Monday, December 13, 2010

Steamed and sauteed Green beans

A wonderful tasty, yet very simple vegetable to make. Is a good combination with mashed potatoes and gravy. Makes a very good low fat, low carb and low calorie appetizer as well. Jazz it up with the flavours you like, this is just one way of making it. Here goes the recipe.

Prep time: 10 Mins
Cook time: 4 to 10 Mins
Servings: 4 approx

Ingredients:

Green beans - 1 pound
oil - 1 tsp
Parsley - 1/2 tsp dry or fresh
Garlic - 1 clove minced or grated
Salt - to taste
Ground pepper - to taste
Adobo - 1 tsp (Optional)

Method:

1. Wash and take out the fiber from the sides of the beans. If you think the beans is not very stringy you can use them straight after washing. Steam then in the microwave for 4 minutes, let them stay inside the box for a minute longer before you open the lid. If you do not want to microwave beans, you can blanch them. This may take a little longer than microwaving. To blanch the beans, Boil water in a large wok or pot. Drop the beans into it and let it stay in there for 5 minutes. In the mean while, in another big vessel, fill cold water and drop in a few ice cubes to make the water chilly. After 5 minutes of hot water bath, drain the hot water from these beans and drop them in cold water. This will shock them, make their colour brighter and stop them form cooking further. Let them stay there for 3 minutes, drain the cold water and set the beans aside.

2. In a pan which can hold all the beans, Heat oil saute garlic and dry parsley. If you use fresh parsley, sprinkle the finely chopped parsley after sauteing beans.

3. Drop the beans in to the pan, add salt and pepper. This would be the time to sprinkle fresh parsley, toss everything together till well mixed. If you are using adobo, add that before tossing. Keep in mind, adodbo has salt too, so you may want to first taste the beans if they need more salt if you are adding adobo. Steamed and sauteed green beans are ready to be served.

Tips:
1. These steamed beans can be made many different ways. This is just one of the low fat versions. If you want it slightly tart, squeeze some lime juice. You can add 1 tbsp of finely chopped scallions to it, give a mild onion flavour.
2. Use less oil to saute beans, more oil makes the beans extremely greasy and wont be pretty to eat.


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