Description
Combine the almighty green bean with a healthy dose of bacon fat, caper juice, and shallots and you have a perfect side dish. Pour yourself a glass of wine, top with a poached egg, and enjoy the blanched beans for a whole meal.
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 lb string beans, ends trimmed (you can also use haricots vert)
- 4 slices of thick cut bacon, chopped
- 2 tbs jumbo capers
- 1 tbs caper juice from the bottle
- 1 shallot, minced
- dash of white wine vinegar
Instructions
- Bring a medium-size pot of water to a rolling boil. Season it generously with kosher or sea salt.
- Prepare an ice-bath to cool the beans in immediately after they have cooked. This is just a large bowl filled with ice water.
- Add the trimmed beans and boil them until they are tender but not mushy (about 5-6 minutes for American beans, 3-4 for haricots verts). Using a slotted spoon, drop the beans into ice bath and allow them to sit in the water while you cook the bacon.
- On a medium high heat, fry up bacon pieces.
- Once it is dark and crisp, add shallots, capers, juice and white wine vinegar. Give everything a good toss, turn off the heat.
- Dry the green beans well. You really don’t want to add water into your pan. Add them to the bacon. Add a teeny sprinkle of salt and some fresh cracked pepper. Using tongs, coat the beans in the bacon fat and caper juice. Then (again, using tongs) place them on your dish/plate/bowl. Leave any excess fat in the pan. You can reserve it to cook with later, or discard.
- Category: Side