What’s Cookin’, Good Lookin’?

So the holidays are upon us!  Time to start sharing some new recipes for you to try out!  The recipe I want to share with you today came from my friend Leigh in Texas.  Leigh got it from her friend Nancy, also in Texas.  And these little bundles are just the bomb dot com!  SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good!  Like smack-your-Mama good!  Leigh and Nancy, I took a few little liberties with your Company Green Beans!  Don’t beat me!  It’s what I do!  Thanks for sharing this delightful dish!

You won’t believe how simple they are!  And they’ll make a fabulous alternative to the same ole tired green bean casserole folks trot out every year for the holidays.  Don’t get me wrong!  I’m not hatin’ on some green bean casseroles.  Cuz I love ‘em too!  But sometimes you just want to try something new and different.  These little Green Bean Bundles fit the bill for both new AND different!

Here’s what you’ll need:

Whole green beans (fresh or frozen), butter, garlic, bacon and brown sugar.

Now let’s talk about these green beans just a second.  You don’t want huge green beans like you would snap or break and turn into “cut” green beans like you would cook with a big ole ham hock in them.  You want the really skinny green beans.  Sometimes they will be referred to as “hericot vert.”

Amy, what in the world is a Heri-Cot Vert?  You sat there and asked it out loud, didn’t you?  Come on!  I know you did!   Hericot vert is French for green beans.  Hericot means bean and vert means green.  French green beans are usually a little longer and thinner than our typical green beans.  They work especially well for this because they’re so tender.  So if you’re using fresh green beans, look for the ones that are labeled as “Hericot Vert.”  Sam’s carries them most of the time.  And you’ll definitely be able to find them in the produce section of most grocery stores in larger cities.  But down here in Podunk, you best not ask the friendly neighborhood produce stockboy for Hericot Vert because he’s likely to think you’re cussin’ him.  In which case, go over to the frozen food section and pick up the frozen whole green beans like you see in the photo.  Kroger has some fairly nice little whole skinny green beans in their steamable frozen bags.  Just get those so the produce stockboy doesn’t smack you in the mouth for “cussin’” him!

If you use fresh, you’ll need to either steam them or blanch them a few minutes before proceeding to the bacon step.  Here’s what you do with the frozen ones:

Steam them in the microwave according to package directions.  Notice my little microwave there?  Uh huh.  Say buh-bye to it.  It gave its life for these green beans!  ***blowing Taps***  It began to spew smoke and gave up the ghost on me while cooking this little bag of beans.  So I had to take a little break between this bag and the next step to hop on down to Lowe’s and fetch a new microwave.

While the beans are steaming, place the bacon on a cutting board and cut the bacon in half right down the middle.  You want it to be plenty long enough to be able to wrap completely around each little bundle.

You’ll want to let the green beans cool a bit before this step or you’ll end up with very burned fingers!  See those fingers?  They belong to Tall Skinny Man.  He rendered assistance in this process.  He’s a very good green bean bundle wrapper!

Put together about 10 little beans (if they’re the skinny ones) into each bundle.  If you have the fatter green beans, you may want to only use about 6 or so.

Wrap the piece of bacon around your little bundle of green beans and lay the bundle in your baking dish.

Repeat until you have a whole dish full of little bundles like this.

Aren’t they purty?

Now let’s go make the sauce to pour over them!

Melt the butter in a shallow pan.

Add the chopped garlic to the butter and give it a nice stir.  Make sure the heat isn’t on high.  You only want to mellow the flavor of the garlic.  Adding it to blazing hot butter in a blazing hot pan will result in disaster!  Garlic is wonderful cooked, but when added to a pan over super high heat, it burns very quickly and becomes bitter and icky!

Now add the brown sugar to the butter and garlic and stir until it’s well-combined.

It looks like a rich, thick caramel when it’s ready.  This only takes a minute or so.

Spoon the brown sugar sauce over each little bundle.

Keep spooning the brown sugar sauce on until each little bundle is well-drizzled with it.

Now you’re ready to bake them!

And when they’re ready, you’ll have a dish full of sweet and sassy little green beans bundles like this:

The oven dries them out a bit, so if the appearance is off-putting to you, you could certainly cover the dish with foil for a portion of the baking time.  That would keep them from appearing dried out.  However, it’s also going to create steam which may alter the integrity of your sauce.  So be cautious about trying this.  You might want to just “tent” some foil over the dish as opposed to fully covering it.

Leigh’s and Nancy’s Green Bean Bundles aka Company Green Beans

*  Fresh or Frozen Whole Green Beans or Hericot Vert

*  1 lb. bacon (each slice cut in half)

*  1/3 cup brown sugar

*  1 clove garlic crushed or 1 heaping Tbsp. minced garlic from a jar

*  1 stick butter (unsalted)

Steam or blanch green beans.  Allow to cool before you make the bundles.  While the beans are steaming or cooling, cut the bacon in half so that each original slice is made into 2 slices for wrapping around the bundles.  Once the beans can be handled, make a bundle of about 6 if they’re large or 10 if they’re skinny green beans.  Wrap 1 slice bacon around each bundle.  Lay each bundle down in a baking dish.

To make the sauce, melt the butter over low heat in a shallow dish.  When the butter is melted, add the garlic and brown sugar.  Stir until the mixture resembles caramel.  Drizzle over each green bean bundle.

Bake in a pre-heated 350° oven for 35 minutes.

NOTE:  If you want to make a large dish of these without going to the trouble of making individual bundles, cut each slice of bacon into about 6 pieces.  Make sauce and add bacon pieces to sauce.  Lay green beans in a dish and pour sauce over the top.  Bake as you would the bundles.

And there ya go!  So simple!  These make such a fantastic presentation on a plate!  They would make a wonderful addition to your holiday table or buffet!

Thanks again to my friend Leigh, who I love dearly and to her friend Nancy who she loves dearly for this recipe!

Stay tuned!  I *hope* to have more holiday recipes coming up.  Do y’all know who I need to talk to about getting a few more hours in my day?  That would sure help!  Have a great day and Happy Holidays!  They’re rapidly approaching!!!

Filed under: Christmas/Holidays, Menus, Pork, Recipes, Side Dishes, Thanksgiving Ideas, Vegetables