Thread: Green beans
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ImStillMags ImStillMags is offline
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Default Green beans

A friend of mine gave me some fresh green beans from her garden
yesterday. These are mature green beans, meaning they have gotten to
the stage where the bean has formed in the pod and the pod is no
longer pencil thin and smooth....it's fat and lumpy with the bean.

We all know these will be less tender and less sweet. I haven't had
any mature green beans for years, don't have a garden and when I buy
them at the market I always buy the young and tender ones.

so.......I'm going to cook them the old granny Southern way we used to
cook mature green beans when I was growing up. Long and slow.
These will be the type of green beans that a lot of people think about
who believe that Southerners overcook their vegetables. Of course
that's not true. We cook young green beans quickly and serve them
still tender crisp. But these older beans are going to be tender and
silky with a flavor that is out of this world.

I'll take off the 'strings', snap them into about 2" long pieces.

In my heavy pot I'll fry thin slices of 'fatback' or salt pork till
rendered and crispy. Then I'll add some good chicken stock, the green
beans and some chopped onion and let that
simmer for about an hour. Then I'll add some very small new red
potatoes, whole, to the pot and let it simmer till the potatoes are
completely tender. Salt and black pepper to taste. No, the beans
won't cook till mush. They will be silky tender and have a flavor
unlike you've ever had from green beans. And there will be this
fabulous 'pot liquor' as a bonus. I like to put the 'pot liquor'
over cornbread.

If you have never tried mature green beans this way, well, you've
missed out. If you get your hands on some mature green beans try
this. You will not be disappointed.


I'll post pictures later.