Clean Green Beans

I love green beans. No, I don't think you understand...every Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter (we have Thanksgiving dinner three times a year) my grandmother buys four pounds of green beans, 'snaps' as she calls them. Two pounds are all mine, and the other fourteen family members get to fight over the rest. They try to beat me to the front of the line, but I always cut them off at the chase by hanging out in the kitchen just before lunchtime. As soon as the meal is ready for everyone to dive in, I swoop in and fill my plate with snaps.

These are my favorite beans--so flavorful, so fresh, so tender, so EASY. This is another one of those psych-your-guests-out dishes that tastes so good, it cannot possibly be that easy. They compliment any entrée and are just as delicious when they aren't piping hot.

Also, I want to say a few words about the best seasoning salts I have found. One has large flakes of salt and will make you sneeze every time take a whiff, and one that is a little less salty and a little more garlicky. You must have at least one of these in your cabinet. They are so versatile, from seasoning chicken before it hits the grill, to replacing salt in savory dished, to sprinkling on these very beans.

Blanching is a useful technique to perfect; basically, you boil the vegetables for a few minutes and shock them in ice cold water to halt to cooking process. The shocking technique also preserves the color. Those of you who like mushy browngreen vegetables boiled to submission, you should probably check out another recipe. All else, read on...

Green beans (find the skinniest, most petite green beans; not the thicker ones)
Butter
Extra virgin olive oil
Your seasoning salt of choice

Bring a large pot of water to a rapid boil. Wash and trim the ends of the green beans, or skip a step and buy pre-washed beans because the others don't look so hot. This is not my best attempt at cooking in-season, but alas, there was very little at my big-box grocery store from which to choose. Also while the water is coming to a boil, prepare the ice water to blanch the beans when they finish. It's like when serious runners (not me) sit in an ice bath after an uber long run to prevent injury. Fill a large bowl 1/3 of the way full with ice and add water nearly to the top, but save room for the beans.

Okay, so now the water is rapidly boiling, add a handful or two of beans. Do not crowd the pan. Set the kitchen timer for four minutes. As soon as that timer goes off, use tongs to transfer the beans to the ice water. Repeat as many times as you need to blanch all of the beans. Remove each batch from the water and place on a plate with paper towels to collect excess water.

Once all beans are blanched and are draining, heat a drizzle of olive oil and a small pat of butter in a saute pan over high heat. Olive oil has a higher smoking point than butter, and the butter yields delicious flavor; the combination is perfect for these delicate beans. The olive oil and butter mixture is ready when a drop of water sizzles in the pan. Now drop enough beans to cover the bottom of the pan (I forgot to take a picture of this, whoops). Sprinkle some of the salt on the beans and toss them in the pan every 45 seconds or so. They will even begin to brown a bit from the butter, and these are the best bites. Repeat this until all of the beans are sauteed adding just a little olive oil and butter to the pan each time. Oh man, yum.