Green Beans and Tangerine
Cooking fast and tasty dishes is something anyone can do with a little know how. That's why I'm developing this series called S & P Plus Three which stands for salt and pepper plus 3 easy ingredients. That's all it takes to take an ordinary meal to a memorable meal.
In this series I'm going to be showing you how I've created a kitchen that makes S & P Plus Three quick and easy to execute and I'm going to introduce you to flavor combinations that are fast to toss together, have an emphasis on health and have pizzaz in the taste department.
First up...Green Beans and Tangerine. I make this recipe for 2 people in less than ten minutes and you can too. Just use a bigger pan and more green beans for more people.
It's all about the ingredients. If you want your food to taste amazing, start with amazing ingredients. There is no getting around this. Always, always, ALWAYS top of my mind, is finding great fresh ingredients to start with. Locate some excellent organic green beans and in-season tangerines.
Then make sure your kitchen is stocked with high quality pepper corns in a grinder and some good sea salt. My pantry is always stocked with a variety of sea salts and I find that with these you get what you pay for. It's worth it to buy an excellent version like a French Fleur de Sel, but I use the pink Himalayan salts, too. I often season first with a fine-grain supermarket sea salt and then just before eating, sprinkle on a few grains of coarser high quality sea salt. It gives the dish an added impact. (More on health benefits of salt.)
In this recipe I am also using a favorite Coconut Oil from Nutriva that has butter flavoring. Honestly, this tastes like the real thing. I am a fan of butter, but only if it is from pastured, grass fed cows. Coconut Oil is an excellent healthy fat and I find myself reaching for this butter-flavored version frequently.
Let's get cooking. Just spread the green beans out in a medium to large sauce pan and barely cover them with water. Bring the pan to a boil and check the green beans regularly. I find that they are usually done just about the same time the water evaporates from the pan.
How to tell when green beans are done. When I was a child I was often served green beans that had been cooked to mush. Later, it became fashionable to cook them al dente which was just barely cooked and almost crispy. I find that now I like them somewhere in between. You want to make sure that they still have their vibrant green color, but you want all snap and crispiness gone. If you pick one up, you should be able to wiggle it from one end and it will waggle and bend in your hands (watch me do this in the video below). I find that this is the place of maximum flavor and pleasure when it comes to green beans.
Time for S & P Plus Three. Now squeeze 4 tablespoons or so of tangerine juice into the pan and keep cooking until it mostly evaporates. It may create a little caramelizing in the pan which is a good thing--your green beans will taste all the better for it. Caramelizing is YUM! Once the tangerine juice is just about gone, turn down the heat and add in the coconut oil. Then add generous salt and ground pepper to taste. Don't skimp here, go just to the point where you can really taste the salt and pepper without them dominating the dish. This is something that comes with practice. If you're not sure what to do, add a little and taste and keep adding more until it feels right to you. A dish with skimpy salt is not a tasty dish, (at least that's my opinion!)
Add the kicker. The kicker is the ingredient that puts your dish over the edge. Sometimes it is a crunchy ingredient but other times, such as here, it adds color and flavor. Tangerine zest gives our dish a beautiful orange finish and it also ramps up the tangerine flavor big-time.
Recipes vs. cooking intuitively. Yes, I could have just given you the recipe BUT, this is all about something else. This is about learning how to cook great food quickly. It's about knowing what wonderful ingredients taste like and combining them intelligently. Watch the video and give it a try!
Another great green bean recipe.
Health and butter.
More on salt and pepper.
In this series I'm going to be showing you how I've created a kitchen that makes S & P Plus Three quick and easy to execute and I'm going to introduce you to flavor combinations that are fast to toss together, have an emphasis on health and have pizzaz in the taste department.
First up...Green Beans and Tangerine. I make this recipe for 2 people in less than ten minutes and you can too. Just use a bigger pan and more green beans for more people.
 |
| Green Beans with Tangerine |
It's all about the ingredients. If you want your food to taste amazing, start with amazing ingredients. There is no getting around this. Always, always, ALWAYS top of my mind, is finding great fresh ingredients to start with. Locate some excellent organic green beans and in-season tangerines.
 |
| Farmer's Market Green Beans |
Then make sure your kitchen is stocked with high quality pepper corns in a grinder and some good sea salt. My pantry is always stocked with a variety of sea salts and I find that with these you get what you pay for. It's worth it to buy an excellent version like a French Fleur de Sel, but I use the pink Himalayan salts, too. I often season first with a fine-grain supermarket sea salt and then just before eating, sprinkle on a few grains of coarser high quality sea salt. It gives the dish an added impact. (More on health benefits of salt.)
In this recipe I am also using a favorite Coconut Oil from Nutriva that has butter flavoring. Honestly, this tastes like the real thing. I am a fan of butter, but only if it is from pastured, grass fed cows. Coconut Oil is an excellent healthy fat and I find myself reaching for this butter-flavored version frequently.
Let's get cooking. Just spread the green beans out in a medium to large sauce pan and barely cover them with water. Bring the pan to a boil and check the green beans regularly. I find that they are usually done just about the same time the water evaporates from the pan.
How to tell when green beans are done. When I was a child I was often served green beans that had been cooked to mush. Later, it became fashionable to cook them al dente which was just barely cooked and almost crispy. I find that now I like them somewhere in between. You want to make sure that they still have their vibrant green color, but you want all snap and crispiness gone. If you pick one up, you should be able to wiggle it from one end and it will waggle and bend in your hands (watch me do this in the video below). I find that this is the place of maximum flavor and pleasure when it comes to green beans.
Time for S & P Plus Three. Now squeeze 4 tablespoons or so of tangerine juice into the pan and keep cooking until it mostly evaporates. It may create a little caramelizing in the pan which is a good thing--your green beans will taste all the better for it. Caramelizing is YUM! Once the tangerine juice is just about gone, turn down the heat and add in the coconut oil. Then add generous salt and ground pepper to taste. Don't skimp here, go just to the point where you can really taste the salt and pepper without them dominating the dish. This is something that comes with practice. If you're not sure what to do, add a little and taste and keep adding more until it feels right to you. A dish with skimpy salt is not a tasty dish, (at least that's my opinion!)
Add the kicker. The kicker is the ingredient that puts your dish over the edge. Sometimes it is a crunchy ingredient but other times, such as here, it adds color and flavor. Tangerine zest gives our dish a beautiful orange finish and it also ramps up the tangerine flavor big-time.
Recipes vs. cooking intuitively. Yes, I could have just given you the recipe BUT, this is all about something else. This is about learning how to cook great food quickly. It's about knowing what wonderful ingredients taste like and combining them intelligently. Watch the video and give it a try!
Another great green bean recipe.
Health and butter.
More on salt and pepper.
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