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Saturday, September 18, 2010

Green Beans with Mustard Seed Butter

I know.  You're thinking MUSTARD SEEDS?  Let me tell you, they were awesome.  Nutty, crunchy, awesome.  If this dish wasn't so full of bad for us things like butter and cream, I'd be whipping this up on a monthly basis.  Where is Mother Rimmy when I need her?  There's got to be a way to low cal this a bit.  I used half a stick of butter so that's four tablespoons.  We used about half of the butter and had two servings of the beans each.  (Dinner and lunch the next day.  And, let me tell you, they were equally awesome reheated!)  So, that's a tablespoon each.  The cream is 1/4 c and going through the same math since 1/4 cup has 4 tablespoons, we each had a tablespoon of cream.  That's actually HALF a tablespoon each per serving.  So, the question is, what could I replace some of the butter and some of the cream with to have the same end result?  I'm hoping one of you, my readers, will come up with a brilliant idea. 


This is from foodandwine.com.  I was hunting for recipes to use up some of our summer produce and this one jumped out at me.  We've done the green beans and tomatoes and onions routine.  And, the steamed beans on a salad.  And, the asian treatment.  This recipe jumped out at me because it was SO different.  I've not used sherry vinegar before and just happened to have picked up a bottle last time I was at Frasiers (my favorite gourmet foods emporium.)  The pan was still hot from toasting the mustard seeds when I poured the vinegar in.  The aroma just exploded.  Connie was out on the screened porch and walked into the house a couple of minutes later.  He said, "What in the world smells so good?"  Vinegar.  Oh, come on.  Yup, vinegar.  The sherry vinegar gave the sauce just a little edge.  Unless you knew what it was, you'd probably never be able to figure it out.  And, the mustard seeds.  Oh, my.  Fabulous.  I'm already trying to figure out new ways to incorporate those guys into some other recipes. 




Green Beans with Mustard Seed Butter


Ingredients:
1 T yellow mustard seeds
2 medium shallots, thinly sliced
1/3 c sherry vinegar
2 T water
1/4 c heavy cream
4 T unsalted butter, softened
2 T whole grain mustard
salt and pepper
2 lbs green beans, trimmed


Directions:


In a small skillet, toast the mustard seeds until they're nice and brown.  Pour them into a small bowl and let them cool. 



Pour the vinegar and water into the skillet.  Add the shallots and cook until the liquid is reduced to less than a tablespoon. 



Pour the vinegar into a bowl or measuring cup.  Pour in the cream and mix. 



Mix the butter, the whole grain mustard,





the vinegar/shallot mixture and the mustard seeds.  I found it was easier to incorporate the mustard then add the other ingredients. 



Blanch the green beans. 





Serve the green beans with a dollop of the butter.


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This post is part of a series featuring recipes from the FOOD and WINE archive. As a FOOD and WINE Blogger Correspondent, I was chosen to do four recipes a week from FOOD and WINE. I received a subscription to FOOD and WINE for my participation.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

This is such a unique way to serve green beans, I will have to try this:)

Kath said...

Wow, Kate! I really wish we had more beans in the garden to use with your recipe. It sounds fabulous. (We MUST plant more beans next year!)

Lisa | Authentic Suburban Gourmet said...

Love all the colors of the beans you have! The addition of the mustard seed butter is brillant! Have a great rest of the weekend!

Becky said...

I am always changing recipes for dietary and health concerns. Could you replace the heavy cream with half and half? Have you tried Smart Balance, a low fat butter substitute? I realize that I might have said a "bad" word in the food blogging community, but you have to be realistic. These are a few suggestions.

Unknown said...

I really like using compound butters. They are easy to make and will give your dish that little extra kick! Nice post. :-)

Megan @ Foodalution said...

love food&wine.... and this looks delicious - We live on leftovers.. much better than take out food during our busy work week - Thanks for the share! - Megan

Julie said...

This sounds delicious, and your beans were gorgeous! Maybe it is just me, but a tablespoon each of butter and cream doesn't sound like that much. :P

Anonymous said...

What pretty green beans, I love the mustard butter idea!

Isabelle said...

We've had such an amazing year for green beans in our garden, so I'm always looking for new ways to serve them... this looks like a winner for sure! I love me some toasted mustard seeds.
Love the way you used a mixture of different-coloured beans, too. So pretty.

gigabiting said...

I love mustardy vinaigrettes with green beans; this looks to step it up! Great idea.

Vibey said...

Oh, this is my dish. I'm so addicted to mustard - particularly crunchy mustard - that it's the only thing I collect. There are at least six different types in my 'fridge.