Warm Green Bean Salad

Last week I listened to an interview of Alice Waters on NPR (by Terry Gross on Fresh Air). It was so inspiring that it got me dreaming about opening a place of my own all over again. (This is a recurring fantasy... which shouldn't surprise you too much). I spent last night in my Dream Café, welcoming patrons with delicious yet simple, healthy, affordable food made from the freshest ingredients, presented in a short, ever-changing seasonal menu, and featuring a fun selection of small plates for children, and a place for them to quietly play and read after their meal, so grown ups can have a few minutes of respite. Sigh...

As I was listening to Alice, two thougts came to mind. First, she mentioned that she stopped seeing her friends when she got into the chaos of opening Chez Panisse. She also said that she stopped cooking there when she had her daughter... So this dream business of mine sounded quite incompatible with my dream life of the moment. Unless maybe I could have a cafe that required work only from 9 to 5 week days (i.e. preschool hours)? Sigh... My second thought, which alleviated my disillusion, was that as far as focusing on the quality of ingredients, I was definitely, albeit modestly, following Alice's path. Nothing is more pleasurable to me than eating vegetables and fruits (and meats and fish) that taste like themselves. In her interview, Alice said that finding the ingredients was 85% of cooking, and that the Bowl of Fruit was the item she was the most proud of on her menu. I found that comment truely admirable.

All this got me thinking about the vegetables that my family used to grow in France. We didn't have a garden, but my grandparents and several uncles and aunts did. All were growing, among many other delicious plants, green beans. I don't know if green beans are still in fashion in France's vegetable gardens. They certainly were 20 years ago. The kind that my family grew was what is called "haricots verts" in the US: small, thin, dark green beans, which are both firm and juicy and barely require any cooking at all. Just a few minutes of steaming or boiling in salted water, then you can eat them warm with a piece of melting butter on top. This is how we ate them most of the time—and they rarely made it to the table: we would snack on them as soon as they were ready. Another favorite was to add boiled potatoes to the beans and season either with butter (and decorate with lemon wedges) or vinaigrette dressing.

Summer is nearly over but I found organic green beans last Saturday, so there is still time to try out this recipe, which I prepared a month or two ago. As a matter of fact, I will receive filet beans (another name for haricots verts) in my CSA box tomorrow.

Serves 4–5

• 1 lb green beans (preferrably thin, tender ones)
• 8–10 small potatoes (about 1 lb). New potatoes of any variety, or small Yukon Gold for example. I prefer silky rather than starchy potatoes, but both make great warm salads.
• 1 small shallot

Dressing:

• 1 1/2 Tbsp old-style Dijon mustard (with whole grains), or regular Dijon mustard (Try to find a French brand, such as Maille or Amora, for a more authentic taste.)
• 1 Tbsp Jerez vinegar (sherry vinegar from Spain), or regular red wine vinegar
• 2 Tbsp sunflower oil, or other mild-tasting oil
• 2 Tbsp olive oil (Try to find oil made with olives from only one country¹—e.g. Greece or Italy—, extra-virgin, cold pressed)
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Start with the potatoes: peel them and boil them in salted water until cooked but still firm (stop cooking as soon as a knife can go through easily), about 15 minutes.

Hull the beans² (unless they are very thin) by carefully snapping each end and pulling the string that runs along the bean (which is only a problem in more mature beans). Rinse the beans.

While the potatoes are cooking, prepare the dressing. Place all the ingredients in a small sealable container³. Close tighly with a leak-proof lid. Shake well until homogeneous.

Thinly chop the shallot and place at the bottom of a large salad bowl.

As soon as the potatoes are cooked through, drain them and place them in the salad bowl. Pour 2 or 3 Tbsp dressing on them and toss. The warm potatoes will absorb the oil and flavors of the dressing and shallot.

Steam or boil the green beans in salted water for no more than 5 minutes in a pressure cooker. They must be firm but not crunchy, soft but not floppy. They loose the brightness of their green color without really tarnishing...

Drain the beans and add to the salad bowl. Pour a couple more Tbsp dressing if all has been absorbed by the potatoes. Toss gently (avoid breaking the beans).

Serve immediately.


¹ To me it's an indication that it was made in smaller, maybe more artisanal batches. But I don't know for sure. And the taste should be more distinct (unique to the country of origin) than if olives are mixed.

² This is a social time in a French kitchen—at least it is in my family. Everyone grabs a few handfuls of beans to hull and chats around the kitchen table.

³ I use a recycled jam jar. If there is any left-over dressing, I just put the jar in the fridge. If there is very little left in the jar, I still keep it (French mustard is expensive over here!) and add more ingredients (in the quantities listed above) in the jar next time I need dressing.

