Kitchen Magician Trick #1: Blanching

It's hard to follow a healthy diet every day when those darn $5 foot-long hoagies (subs to all you non-Philly folks) look so good. Making a meal from scratch seems so daunting when it's late, you're tired and there are still things like baths and bedtime stories, or a lawn to mow before dark. Or, there's a hammock and a glass of wine with your name on it.

It's easy enough to pop a chicken breast or a steak on the grill, but if the thought of having one more bagged salad combo on the side makes you want to dial Dominos, I have a good trick for you. The big TV food gurus always tell you to wash and prep your vegetables and fruit as soon as you bring them home, but I want you to take it one step further. Blanch your vegetables in bulk in advance. Blanching partially cooks your vegetables, and usually brightens the color. If you like them on the firm side, you can even use the blanched vegetables in salads or quick pickles.

So if your family will eat green beans twice in a week,  buy 2 pounds, trim and blanch them in boiling, well salted water for about 4-5 minutes, until just on the verge of being cooked, and then immediately shock them in ice water to stop the cooking. Now you are ready to go. This technique works for most harder, crispy vegetables like broccoli, green beans, carrots and cauliflower, though you may want to blanch sliced carrots or cauliflower a minute or two longer than beans. Tougher greens like kale and collards are great stored blanched, ready to use. You probably only think of blanching when you want to freeze vegetables, but blanched vegetables will keep well in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.  This week I did a batch of green beans and a big bunch of kale.

When mealtime rolls around, and your chicken is on the grill, or the tuna is in the broiler, all you have to do is heat some of your favorite fat in a saucepan, add some aromatics--onion, garlic or pepper, cook for a minute or two, and then add a meal's worth of your blanched vegetable. Toss it in the hot oil until heated through and as tender as you like. Less than 5 minutes to the table. There are innumerable combos to try with your vegetables. Bacon is always a favorite, it goes with virtually everything, and if you save bacon fat like I do, you already have the start of a tasty side dish.

I'm not going to tell you how to blanch your vegetables, you can Google for plenty of info on that; I am telling you to partially gook your vegetables ahead to speed getting a delectable, nutritious dinner on the table in no time flat.

Here's a favorite recipe of ours that uses blanched green beans; in our house the green beans are usually haricots verts, because I grow them and we prefer them. Feel free to use whatever bean is fresh and beautiful in your market.

Just about everything is better with bacon.

Green Beans with Bacon, Fried Onions & Tomato
Serves 4

1 lb. green beans or haricots verts, trimmed and blanched
4 slices of bacon, minced or 4 slices of cooked bacon crumbled, and 2T of saved bacon fat
1 small red onion, quartered and sliced thin
1 medium tomato, seeded and diced small
salt ,and black pepper to taste

In a 12" non-stick frying pan,  cook the bacon over medium high heat until beginning to crisp, about 2 minutes. Lower the heat and cook about a minute longer, until there is a little more than a tablespoon of rendered fat in the pan. Remove the cooked bacon and set aside. Add the onion to the bacon fat, and cook until beginning to soften. If you already have the bacon cooked, just heat the bacon fat and cook the onion. When the onion is beginning to turn golden, add the green beans and toss in the bacon fat. Cook a minute or two until heated through, then add the tomato. Toss well, season with salt and pepper to taste, and place in serving bowl. Sprinkle the reserved bacon over the top.

From the Garden: Haricots Verts and Fresh garlic

This time of year all I do is trim, blanch, freeze, trim, blanch, freeze.
Haricots Verts.

Hmm, that title make it sound as if I've got a recipe for green beans with fresh garlic. I don't. I do have a nice non-recipe for haricots verts, which are delicious, skinny green beans with a French name. I was just announcing that on Sunday, my garlic was more than ready to dig up and cure. It really should have been a few days sooner, but the intense heat wave kept me from the job, even though it was only about 50 plants to fork up. When it's around 100°F, the only thing I'm forking up is fruit salad.

I was a little excited since last years wasn't nearly as good!

Anyway, the garlic's been dug up; 50 or so nice fat heads of German Porcelain Garlic, from Jung's Seeds. I ordered them late in October last year and had to hustle to get them planted before the ground froze. It was worth all the trouble, they look fabulous. I have them spread out in my garage to dry, and will store them in my "cold cellar," which was actually a room-sized area dug into the ground next to our basement that once held a heating oil tank. Stays just below 55°F most of the time, so it's a great place to store stuff. Like garlic, root vegetables or crocks of pickles. You can certainly use garlic fresh, (and I will) but I like to age most of it as the flavor will mellow and be less biting.

The beans have been coming on for a solid couple of weeks now, but the high heat and lack of rainfall are slowing them down. Even if I water them enough to boost my water bill by $100, it still isn't enough to make up for no rain. I can't even imagine how expensive and difficult it must be for the farmers in our region to irrigate. I really like haricots verts with their  fresh, grassy bean taste, and they are just as easy to grow as regular green beans. This variety you see in the picture getting prepped is called Maxibel, a bush variety. The pole beans should be starting soon, too. Bean City.

Haricots Vert, or Green Beans with Orange Oil
 in my favorite Sophie Conran bowl .

The non-recipe:

Haricots Verts with Orange Oil

My favorite way to treat any kind of green bean, French or not, is to blanch in very highly salted water for about 3 minutes if they are going to be drained and frozen, or 4 minutes if they will be eaten soon. Use a big pot of water so the water doesn't stop boiling when you add the beans. You only need to remove the end that was attached to the plant, the blossom end is a pretty curlicue and fine to eat. Put more salt than you think you need in the water. If you are using a gallon and a half of water, use at least 4 Tablespoons of kosher salt in the water. Have a big bowl of ice water ready to shock or chill the beans as soon as you remove them from the boiling salt water.

If you are going to freeze them, pack them in freezer bags in portion sizes, label and date, and freeze.

If you are going to eat them, heat some orange flavored olive oil, or some olive oil with some orange zest added in a medium saucepan. Use enough to coat the amount of beans you plan to eat. Toss in the beans, stir well to coat with the oil, and saute over medium heat until they are reheated through and are as tender as you and your family like them. Taste for salt; they may need none since they were blanched in salt water. Serve and swoon.