I now realize after some Wikipedia-ing that haricots vert are not technically the things that we Americans refer to as ‘green beans’ but this ‘recipe’ applies to them all.
So simply get a pan with a few tablespoons of olive oil in it nice and hot, take some green beans, and toss ‘em in! The key here really is caramelizing the sh*t out of these things! It takes no less than 20-30 minutes, maybe even more. I will toss them every 5 minutes or so…maybe add some more oil as needed…perhaps a tablespoon of butter towards the end if you’re into that sort of thing. Also, a healthy seasoning of salt, pepper, and some herbes de Provence if you have that lying around really goes a long way. You aren’t done until they aren’t very ‘vert’ anymore…They should be kind of tender and crispy, and just delicious!
The back story to this dish was a summer that my family lived in the countryside of France, kind of near Limoges for about a month. We were a half hour walk from the nearest town, and on this walk, there was an old lady who basically sat on her porch every morning just kind of picking the ends off tons of green beans from her garden. So we would buy some from her every couple of days. It became a month of green bean eating, and I realized how good these things can be!
Also, I will be contributing some music for these guest-blogs! This will be mostly my different cover versions of a favorite song of ours by Eddie Oliva; ‘Ravello.’ Many more genres to come…
