Green Bean Salad Archives

I like to think of green beans as the little black dress (LBD) of the vegetable world. Just as versatile as a LBD, green beans can get get dressed in so many different ways. Accessorized with dill, celery and an apple cider vinaigrette, green beans are casual and ready for a backyard BBQ. Adorn them up with blood oranges, hazelnuts and a sherry vinaigrette, and they are perfect for a formal dinner (pearls optional). Tart them up with spicy chiles, almonds and a soy- honey dressing and they are all set for a hot date.

When the baskets at the market are spilling over with green and yellow beans I get very excited. That satisfying sharp snapping sound they make when you break off the ends tells me that these beans are fresh from the field.

Traditionally in North America, veggies have been portrayed as a minor character on the plate, letting meat take center stage. However, chefs around the world are beginning to inspire us to flip that view around. Let vegetables shine on the plate , but use meat sparingly, to add some acidity, richness and fat. This recipe was created by Chef Josh Keeler from Two Boroughs Larder in Charleston, SC.As I perused Chef Josh’s recipe, I did a double take reading the instructions. Put the salami in the blender. Really??? Remember that episode of The Chew when host Carla Hall wonders “Can you blend it?” and then proceeds to puree leftover chicken pot pie? Well, blended salami vinaigrette is way better than that. Surprisingly delicious. It adds richness and an unctuous quality to the beans. The pureed dressing is a rather vibrant orange colour, thanks to the paprika, but don’t let it scare you. Press on!

I decided to add a touch more salami , crisping up little cubes to use as a sort of meat crouton.The first time I made this we added chick peas to the dish to up the protein content. As my sister Bonnie says, “Chick peas make everything better.” For this photo shoot, I left them out.

Click here to print recipe for Green and Yellow Beans with Salami Vinaigrette.

Last Monday morning I woke up with a killer Cronut hangover. For the uninitiated, a Cronut is an amazing pastry from Dominique Ansel Bakery on Spring St. in SoHo. Imagine if you will a cream filled donut hooking up with a croissant, falling in love and mating. (Hey, it could happen, ever watch those eHarmony commercials?) The Cronut would be the love child of that union.They take a croissant type dough and form it into a donut shape. Then they deep fry it and pump it full of a Tahitian Vanilla pastry cream. They enrobe it in a rose flavoured glaze, tint it the palest, prettiest pink imaginable, and then, bedazzle it with candied rose petals.

This creation is based on the traditional Breton butter pastry, known in Brittany as Kouign Amann. People are lining up for them as early as 6:00 a.m., because they sell out so quickly. There are even rumours that Cronuts are being scalped on Craigslist. They just launched a lemon maple variety for the month of June and a Dulce de Leche variety is in the works for July!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vswiimBEvCk

I first heard about Cronuts on Serious Eats. I knew that in the wrong hands, (MINE), a Cronut could be a dangerous thing. But I needed to find out if they were really all that and a bag of chips. So, I figured I’d do the next best thing to actually eating it myself. I would get my friend to try them, and give me the lowdown.

My girlfriend Paula and her husband were heading to NYC, so I forwarded the Cronut link to her and asked her to go check them out and report back to me. She e-mailed me back that she would do one better; she would bring me back some to try myself. Apparently they sell out very quickly, so she went online, ordered them and on Sunday afternoon, schlepped her husband down to SoHo to pick them up. He stopped complaining once she shoved a Cronut in his mouth. She managed to get them through Newark Security and even through Customs unscathed, although I suspect a Cronut or two were sacrificed as bribes to ease their entry into Canada. We take Cronut importation seriously in this nation.

Now you may be thinking, “What a great friend Paula is, to bring these all the way back from NYC”. Or you may be wondering if she isn’t just a sneaky closet enabler, trying to fatten up her friend.

Sunday night, around 8:30 p.m., our doorbell rang. It was Paula, on her way home from the airport with the box of Cronuts. She said that we had to eat them right away. I didn’t want to be rude, so I took a small bite. Crispy flaky light layers of buttery croissant gave way to a silky pastry cream filling flecked with vanilla bean seeds.I am sure I moaned as I thanked her profusely. I really was planning to have just a little bite, so I could say I had tried them. However, once she left, an evil voice from somewhere deep inside my head commanded me to finish the entire thing. So I did. And then, once my husband and daughter went upstairs, I scarfed down a second Cronut; hence the Cronut hangover on Monday morning.

I felt vaguely nauseous from all that sugar and butter I had ingested, so I figured that the perfect antidote was something green and acidic. I remember reading somewhere that apple cider vinegar is a great digestive aid. I had some fresh green beans, so I got to creating with what was in my fridge.Cookbook author and griller extraordinaire, Chris Schlessinger, once said, “Green bean recipes are like movies: You always think there are lots of good ones around until you’re ready for one, then you can’t find any you really like.” Here’s a fantastic one for whenever over-indulging makes you feel the need to be virtuous. (At least until the next binge!)