Thursday, March 31, 2011

Week 12: Beans, beans, the magical fruit... well, you know the rest

It has happened, people.
I have made beans delicious.
Well, Jamie Oliver created the recipe and I made his recipe, so in a roundabout way, I made beans delicious. The special ingredients are garlic and cheese. Sink me

A story about beans: I hate them. They are squeaky when you eat them and they are gross. Plus the song about beans is gross too. Fun to sing, but gross.
Imagine my dismay when we received beans in our Bountiful Baskets.
I was strolling through the library (read: picking up a book for work and conveniently exiting by the cookbook aisle. Did you know you can check out cookbooks from the library? Love it.)

My cookbook requirements are regular recipes and picture for each.
I picked up Jamie Oliver's "Jamie's Food Revolution" and it fit the bill.

Currently it is covered in Post-it notes for all the recipes I want to try.
And the beans recipe came at me in my time of necessity.




Best Ever French Beans
Recipe adapted from 'Jamie's Food Revolution'.

A bunch of French beans (beans can be French? I just used regular ones.)
1 clove of garlic, sliced
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Extra virgin olive oil
A swig of lemon juice

Cook beans in a large saucepan of boiling water with a pinch of salt for 6 minutes.
Beans are done when they are soft and not squeaky when you eat them.
(Does this mean all the squeaky beans I have been eating have been undercooked?)
Drain beans while reserving some cooking water. Set aside, let them steam dry in colander.

Put pan back on heat. Toss a swig of EVOO and the garlic.
When the garlic turns golden-ey delicious, put in beans and cover them with the oil and garlic.
Add some of the reserved water (start with a little and add more later if you need it).
Add the cheese and a swig of lemon juice (add more if you like the lemony flavor).
Stir and simmer until the water and cheese turn into a delicious oozy (yes, in the case oozy is good) sauce. It should be sticky and a little thicker. Thicker = heaven.
Remove from heat and eat!

Note: I eyeballed all of the quantities. The first time we made it according to Chef Oliver, and it had waaaaay too much garlic, which is hard to do because I la-la-love garlic. The recipe had the bean quantity in weight, so I just guessed. Adjust ingredients to how you see fit.

Rating: 4.5
It's not quite a 5 because I am still eating beans.And garlic and cheese can only do so much to mask the beans. But these are good. Real good.

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