Saturday, February 6, 2010

Chopped Bacon Green Beans




Remember the recipe where I was wrapping the long green beans in bacon and baking them in the oven ?....well, this recipe is somewhat the same, but very different at the same time.
You will need very few ingredients for this recipe and you will see you can even do it quite fast too.
The kick and the plus of this recipe comes both from the steak and from the bacon that flavors the green beans so well.
I prefer cooking the beans at home, either fresh or frozen, but you can go ahead and use any canned beans you might like, even though they will not be the same.
I urge you to make this....it's pretty amazing.

Ingredients:
2 pieces of beef steak


2 handfuls of green beans


3 slices of bacon, chopped (or more, if you feel like it)


1/3 teaspoon kosher salt (for the green beans)
1 dash of pepper (for the green beans)
5 cups water
2 teaspoons oil
1/2 teaspoon salt (for the steak)
1/3 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper (for the steak)
2 TBSP butter (for the steak)

Directions:
First of all, gather all your ingredients and have them handy, making sure you have everything measured and ready to use.
Preheat the oven to 400 F and place a small cast iron skillet on your stove, on medium-high heat and let it warm up for 2 minutes.
Place the meat on a small plate, pour 1 teaspoon of oil on each and rub it well on all sides, then season with the salt and pepper.



Now place the meat in the heated skillet and cook for 2 minutes on each side.
When it has finished cooking on the stove, top each piece with 1 TBSP butter and place it in the preheated oven.


Let cook for 10 minutes.
Once the time has passed, remove from the oven and cover with aluminum foil and let it rest for 5 to 10 more minutes.


You will have all the other ingredients of your dinner ready by that point.
Cut the bacon slices into tiny bits (mine were 1/4 inch wide and almost 1 inch long)




and place them in a medium size saucepan, on medium-high heat.
Make sure you stir quite often.
In 5 or so minutes the bacon should look from this stage


to this stage.


Keep in mind that you want it cooked, slightly crispy, but not charred.
In another medium size saucepan, bring the 5 cups of water to a boil, with a dash of salt added.
When the water begins to boil, drop the green beans in


(at this point it does not matter if you are using fresh or frozen green beans, as the cooking time will be the same) and bring again to a boil,


then let them cook for exactly 4 minutes from that point.
Have a large bowl with cold water and possibly some ice in it too, topped with a colander ready for the beans.


When the beans are boiled, strain them and then place the colander directly in the cold water.
That will shock them and stop the cooking process and also will maintain that beautiful green color.
Now that you have the beans ready, place them over the bacon and considering that the steak is waiting for you, cook the green beans and the bacon for exactly 2 minutes, basically for the flavor to mingle together.


Do not forget to add some kosher salt too.


At this point you can go ahead and indulge !
Enjoy !

2 comments:

  1. Hi Cat... I hope all is well... I always toss in a slice of bacon as I steam my green beans... I will try your recipe sometime... Anyway... Hope you see you soon and...
    ~Happy Valentines Day!
    Love Rainey~

    ReplyDelete