Dragon Tongue Beans!
One of the fun things about purchasing directly from the farmers is trying the products I might not normally buy. This week's delivery included half a pound of dragon tongue beans.
Aren't they cool? I ate one of them raw. Though they are thicker than the average green bean, they are actually quite tender and crisp. There's a slight sweetness to them as well. Raw green beans taste, well, green.
Since I didn't have enough dragon tongue beans for a full recipe, I supplemented with green beans. Here's today's cast.
I always parboil my beans. They can be eaten immediately afterwards or, if you intend to do a quick sauté, it'll be really fast--these took about three minutes. When I buy the big bag of Costco green beans I always trim and parboil the entire thing at once. I bag them in smaller amounts and store in the fridge or freezer. Saves steps later!
The green beans barely took 3 minutes in the boiling water before they were ready--we're going for just tender here. Nothing worse than soggy beans! I scooped them out of the boiling water, gave them a quick rinse in cold water and then dumped them into a bowl of ice water. This stops the cooking and helps the beans to retain their color.
The dragon tongue beans took almost five minutes. I gave them the cold water rinse and ice water bath treatment and drained them well. Unfortunately, the cool color of the dragon tongues don't last through the cooking process. Alas.
The recipe called for pancetta, which I didn't have. I did have bacon but decided to go with prosciutto instead. I rolled the pancetta up and cut it chiffonade style.
Since prosciutto is not as fatty as pancetta, I added a light olive oil to the pan.
In goes the crimini mushrooms along with a generous sprinkling of kosher salt.
The mushrooms cooked down for about eight minutes.
Then the proscitto was returned to the pan, along with the beans, and given a good toss--just to coat the beans in the juices from the mushroom and to heat them a bit.
A sprinkle of black pepper and chopped parsley and that's it!
I am fortunate that my guys enjoy veggies and don't mind if meat is not a prominent ingredients. This was a definite hit. The only thing left were a couple of mushroom scraps.
Here's the promised link:
Dragon Tongue Beans with mushrooms
Aren't they cool? I ate one of them raw. Though they are thicker than the average green bean, they are actually quite tender and crisp. There's a slight sweetness to them as well. Raw green beans taste, well, green.
Since I didn't have enough dragon tongue beans for a full recipe, I supplemented with green beans. Here's today's cast.
I always parboil my beans. They can be eaten immediately afterwards or, if you intend to do a quick sauté, it'll be really fast--these took about three minutes. When I buy the big bag of Costco green beans I always trim and parboil the entire thing at once. I bag them in smaller amounts and store in the fridge or freezer. Saves steps later!
The green beans barely took 3 minutes in the boiling water before they were ready--we're going for just tender here. Nothing worse than soggy beans! I scooped them out of the boiling water, gave them a quick rinse in cold water and then dumped them into a bowl of ice water. This stops the cooking and helps the beans to retain their color.
The dragon tongue beans took almost five minutes. I gave them the cold water rinse and ice water bath treatment and drained them well. Unfortunately, the cool color of the dragon tongues don't last through the cooking process. Alas.
The recipe called for pancetta, which I didn't have. I did have bacon but decided to go with prosciutto instead. I rolled the pancetta up and cut it chiffonade style.
Since prosciutto is not as fatty as pancetta, I added a light olive oil to the pan.
Once the prosciutto was browned, I removed it from the pan, added a pat of butter and the onions and garlic. The recipe didn't call for it but I added a sploosh of broth so I could deglaze the pan. Can't waste all that crusty goodness!
In goes the crimini mushrooms along with a generous sprinkling of kosher salt.
The mushrooms cooked down for about eight minutes.
Then the proscitto was returned to the pan, along with the beans, and given a good toss--just to coat the beans in the juices from the mushroom and to heat them a bit.
A sprinkle of black pepper and chopped parsley and that's it!
I am fortunate that my guys enjoy veggies and don't mind if meat is not a prominent ingredients. This was a definite hit. The only thing left were a couple of mushroom scraps.
Here's the promised link:
Dragon Tongue Beans with mushrooms
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