Pan Braised Green Beans with White Wine, Summer Savory, Worchestershire, and Bacon

We hit two farmers markets this weekend and found that all the local produce is starting to come into season. Green beans picked that morning caught our eye, and pan braising (I guess I had braising on the brain that day) was how I decided to go after retaining the peak flavor of the beans while avoiding boiling (steaming would have easily yielded good results, but I wanted to experiment with a complex flavor pairing, though the same pairing could have been approached just through a vinaigrette as well). Since Culinary Artistry didn't list braising as a common approach with green beans, the rebel in me chose the path less traveled.

In a cold casserole I added lardons of sugar cured bacon and turned on a low flame to render the fat a bit. Just as the edges began to brown, I added a bottle of white wine (cheap California Sauvignon Blanc), a tablespoon of summer savory, several dashes of worchestershire, a few dashes of white wine vinegar, and salt. I brought the liquid to a simmer to cook off the alcohol, then reduced to low, added the beans, and covered to pan braise for 90 minutes, careful to keep the braising liquid below boiling, really at just a bare simmer.



The flavor pairing and the technique worked well. The bean pods were desicated and concentrated in flavor, soft but not mushy, with some firmness still in the inner seeds. The flavor combination was once again inspired by Culinary Artistry ... I can't wait for the follow-up book The Flavor Bible by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg; my copy is already pre-ordered.