Fava bean and egg salad

As a scientist I can't help myself but weigh fava beans before and after shelling them every time they cross my path. I had blogged about the experiment here already. And yesterday as usual I took my scale out. This time we had 3 pounds of pods, 1 pound 4 ounces of beans with skin and just under 14 ounces of beans once skinned (28% of the pods' weight). We had enough for 3 generous servings.


The following recipe is inspired by this one, from Marmiton.org.

• 3 lbs fresh fava beans (in pods)
• 2 sprigs thyme or savory
  
• 3 brown eggs
• 3 calçot onions (or green onions)
• 2 to 3 oz (60 to 85 g) goat cheese*
• 1 tbsp Banyuls vinegar (or sherry vinegar)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• salt and pepper

1. Boil the eggs for 10 minutes then plunge them in cold water.
2. Remove the dark leaves and the outer skin of the onions and slice them thinly. Place them at the bottom of a salad bowl and cover with 1 tablespoon vinegar.
3. Shell the fava beans. Boil them with thyme (or savory) in salted water for 5 minutes, then plunge them in cold water to stop the cooking. Pop the beans out of their pale green skin. Place them in the salad bowl.
4. Peel and slice the eggs. Add them to the salad along with the cheese, shaved or diced depending on how hard it is.
5. Season with salt, pepper and 2 tablespoons olive oil. Toss.
6. Serve or refrigerate.
   

* I used a fresh California goat cheese rolled in herbs that I had handy. I think a hard goat or sheep cheese would work even better.

Red Cabbage Coleslaw

The recent books and TV shows about unhealthy foods are preaching to the choir, at least in my home, but it never hurts to think about one's eating habits and try and improve them one way or the other. I am getting a little more obsessed with the quality and origin of my food every time I read or hear about the subject. It has been many years now since we started buying most of our groceries at Whole Foods Market and on the farmer's market. But until recently I was relying on these "institutions" to make good choices for me; I read the labels without paying too much attention, trusting that all I could buy there would be equally "good". If you look closer, though, not all producers on the farmer's market are certified organic, and not all fruits and vegetables sold at Whole Foods are local (nor organic). To really make educated choices, it takes more than just going to the "right" place, one has to pay close attention to every bit of information (or lack thereof) on everything one buys... Phew.... So in the hurry of grocery shopping with 2 agitated babies, we ended up buying the same things over and over again (read the labels once, buy multiple times!) and it wasn't satisfying our need for variety and creativity.

Thankfully we live in one of the best regions in the world to accomplish what we were aiming for: buy local, organic, fresh, in-season produce without having to think too much about it. We have recently joined Two Small Farms' CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and so far it has been a great experience. We get a whole box of fruits, veggies and herbs every week, along with a 2-page newsletter explaining what's what and how to cook or prepare all these gems. The freshness surpasses anything we could find even on the farmer's market, as everything goes directly from the fields to our box to our fridge the day it is picked. The cost is significantly lower too... But what I like the best is that we don't know what's in the box until we open it (we could find out online... but it would spoil the surprise) and some of the veggies, we are seeing for the first time in our lives. I know it doesn't appeal to everybody, but to me this is heaven. It really feels like discovering a treasure every week and with ingredients that tasty, it's hard not to make something delicious. From green garlic to rutabagas to rapini greens or erbette chards, we never stop learning. Some items are even called "mystery" when the newsletter is printed before knowing what can be harvested that day. Love it!

We have been adjusting quite smoothly to the large quantity of produce getting into our fridge every week. I am guessing that the box is sized for a family of 4 adults. But so far we have managed to eat everything (and eat out for lunch). Hopefully we'll get to walk to the farmer's market once in a while because I absolutely love walking there from home and meeting the farmers and my neighbors. There is a social aspect to it that we lost with the CSA box.

Our first box contained 2 red cabbages. We had eaten red cabbage before (especially in Munich) but never cooked with it. So I turned to my Joy of Cooking, 75th anniversary edition cookbook and adapted the Becker Coleslaw based on what was in my box. It was crunchy, juicy, refreshing...

Serves 8 (nearly two 1.75-qt (7-cup) Pyrex containers)

• 1 red cabbage
• 3 carrots (mine were Chantenay carrots)
  
• 1 heart celery
• 10 sprigs curly parsley
• zest of 1 organic lemon
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 tbsp french mustard
• 5-10 dashes hot pepper sauce
• salt and pepper

1. Dice all the veggies (washed or peeled). Grate the lemon. Discard the stems from the parsley sprigs and mince the leaves. Place all in a large bowl.
2. Combine the mustard, vinegar, oil, salt and pepper. Whisk well. Pour on the veggies. Add the hot pepper sauce.
3. Toss, cover and refrigerate overnight.
4. Serve chill.