So, it dawns on me that I haven't really given any recipes for side dishes or vegetables. We'll fix that thing.
Generally, my wife makes the green beans, but I showed her this recipe long ago. She does it somewhat differently, preferring to use sesame oil in the frying pan.
This is far from a definitive recipe for Green Beans Almondine. Every cook has his or her own twist.
There are no exact quantities here. This is the sort off recipe you play around with.
1. Wash green beans, and cut off the ends.
2. Drop them in some boiling water for about a minute or two. It'll make them nice and green.
3. Now melt a little butter in a pan with some olive oil.
4. Once that is melted, throw in some minced garlic. One to four cloves, depending on how big they are and how many beans you have.
5. Sauté the garlic on medium for about a minute or two.
6. Throw in some sliced or slivered almonds. (Whatever your preference is. They sell them in little bags, pre-cut. One or two of those will generally do.)
7. Sauté the almonds for about a minute or two. Be careful not to burn them.
8. Throw the cut and washed beans in there, and toss them around with the almonds and garlic. Keep them on the heat for another four minutes or so.
Salt and pepper and you are good to go.
I find that the addition of some fresh rosemary and substituting halved marconi almonds for the regular slivered can make it suitable for fancy dinner parties, too.
ReplyDeleteI've never used Rosemary in beans. I can't picture how the flavors would go together. I would recommend crushing dried rosemary between two spoons in order to avoid having it stick in the teeth of fancy dinner attendees.
ReplyDeleteIt is delicious (surprisingly enough)! I will have to crush it next time, though; there was a lot of "you've got something... no, on the left... okay, you've got... no, still there" going on after dinner.
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