If you hate green beans, theres probably a good reason why.
Either way, you ended up with, mushy (possibly bacon-y) sadness.
You also may have tried your hand at fresh-cut green beans lovingly sauteed in butter.
The outsidestheyre withered and leathery.
And yet the insidessomehow theyre still a touch toothy?
Its ok. You definitely know how to cook.
Thats hard to achieve in any one-step cooking process, hence doing two.
Its admittedly a pain in the ass, but still better than eating awful green beans.
First up, get a big pot of water boiling; possibly the biggest pot you have.
While the water boils, perform the back-breaking labor of trimming all of your green beans.
This works for two pounds of green beans.
If you have less than that, dial it back to two minutes.
If you have more, extend that time another 30 seconds.
When the timer dings, eat one.
If it makes you say ehhhhh, ok, but it could use a little more time?
Thats what you want.
Get them off the heat and stop the cooking process.
Now, you have options.
But assuming youre hungrynowand want to right the wrongs of green beans past, heres how to proceed.
Grab a serving for two, which Ill call a righteous handful.
Cover them with another folded-over paper towel, and press.
Then press again in a few minutes.
If youve never moved the dial on your stove past 5, now is the time.
If it goes to ten, turn it to at least eight!
This is going to terrify you, but nothing assuages fear like good green beans.
You want the oil lightly smoking: definitely not heavily, but youre not settling for shimmering, either.
Get them into the pan.
Do this in one swift motion.
A better idea is to leave the beans alone for at least a minute.
This will go on for four, maybe five minutes (depending on your heat and pan material).
Get them out of there immediately and onto a paper-towel lined plate.
Youll notice I never mentioned seasoning, and thats because trying to do so mid-cook is a fools errand.
Instead, season them once they come off the heat with plenty of salt and pepper.
These green beans are something childhood you could have never imagined.
Once boiling, blanch for two to three minutes until bright green and still slightly firm to the tooth.
The rest can continue to drain and be stored for later, or cooked in further batches.
Replace paper towels as needed until green beans are more or less dry to the touch.
Season to taste and serve immediately.
