Cookbook Project, Book #187

[ladysprite]

"The French Cookbook," Staff Home Economists of the Culinary Arts Institute

This is the last in the line of little ancient booklets published by Shop-Rite. I inherited them all from my mother, and before this project I had never used any of them - and I don't honestly think she had, either. I had just assumed they were hideous collections of inedible glop.

However, the project showed me, much to my surprise, that while the ethnic/cultural cookbooks had little to do with their cultures of origin, the food in them honestly wasn't that bad. So I wasn't nearly as afraid as I tucked into this book.

Being summer, though, I've been less in the mood for complicated main dishes and tending more towards main dish salads and grilled meats, as well as looking for ways to use up significant amounts of garden produce. That made choosing a recipe fairly easy - we had more green beans than I knew what to do with, so the recipe for Green Beans, Lyonnaise Style seemed like a perfect match.

And it was good - though I think that almost anything made with fresh garden veggies would be at the very least decent. The hardest part was cutting a half pound of green beans into fine lengthwise strips, a challenge I doubt I'll ever take on again. Other than that, they were just boiled until tender and served with a dressing of sauteed onions, butter, lemon juice, and parsley. For such a simple dish, it had a surprising depth of flavor, and other than the slicing, I'd make it again - and probably will, next summer.

One more book to go.....

Comments

[hugh-mannity.livejournal.com]

We had a slicer thing when I was a kid -- basically a set of blades in a plastic holder, rather like one of those egg slicers only a lot smaller. You pushed the bean into the slicer as far as you could, then pulled it out the other side. Made the job real simple. Even a 5 year old could do it. And did. On many occasions.

[glinda-w.livejournal.com]

I remember growing up with those plain metal vegetable peelers that had a couple of blades in a... maybe rectangle? of metal at the base of the handle, and being told they were for slicing green beans. We never used that, though; fresh green beans were "snap beans" - snapped into about 1" lengths. And I got rid of those peelers a few years back, got myself a Good Grips one instead, much easier on my hands & wrists.

Mmmmmmm fresh green beans... I may have some from an acquaintance's yard next week...


Edited to add:

Hmmmm. Neither Amazon nor eBay has the sort I'm thinking of (though there is such a thing as a Hello Kitty vegetable peeler. meep.).

There's this, for slicing the green beans (OMG. A kitchen gadget that I not only don't have, but never even heard of. The apocalypse has started.)

Aha! Very similar to the one we had; I'm half tempted to order one.

[ladyqkat.livejournal.com]

You are the epitomy of this t-shirt (http://www.topatoco.com/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=TO&Product_Code=QC-BAKING&Category_Code=QC)

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

I don't see any reason why you couldn't make this recipe with beans cut (or snapped) crosswise instead of the long thin strips -- or even with whole beans. It sounds as though the sauce is the key, and that can go with a wide variety of physical carriers -- I'll bet it would be stunning with sugar-snap peas!