A bean by any other name

I don't know if I've written this, but if I had to pick one vegetable as my favorite, it would be green beans. I SHOULD be calling them stringbeans, but I'm told that this term is no longer appropriate, because the string has been bred out of them.

It's true. Does anyone remember, tipping stringbeans when you were a kid? It was something I loved doing. You'd break the little nib at the top of the bean and pull, and this long, interesting green string came away from the line down the middle of the bean.

Well, apparently, this was considered a task that really was too time consuming. So science went to work on breeding the string out of beans. Sort of like getting fuzz off of peaches (you think I'm kidding? Let's not figure out how much money went into THAT one). And with the beans, they succeeded. Of course, to many of us, most of the flavor went out with them, but hey, what's a little flavor if we get back five more minutes of TV time.

Do I sound bitter? Hmmmm. There is some solace in knowing that in recent time, there has been a trend to developing the strains, albeit "heirloom" strains of green beans, that have more flavor in them. So, while I don't think they taste as good as they used to, they are better than they were.

Everyone is familiar with the standard green/string bean, but there is another one that is flatter. It goes by various names: "roma beans," "flat beans" and I've even seen them called "hungarian beans". I grew up knowing them as "romas," and that's what I'll call them. They have a slightler duller color than regular green beans, and of course, they are "flatter." Now, there is also a yellow version of them, and they do taste the same. I find the yellow ones a little problematic in cooking, as explained below, because of what happens to their color, but if it doesn't bother you, try them.

The general "rule" for cooking green beans is quick, in lots of boiling salted water, to keep the crispiness about them. That's a good rule. But if you follow that rule for Roma beans, you will wind up with a tough, chewy, almost inedible product. Relatively speaking, romas need "long, slow" cooking. By that, I don't mean hours, but I do mean fifteen, twenty minutes. And while you can cook them in boiling water for that length of time, there is a better way of doing it, the so-called "oil braise method"

In oil braising, which is used for things like artichoke hearts, and other thicker vegtables, you combine olive oil, herbs, salt, garlic, and some water based liquid, like chicken stock, or water, and cook the vegetables in this. You don't use a lot: you certainly don't cover the vegetables with it. For a pound of beans, perhaps a third of a cup of each of olive oil and liquid. Then you add your aromatics, like garlic (I use a lot), herbs (I like thyme, but rosemary is good too), and salt. You can cook the beans whole, or you can cut them into bite sized pieces. I like to cut them on the bias if I do cut them. I put them in a cold pan with all of the other ingredients, cover the pot, and SLOWLY bring the mix to a simmer.

What happens in this technique is that the water in the mix does what it does in any boiling method, and begins breaking down the vegetable and make it soft. When that happens, the oil, carrying the flavors of the herbs and the garlic, begins penetrating the vegetable and adding flavor. It IS a slow process, but it's a good one. You can go about the rest of your cooking while this is happening, and not really worry about them overcooking.

When are they done? Well, when you want them to be. Essentially, you want the beans to be soft enough so that a knife can go through it very easily, offering no resistance. If there is any liquid left in the pan, you can pour it over the beans, but you don't have to. A little splash of lemon, or vinegar, is always welcome at the end.

I mentioned an issue with yellow romas early on. Indeed, when I cook yellow ones this way, I find that they pick up a brown color that is not very appetizing, at least to me. If you don't mind it, and you want to have the yellow color on your plate, by all means, do it. Or, mix them with green beans.

These are really good on a vegetable plate, when you're looking for different textures. For example, if you serve them, at room temperature, with a potato salad and a Moroccan carrot salad, you have a beautiful plate, with contrasting flavors and textures that is very hard to resist. If you have extra, you can put them into salads, or toss them into a pasta with other vegetables. I have even been known to put these on a pizza when it comes out of the oven. I love them that much.

Try them. They're a bit more time, but I think you'll like them as much as you like any vegetable