Chinese Green Beans

One of the differences in the "Standard American Diet" and the diet of most of the rest of the world, is how they treat vegetables. When I grew up, "vegetables" were this sort of soggy grey-green mass at one corner of the plate, usually reheated canned green beans or peas or corn. The only seasoning was salt ... and then we'd add some butter. They were the thing you ate because Mom said: "Eat your vegetables!".

Fast forward a decade or two, and here is my brother and cousin, the hedonists, ordering seconds and thirds, of green beans. I mean, they are scarfing down those green beans like they were pizza. A regular green bean orgy.

So what happened? My brother changed? I think not. He still does not like "vegies". But Chinese Green Beans ... that is different. Chinese Green Beans are not "vegies". They are not grey-green and insipid. They are totally awesome.

Now, I don't know exactly how they make these in that particular restaurant, but I make a pretty good version of them, regularly. And I scarf them down too, because they are awesome. The recipe is such that you can use it for a number of different vegetables, whatever you happen to have handy.

Here is the version I made today.

1. Get some green beans. Today all I had was frozen, so I tossed them into some water to thaw them.
2. Chopped bacon. I usually keep chopped raw bacon in the freezer. I got a handful of this and set it aside in a bowl.
3. Chopped roasted almonds. Again, I usually make these in bulk and freeze them, because I just love adding them to recipes. So I got a handful of these, set them aside in a bowl.
4. Chop some fresh garlic. Because, it isn't food without garlic.

So I put the fish in the oven (teriyaki salmon, but it didn't come out like I wanted, so I'll give the recipe for it when it comes out right). Then heated the pan, tossed in the bacon. While that started cooking, I cleaned up the kitchen, and drained the green beans.

When the bacon was crisp, I tossed in the garlic, let it cook for a bit. Then added the green beans. The green beans were wet, since they were frozen, so everything was watery. I added some soy sauce, which made it even more watery! But that's ok ... one of the things I learned from watching cooks make Phad Thai. While it was bubbling, I added some Penzey's Ozark Seasoning, which is probably the one seasoning you really need in life. If I was making it just for me, I'd add some Sriracha sauce at this point too. So I keep cleaning up the kitchen while this cooks, til all the liquid is gone, and the green beans are cooking in bacon grease. They start to shrivel a little ... and this is when you add the almonds, and it's done.

Now, I probably added too many almonds and bacon for this many green beans, but the result was great. That plus a bowl of rice and a little salmon and kimchi ... life doesn't get much better than that. It's hard for me to put in words just how satisfying that kind of meal is for me.

This is so different from my previous life, where I'd eat and eat and eat and never quite feel full. My quest, back when I started this food quest, was to find a meal that kept me satisfied for at least 4 hours, til the next meal. Now I eat one meal a day ... and it keeps me satisfied for 24 hours. There are probably many factors that make this work for me, but one big part is: the food is really GOOD FOOD. Not just "eating healthy" but "sheesh, that was a good meal" good food. Foods like Chinese Green Beans.

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On another note: Pans! In the picture you see one of my main ones, which I admit, is .... nonstick! It is a Swiss Diamond pan, and the thing is amazing. I am saying this as a former nonstick-hater. Whatever Swiss Diamond is doing, it's not what you think of as "Teflon". 

My other favorite pans are a kind of new ceramic nonstick (Safepan), which is quite a bit cheaper, and it works nicely too. The Swiss Diamond is a very heavy pan, and the big one has lots of surface for stir fry, and it doesn't move much when you do the stirring. The ceramic pans are very lightweight, which is also useful. I like both.

For long-cooked foods, I use clay. Clay cookers make absolutely the best food, from a culinary perspective. But also, oddly, they don't stick. The idea of using clay on a stovetop seems odd and I keep expecting the cooker to explode, but so far it has not and the food is great. Everyone I've met who has tried this has one comment "The food tastes so much better!". I don't know why that is, but I expect that part of it is that the iron in steel pots, contributes to oxidation. Any cookery that avoids oxidation (sous vide, planking, smoking, confit) tastes better.

I'm mostly avoiding stainless in my life, basically to avoid iron and nickle.  I have no idea how necessary that is, really, but when I started not using stainless, food started tasting better to me, so it seemed like a good experiment.