Green beans
The stars of our grandmother’s recipe books.
Adding to our healthy daily portions of boiled vegetables dressed with extra virgin olive oil, our grandmothers managed to add some ham for us to eat with more passion. When trendy nouveau cuisine arrived, everyone learned to steam the vegetables and serve them in cold salads with a good dressing or with a generous slice of ham.
Brought from America shortly after the Europeans arrived, at a time when social networks consisted of litteral word of mouth, green beans took names and shapes according to the hobbies and habits of each place. Everyone grew the beans in their own way and called them any name they wanted. So tender bean pods, first named green beans upon arrival, later became known by an infinite number of varied names: green beans, pods, French beans or string beans.
Advice
- Green beans, known in Mexico as la judía tierna (tender bean), require very little cooking. They need only just enough to respect the intense aroma of chlorophyll, which contrasts with the salty and umami ham. The ham releases its best scent of the montanera season (when acorns fall from the trees to allow the pigs to graze on them) with just a touch of heat.
- Salteado de judía (sautéed beans with ham) is a very popular dish, as well as potato cooked with garlic, tomato and ham, and creamy bean puree served with diced ham.
- A classic bean is the flattened-pod variety from Buenos Aires, known as perona in many Spanish regions. In Spain, the verdina of llanes, on the Asturian coast, has a very smooth texture and a thin, barely-detectable skin.