Seasonal Pantry: Some foods just need to be cooked

MICHELE ANNA JORDAN
FOR THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

To cook or not to cook: This is a question we hear with increasing frequency, as raw food diets enjoy another turn in the spotlight. If you are a fan of never cooking anything, you might want to stop reading now. This column is not for you.

Certain foods need to be cooked both to make them palatable and to unlock their nutrients so that the human body can make use of them. For now, I want to focus on the palatability side of things.

Green beans -- along with broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms and potatoes, to name a few others -- need to be cooked, even for salads.

There are a lot of ways to illustrate why but the best, if you are not convinced, is to do a taste test. Cook a green bean for about three minutes -- a bit longer if the bean is particularly large -- and then taste it alongside a raw bean.

The flavor of the cooked bean has blossomed, revealing more nuance and depth; it also has a pleasing texture.

A raw green bean, no matter how perfectly grown, does not have these qualities.

The other way I like to illustrate this point is with a story about Julia Child, whom everyone seems to be thinking about these days because of the movie "Julie & Julia."

A number of years ago, she and Jacques Pepin were in Sonoma County for a special interview and luncheon hosted by KQED. I had the pleasure of conducting the interview, which was in front of an audience of about 50 guests.

At lunch, Pepin leaned over and whispered in my ear.

"Thank God the green beans are cooked enough," he said in that wonderful French accent. "Julia hates undercooked green beans."

I'm with Julia.

If you are, too, here are a couple of recipes that are perfect at this time of year, when the green beans are ready and basil, one of its best companions, is begging to be picked.

This salad is both delicious and flexible. Use any fresh green bean, from tiny haricots verte to Romanos and even long beans.

Vegetarians can easily omit the bacon; simply saute the shallots and garlic in olive oil. If you don't have cherry tomatoes, dice larger tomatoes.

Always remember, however, that a dish is no better than the ingredients used to make it; you'll find the best tomatoes in a backyard or at a farmers market.

Warm Summer Salad with Green Beans, Potatoes, Tomatoes and Bacon

Makes 4 to 6 servings

-- Kosher salt

8 ounces fresh small green beans, trimmed

1 pound small new potatoes, scrubbed and thinly sliced

3 bacon slices

1 small shallot, minced

1 garlic clove, crushed and minced

2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more if needed

-- Black pepper in a mill

2 tablespoons best quality red or white wine vinegar

1 cup small cherry tomatoes, such as Sungold, cut into lengthwise quarters

1 tablespoon fresh basil leaves, cut into very thin strips

Fill a medium saucepan half full with water, season with salt and bring to a boil. Add the green beans and cook until just tender, about 3 minutes for small beans and 4 or 5 minutes for more mature beans. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the beans to a colander or strainer to drain.

Add the potatoes to the saucepan and cook until tender, about 3 to 4 minutes or a little longer for thicker slices; do not let the potatoes fall apart. Drain thoroughly and transfer to a wide shallow serving bowl to cool slightly.

Put the bacon into a medium saute pan and cook, turning at least once, until crisp; transfer to absorbent paper.

Pour off all but about a tablespoon of bacon fat, return the pan to medium heat and saute the shallot until it is soft and fragrant, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and saute 1 minute more.

Season with salt and several turns of black pepper.

Stir in the olive oil and vinegar, remove from the heat and taste; correct for acid balance and for salt.

Add the green beans to the bowl with the potatoes and pour the dressing over them. Use 2 forks to toss very gently. Add the tomatoes and basil, toss again, taste and correct for salt and pepper.

Chop or crumble the bacon and scatter it over the salad.

Serve warm.

Certain flavors go beautifully together -- green beans and basil, for example, and basil and coconut milk. In this recipe, think of the basil as the liaison between the green beans and the coconut, the friend who makes the introduction.

This curry is delicious as a side dish with chicken but satisfying enough to be a vegetarian main course on a warm night.

