July 15, 2009

Sweet and Sour Green Beans

This is the first thing I made with the batch of green beans we picked from my uncle and aunt's garden. They are really terrific! I used this basic recipe from the Martha Stewart site, and made some changes.

Ingredients
Serves 4

* 4 slices bacon
* 1 large onion, chopped ( I used a sweet Vidalia onion)
* Coarse salt and ground pepper (yeah, just use salt and pepper for Pete' s sake)
* 1 pound green beans, trimmed (I snapped mine into inch sized pieces)
* 1/4 cup cider vinegar
* 1/4 cup sugar (I used Maui raw sugar, which has a great tangy flavor)
* 1/2 cup water

Directions:

1. In a large skillet, cook bacon over medium until browned, 3 to 4 minutes per side. With tongs, transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate (reserve skillet with pan drippings). (I chopped the bacon first and then browned it off.)
2. Add onion to skillet; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onion starts to brown,3 to 5 minutes. Add green beans and 1/4 cup water; cook, tossing occasionally, until beans are bright green and tender, about 10 minutes. ( I added more like 1/2 C water and put the lid on for a good part of the cooking time. I don't really know how the beans would be cooked enough otherwise.)
3. Crumble bacon into skillet; add vinegar and sugar. Cook until a syrupy sauce forms, 2 minutes (I let it go a little longer in order to evaporate the extra water I added), tossing to coat. Serve immediately.
**See the recipe for Three Bean Salad for a great way to use any leftovers you may have!
These recipes will hopefully give you some ideas about how to use produce from your garden or farmer's market. There are also other recipes that are simply here because they are our favorites, or someone made a request at the last church lunch! I'd like to encourage you to alter these recipes to suit your own tastes, your family's needs, and to use what you have on hand. Therefore, some of my recipes will not have exact measurements. So...if any of the recipes leaves you scratching your head, just send me an email and I'll try to answer your question. HappyGrowing@eatingfromthegarden.com