perfect? Probably. But if they’re not, let them cook for a few more minutes, adding a bit more water if the bottom of the pan is dry.
Step Seven: Dress And Serve
Remove the beans from the pan and add pepper and salt (although not too much, especially if you’ve used bacon or salt-pork or bacon). If you’ve used bacon, take the crisped pieces you removed from the pan and sprinkle them over the top. Serve and enjoy.
Hopefully this will help you avoid eating green bean puree and while I’m at it, hopefully you’ll all have a Happy Thanksgiving.
I believe in butter for my green beans, but otherwise this is exactly how I do them, I highly recommend it. Mushy veggies are gross.
I’ve yet to have someone walk away from the table disappointed.
(in the green beans)Report
I usually do a green bean salad, giving the beans a quick parboil to tenderize them a bit but still leavingthem with a bite. Then I toss them with cukes, onions, spices, oil, and vinegar. Serve immediately or things start to pickle (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing but takes the bite out of the ingredients). I’ll try this next go around, as a quick fry in bacon fat ouns magical. Thanks.Report
Six hours?
I eat my green beans raw. Or slightly blanched for a couple minutes.
My aunt also has a really good green beans recipe that involves baking them with Swiss cheese.Report
Agreed, I count 12 minutes in this version, which is at least nine too many. Beans are naturally tasty and don’t need more than warming through while making sure they keep their colour and crunch.
I do like the idea of adding bacon though, bacon is always good.Report
Frying them in fat isn’t going to heat them though the same way steaming or boiling will. My bet us the fry gives them some crisp and lots of flavor while the water tenderizes a bit.
But, yea, green beans should bite back. Without snap or crunch, they’re baby food.Report
Well, yes, green beans raw are delicious, but this would be an awfully boring post though if I’d given everybody a recipe for preparing raw green beans.Report
Well, it would’ve been a lot shorter. 😉Report
You’re questioning my willingness to do the following?
Step One: take one green bean, cut off each end, put in bowl.
Step Two: take one green bean, cut off each end, put in bowl.
…
Step Seventy-Nine: take one green bean, cut off each end, put in bowl.
Your doubt will be your downfall.Report
“They served their beans raw and cooked their ‘maters… what’s wrong with these people?” – Lewis GrizzardReport
This recipe works well for green beans that are as thin as your little finger, or thinner.
If they’re thick as your thumb, and full of real beans, you’ll want to cook longer (I recommend about 30 minutes). Shelly beans, of course, require shelling…Report
http://www.flickr.com/photos/moiraobbie/5159430592/
Your grandmum’s beans…Report
Try this.
Bring a pan of water to the boil
Throw in your beans
Bring back to the boil and boil for one minute
Drain immediately
Add the following
-Lemon juice
-Black pepper
-Capers
-Soft goats cheese torn or scooped into chunks
Stir well
EatReport
I’m a little concerned about telling people to intentionally throw water on hot oil. Make sure to have a fire extinguisher close to hand, particularly if you’re working with a gas range.Report
I would certainly never recommend “throwing” water onto hot oil. I recommend adding it quickly and then covering, but it should be noted that the beans will have become coated in the oil; it isn’t simply sitting there simmering/burbling.Report
I tried a variation of this for Thanksgiving. I cooked 3/4 pound bacon in a stock pot and then removed the bacon from the grease. I had thawed about 2.5 pounds of frozen italian cut beans in water and drained. I also chopped some onion. All of that went into the grease and got seasoned with salt and pepper and a little thyme. I cooked for about four minutes then added water. I needed to add a bit more than you called for due to the large quantity of beans. I simmered this for a bit and tasted. I found them a bit too under-cooked for my taste so I gave them another 10 minutes and they were just about right. I then added my secret ingredient which is about 1/4 cup of powdered ham seasoning.
The beans went into a crockpot on warm for about 30 minutes before the family got here. Everyone liked them.Report