Green Beans

in Thai Green Curry

Makes 2 to 3 servings

1 tablespoon Green Curry Paste (recipe follows)

-- Kosher salt

8 to 10 ounces fresh small green beans, trimmed and cut into 1?-inch lengths

1 14-ounce can unsweetened coconut milk

1 small yellow onion, minced

1 tablespoon sugar (palm, brown or white)

3 or 4 kaffir lime leaves, if available

Fish sauce

2 tablespoons very fresh basil leaves, preferably Thai basil

2 tablespoons fresh cilantro leaves

-- Steamed jasmine rice

First, make the curry paste and set it aside.

Fill a medium saucepan half full with water, season with salt and bring to a boil. Add the green beans and cook for 3 minutes. Drain thoroughly and set aside.

Return the saucepan or a heavy saute pan to medium low heat. Shake the coconut milk in its can, open it, spoon about a third of a cup into the pan and stir gently until it thickens and releases its fragrance, about 5 minutes.

Stir in the curry paste and cook 3 minutes more, stirring all the while. Add the onion and cook very gently for 5 minutes, stirring frequently; do not let the mixture burn.

Stir in the remaining coconut milk, the sugar and the kaffir lime leaves, if using. Add about ? cup water, stir and simmer gently for 15 minutes, until the mixture has thickened slightly and the flavors have come together.

Taste, season with a few splashes of fish sauce and add the green beans. Cook for 1 minute.

Stir in the basil leaves and remove from the heat.

Transfer the curry to a serving bowl and sprinkle the cilantro on top. Serve immediately, with the jasmine rice alongside.

Variations:

Stir ? cup cherry tomatoes, sliced in half, to the curry with the basil leaves.

Use 4 ounces of green beans instead of 8 ounces. Add 3 or 4 cooked and sliced small new potatoes along with the beans.

Add about a cup of cooked chicken, preferably thigh meat, to the coconut milk for the last 5 minutes of cooking before adding the beans.

Use 1 pound raw zucchini cut into ?-inch wide half rounds in place of the green beans.

Green curry paste is not at all difficult to make; it simply takes a bit of patience to reduce all the ingredients to a uniform paste.

If your mortar is small, work in batches.

Thai Green Curry Paste

Makes about 1/3 to ? cup

1 teaspoon coriander seed

? teaspoon cumin seed

5 black peppercorns

1 stalk lemongrass, bulb portion only, trimmed of dried leaves

2 serranos, stemmed and minced

2 tablespoons chopped cilantro roots (see Note below)

1 small shallot, chopped

4 to 5 garlic cloves, crushed

2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger

-- Grated zest of 1 lime

1 teaspoon kosher salt

Set a small saute pan over medium heat, add the coriander seed and fry, agitating the pan gently all the while, for about 3 minutes, until they darken slightly.

Transfer to a suribachi or other mortar. Return the pan to the heat and fry the cumin until they release their aroma, 1 to 2 minutes; transfer to the mortar.

Add the peppercorns and use a wooden pestle to crush the spices to a fine powder.

Set the lemongrass on a work surface and use a sharp knife to cut into into very thin rounds. Add a small handful of the lemongrass to the suribachi and crush; continue until all of the lemongrass has been added. Repeat with the serranos, cilantro roots, shallot, garlic, ginger and lime zest, pounding and crushing to reduce all the ingredients into a homogenous paste.

Add a splash or two of water if needed to facilitate the grinding. (Alternately, you can process the ingredients in a food processor if you have a small one; to make this recipe in a full-size processor you need to double the quantities.)

Stir in the salt and pack into a glass jar; the mixture will keep at room temperature for 1 day and in the refrigerator for about 2 weeks.

Note: These days it is easy to find cilantro with roots still attached; look at farmers markets and at Asian markets.

The roots should, of course, be fully cleaned, with the tiny hair roots trimmed off and all dirt washed or rubbed away. I

f you do not have cilantro roots, use stems and leaves.

Michele Anna Jordan hosts "Mouthful" each Sunday at 7 p.m. on KRCB 91.1 FM. E-mail Jordan at michele@micheleannajordan.com.

UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy:
  • This is a family newspaper, please use a kind and respectful tone.
  • No profanity, hate speech or personal attacks. No off-topic remarks.
  • No disinformation about current events.
  • We will remove any comments — or commenters — that do not follow this commenting policy.
Send a letter to the editor