Green Beans Amandine
By Kath Dedon
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Michael Symon’s Green Beans Amandine from his 5 in 5 for Every Season cookbook struck me as being a perfect holiday side dish. It’s quick, easy, and has enough butter and almonds to raise it above an everyday vegetable dish.
Symon uses 1/2 cup of almonds, 1/2 cup sliced shallots, and 4 tablespoons of butter for one pound of green beans. He cooks the raw beans in a skillet with the butter and shallots for about 5 minutes. He then adds the almonds and finishes them with a bit of lemon zest and lemon juice. Quick and easy.
After doing a bit more research, I decided to adapt the recipe using a Julia Child technique. In The Way to Cook Julia blanched the green beans in salted water. This can be done a few hours before you want to serve them if you give them an ice water bath right after draining. You then wrap them in a kitchen towel and refrigerate them until you’re ready to reheat them. When reheating, Julia suggested adding “several tablespoons” of butter. And she said you could add toasted almonds which was considered “ultra chic” in the 1930s.
Although Julia’s method required an extra step, it struck me that the actual last-minute part of the cooking was simplified which is appealing to me when making a holiday meal.
I really liked these Green Beans Amandine! They were simple and yet fancy enough to be part of our holiday meal. The aroma of the browning butter and almonds was mouth-watering. The few beans that were left over were still delicious the next day after gently reheating them in the microwave. I’ll definitely be making these again. I might try Michael Symon’s recipe next time to see how it compares.
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Green Beans Amandine were great with a rib roast!
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Green Beans Amandine
Adapted from Michael Symon’s recipe and Julia Child’s technique
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Serves 6
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1 1/4 pounds green beans, washed and trimmed
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup sliced almonds
Salt and pepper, to taste
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- Bring about 6 quarts of water to a boil. Add about a tablespoon of salt and the green beans. Cook for 4 – 5 minutes, until the beans are done. (My beans were quite large; I cooked them for 5 minutes.)
- While the beans are cooking, get a large bowl of ice water ready.
- When the beans are done, drain them and immediately submerge them in the ice water. Leave them in the ice water for 3 – 4 minutes.
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4. Drain the beans again, and then lay them out on a clean dish towel.
5. Roll them up in the towel, place the towel in a plastic bag and refrigerate until you’re ready to use them. (Can be refrigerated for up to 4 or 5 hours.)
6. When ready to serve, melt the butter in a large skillet. Add the almonds and beans and cook, stirring often, until the beans are reheated. (It took about 5 minutes to reheat my beans.)
7. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve.
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In the kitchen with Kath 