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El Chonie
Julia Moskin, Matt Abergel
76 ratings with an average rating of 4 out of 5 stars
76
Updated Nov. 14, 2023
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Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, and fill a large bowl with ice water. Working in two batches, boil beans until just tender but still crisp and bright green. Start testing after 4 minutes or so, being careful not to overcook. When done, plunge beans into ice water to stop cooking, lift out immediately when cool and drain on towels. (Recipe can be made to this point up to a day in advance and kept refrigerated, wrapped in towels.)
When ready to cook, heat 2 tablespoons oil in a wide skillet over high heat. Add half the beans, half the ginger and half the garlic, and cook, stirring and tossing constantly, until beans are heated through and ginger and garlic are softened and aromatic. Sprinkle with salt, and remove to a serving dish. Repeat with remaining oil, beans, ginger and garlic. Serve.
I add 1 T of soy sauce and 1 T of White wine vinegar ( or sherry vinegar) for a minute, before the ginger and garlic. Delicious.
I never boil beans! They should actually be steamed. Bring the beans to a boil, then immediately turn off the heat and cover the pot. Let them sit for a few minutes, taste one to test, then drain.
If you do this, they will be perfect when reheated the next day.
At four minutes of boiling, I had already overcooked the beans. Check well before then.
We keep bags of fresh ginger in the freezer. When we want to use it in a finely-shredded way, we use a microplane. No need to thaw or peel -- just grate from frozen.
Don't understand why one would ever boil the beans. Boiling them changes the taste (dilutes the carbohydrates and thus the sweetness) and leaches out vitamins and other nutrients. Steaming cooks them more quickly because steam has a higher temperature than boiling water.
I stop cooking as soon as the color turns bright. Since garlic burns and turns bitter very quickly on high heat I get the beans heated through, then add ginger to warm up, add the garlic last, just to warm up and scent the air. For best flavor, do not let garlic color beyond golden, remove from pan immediately.
With 2 1/2 lbs of beans, this works very well in a wok, do the whole thing in one shot. And if you throw in a few mushrooms it works even better.
Cook beans 3 minutes and Test for doneness.
Cooked bean 2 minutes Added soy sauce to ginger and garlic, cut the oil in half
I enjoy lightly steaming the beans, not cook them through, then saute them at high heat, adding the garlic, etc. toward the end as not to scorch.
I agree with the other posters, the beans get tender VERY quickly and I would start checking even after 1 minute. Also, I melted down a touch of butter in a small sauce pan and added the ginger/garlic mixture- heating and stirring for maybe 2 minutes. I then combined it with the beans in the skillet. Delicious results!
Added a little toasted sesame oil to make it more blatantly Asian. Might try adding chopped fermented black beans next time for more umami.
This was awesome! Will make again and again. I added a bit of fresh lemon zest right before serving:)
Ginger is fiber and juice, so pressing it won't get you the intensity of flavor because, as you said, you'll get juice. Grating it on a box grater will work for incorporation of the flavor, or finely chopping it will give you bits of intense flavor.
These were great! I thought that maybe the recipe was calling for too much ginger but it married to the garlic and beans wonderfully. To save time, I used packaged--Yes, more expensive-- green beans that had already been cleaned and the stems cut off.
Seems like a lot of ginger root.
This is my new favorite way to cook fresh green beans! I'm glad that I did step 1 the night before, as that made it an easy side to assemble (step 2) on a busy night. I wasn't sure I would like the combination of ginger & garlic, but it was very well received!
Excellent. Might nbe even better with a touch of Mom's Mala
Not much flavor. Needs lemon juice.
I overdid it with powdered ginger, so I gradually cut in some sugar and a sprinkle of MSG and they were *incomparable!
Delicious and super easy.
Remember Graham Kerr, "The Galloping Gourmet"? He had a similar recipe using butter instead of vegetable oil and nutmeg instead of ginger. It's very French and sophisticated, if that's not redundant.
Made this at Thanksgiving, Christmas and a dinner party. My BF is addicted!
Loved this recipe, made just as is and was delicious. Thanks NYT!
4 minutes blanch was too long. I will try 2 min next time
This so so delicious! I added some sambal oleak (chili paste) just as it was finishing. I will make this again and again!
Awful. Garlic was basically raw when recipe was completed.
NYT simplicity, I made as written but added some red and orange bell peppers and the garlic and ginger added a delightful zing. Great snap with parboiling the haricots. Will make again!
Made this for Thanksgiving and it was a big hit, mainly bec. everyone loved the surprise of ginger. I liked the dish ok and will try it again BUT, next time: either boil beans 2 minutes no more and then ice bath them; use wayyyyyyy less oil or maybe use a spicy olive oil; use more garlic and add it at the last minute - no one including me could really taste the garlic (perhaps that was because most of it burned on the pan).
Something was missing when I got ready to serve the beans at Thanksgiving. It was Meyer Lemon juice squeezed on just before dinner! We are in California, where it was possible to pick a Meyer Lemon. at our hosts'. It made the dish.
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