French Beans the French Way!

I was feeling very lethargic this afternoon as we had a nice soulful dinner last night at my HD (Hubby Darlin')'s cousin's home. His wife cooked us up an nice Keralite meal and its been ages since we had a nice heavy dinner. So but obviously I woke up late and dragged myself to my daily work! Through most week's lunches my current kitchen serves only 2 guests - my 2.4 yr old lil' girl and me:)

We needed to have a veggie dish as one of norm set by mum since my childhood and I suddenly was reminded of Eat, Pray, Love where Julia cooks up her breakfast and threw in a handful of asparagus into a pot of boiling water. That also triggered a memory of a fellow former colleague from France who once carried as a part of her lunchbox whole french beans trimmed at the edges only with shallots. I remembered how it had a glistening green colour and looked super healthy. I first thought how can steamed beans have such a bright green colour even brighter than when it was on the plant itself.

Frenched-French Beans!

My HD had just brought in some fresh French beans and I had other plans for it until my current lethargic self kicked in but at the same time I wanted to eat something delightfully different. So I decided to go French.

Your toddler may love it as mine did enjoy it although she is a non-veggie fan:)

You need:

• 250 gms of French Beans with ends trimmed
• 1 tbsp of unsalted butter(you can skip this and just add a tbsp of EVOO)
• 1 tbsp of Extravirgin Olive Oil(EVOO)
• 1 large shallot diced finely
• Salt
• Black Pepper - to taste



French Beans soaking in vinegar water to cleanse off the chemicals if any

The make: This is a super simple recipe..

Cooking Time: 10 minutes|Preparation Time: 5 minutes|Serves:2 adults

Drained blanched beans after its boil bath

1. Take a large pan of salted-boiling water and immerse the cleaned french beans into it. Allow it to run a boil for 2 minutes. Then drain and place it in a bowl of ice water. You will notice that it gives a nice bright green.
2. Take a large deep bottomed skillet and place the oil and then the butter and once warm, add the diced shallot and lightly brown for about 5 minutes on a medium flame.
3. Drain the beans and add it to the Shallots
4. Season with salt and pepper.

Seasoning the beans

5. Toss the beans and shallots in the seasoning and allow the beans to just get hot and turn off the flame.

6. Your Frenched-French beans is ready to be served

I told you its super-simple!

One last look before turning of the flame

Super simple Frenched beans!

Note: These preparation requires that the dish be served hot and completed in that meal itself, otherwise it tends to harden and you would probably need to steam the same losing the color and flavor of the butter and oil.