#51 New Recipes: Asian Garlic Green Beans

Asian Garlic Green Beans1 lb green beans, trimmed
1 tbspn Olive Oil
5 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
salt & pepper to taste
1 1/2 tspn soy sauce
1 tspn ginger powder

1. Fill large crock pot with water and bring to a boil. Add generous amount of salt and green beans. Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Chef Hubby says this is kind of like "blanching" where you do this and then stick the green beans into ice water, which helps them retain color. I think the boiling is just to get it ready for cooking though, although personally I think this step could probably be skipped I did it anyway.

Drain and set aside.

2. Heat a large skillet over medium heat for about 2 minutes, so that it's hot before you add the oil to coat the pan. Add the green beans and saute for about 2-4 minutes or until they start to brown.

3. Make a well in the center of the skillet and add garlic, ginger powder and red pepper flakes. Slowly start to incorporate into the green beans until everything is well mixed.

Now, here is what you do not want to do at this point. You do not want to be holding your measuring spoon in the same hand as your container of open red pepper flakes when you notice that there are still some flakes clinging to the spoon. You absolutely do not want then try to shake off the flakes from the spoon while continuing to hold the open container of red pepper flakes, because the contents of that container will also fly out into the pan with what would have been your perfectly made green beans. Hastily trying to scoop out as much red pepper as you can is not fun, and you're not going to be able to get out all that you want/need to.

4. Stir in soy sauce and season with salt & pepper to taste. Serve fresh and hot!

I served with marinated steaks and Fettucini Alfred pasta-roni.  However not even the pasta could cool the burn of the green beans. I ended up having to rinse them off and they were STILL taking the roof off my mouth. Chef Hubby loved them and thought they were perfect. I would like to make them again, because before they turned into an instrument of torture they were very tasty, it's just that the burning came soon after the revelation of yumminess.

However, they did make an excellent trap for Katieschmatie when she came over and helped herself to some food =)

I will definitely be making again, however this time with the correct amount of red pepper. That or I'll be making one pan for me and one for Chef Hubby.