GRANDMA'S BURN'T STRINGBEANS
Oct 10, 2009 | From the kitchen of Rose
In honor of the Chinese 10/10 Day I am retelling one of my favorite stories based on an ancient Chinese 'legend."
My grandmother lived with us when I was growing up and did all of the cooking. As a child, I disliked most food and considered eating to be a chore I did to please my anxious mother and grandmother, who, it seemed, would go to any lengths to entice my reluctant appetite.
A typical pre-dinner dialogue would go something like this:
Grandma (with a hopeful expression shining on her face): "Rosie; I made string beans tonight!"
Me (mildly threatening tone): "Did you burn them?"
Grandma (plaintively): "It's so hard to wash the fendle (Yiddish for pot) when they're burned."
Me: (unimpressed and openly threatening): "You know I won't eat them if they're not burned."
How this all got started was, of course, by Grandma's having accidentally burned the string beans one night. It reminds me of Charles Lamb's "Dissertation on Roast Pig." (The story of how roast--read burnt--pig was discovered in ancient China.)
It wasn't until many years later that I discovered Chinese "dry fried string beans," a recipe in which the string beans are intentionally browned (lightly burned). But I will always miss my grandmother's version. You see, the string beans burn to just the right degree only when the cooking water is allowed to evaporate (inadvertently) and the beans start to burn just to the point when suddenly you smell them. I was always reassured that they would be perfect when I heard my grandmother cry out: "Oy! The string beans are burn’s again." God was in his heaven and all was right with the world.
Updated Burnt String Beans on the Grill
My dear friend Elizabeth Karmel, who has written several excellent grilling cookbooks, made string beans on the grill for me that put all thoughts of other past ones almost entirely out of my mind.
Her method is simply to toss the washed and trimmed string beans with salt and olive oil and then to toss them on a hot grill rack and continue tossing them with tongs until they are deliciously browned, partially blackened, and beginning to shrivel.
My method, based on hers is to bar boil them in salted water for 3 minutes, drain them, and toss them in the olive oil and salt though sometimes I use melted bacon fat. Being a baker more than a griller I like to toss them in a grill pan with holes (preferably a disposable foil one) before placing them on the grill to ensure that I won’t lose a single of the more skinny beans to the flames below the grill rack.
Either way, season with lots of freshly ground pepper.
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harriet
11/02/2009 02:35 PM
I like to saute haricot verts in olive oil and fresh garlic until they are almost done, and then add siced almonds.
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adrian
10/16/2009 03:07 PM
We roast them in the oven at 450. Stir them around after 10 minutes, then cook another 10 minutes or so until they are well browned. (The recipe says that if the baking sheet is dark it must be covered with foil.)
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Rose
10/12/2009 03:45 PM
josei that sounds fabulous! rachelino, just sort of toss out the word fendle apropos of something such as where's the small fendle? she'll stare at you for sure in shock and delight (i hope!)
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Rachelino
10/12/2009 02:11 PM
Thank you Rose, for teaching me a new Yiddish word (fendle). Hopefully I will impress my mother-in-law with this newfound vocabulary! (I see her Wednesday.)
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thewingedpalate (josie)
10/12/2009 12:56 PM
My grandmother came from China. She would slightly burn/brown them, set aside and using the same pan stir-fry tons of garlic, ground pork, chopped chillies and a few scoops of chinese chili sauce. Add string beans back into pan, stir fry for a couple more minutes and eat with a bowl of hot steaming rice. yum!
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Bill
10/11/2009 08:30 AM
Yum! I do almost exactly the same thing with Brussels Sprouts!
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ButterYum (Patrincia)
10/10/2009 10:19 PM
Reminds me of oven roasted veggies... I haven't roasted one yet that I haven't loved! Broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, eggplant, squash - you name it, they're all delicious!
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hector
10/10/2009 12:17 PM
Happy 10/10, we always cooked them stir fried till burned and more so with black bean sauce!
Get a 'simple' rice cooker with a plain aluminum pan (not non stick), make your brown rice recipe plus 1 cup of frozen string beans (pref organic), you will get a beautiful burn bottom, both with rice and string beans!
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Matthew
10/10/2009 11:28 AM
My family is southern too, and our method was to sauté the beans over high heat with oil and garlic until the bans started to caramelize, then add a cooking liquid, and simmer for a long time under meltingly tender. That slightly burnt, caramel flavor is truly what makes them delicious.
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Zach Townsend
10/10/2009 10:16 AM
My mother is a southern cook, since we're from the south, and I always LOVED her green beans. Her method was to simmer them slowly until the water was completely evaporated and they'd begin to sizzle on the bottom. She'd always put in a lot of pepper and butter, too.
She would cook them this way, not using string beans, but just regular canned beans (yes, we ate from cans a lot but she always knew how to fix them so you wouldn't notice so much).
To this day, I don't prepare any green bean without letting the water simmer out and the beans sizzle some on the bottom.
This is also the reason I like stone bowl rice, the Korean vegetable dish that burns the rice on the bottom. I love burned rice (very brown, not black of course) and a lot of things that someone might consider "burned."
Zach
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