If you’re looking for a recipe that will make everyone love Green Beans, look no further. This dish is crisp, it is vibrant and most of all full of flavor. It’s got all of my favorite ingredients, including one secret ingredient that really takes this vegetable to the next level. With out it, I wouldn’t even bother making this recipe, it makes that big of a difference. What’s the secret ingredient? Lemon!
Fresh Green Beans
Don’t try to make this recipe using a bag of frozen or canned Green Beans, please, I implore you. If that’s all you have, don’t use this recipe because it won’t even come close to how good it would be using fresh ingredients. Grow them, buy them, I don’t care how you get them, just be sure to use them straight off the vine. You can also add other fresh veggies like red onion and tomatoes.
In this recipe, I blanch the green beans with out an ice water bath. I do this for two reasons. A cold water shock just prevents the beans from cooking any further but, in this recipe, you don’t want to do that. This is not a dish that is served cold. Once the bacon is cooked I continue to saute the beans in the bacon grease, anyway. So the cold shock is not necessary.
Green Beans with Garlic Parmesan and Bacon Ingredients:
Blanching 2 qt Boiling Water 2 tbsp Salt
1 lbs Green Beans, fresh 2 Bacon Strips, chopped 2 Garlic Cloves, chopped 1 tbsp Parmesan Cheese, grated 1 tbsp Lemon Juice Salt and Pepper to taste
If you’ve ever purchased a Margarita Mixer from the store, you know that they are both pricey and usually crap. So, why do we buy them? Because we LOVE Margarita’s! Right? Damn straight! But if you’re like me, you wouldn’t mind a cheaper alternative and maybe even a better tasting cocktail and that’s what I aim for when I’m mixing a beverage with spirits. But there are a few things you need to consider before you attempt this recipe because there aren’t just several different ways to make this. You have to consider variable ingredients as well as apposing temperatures, as well.
Margarita Mixer Variance’s
All Margarita Mixer recipes are different and I don’t just mean swapping out fruits like Strawberries, Mango’s or Watermelon to make a Margarita. Store bought bottles literally contain 0% juice. And, if you try one brand to the next, both Lime Flavored for example, they’ll taste completely different from one another. But they also have all of that shelf life crap they have to endure, with all of the ingredients, created to preserve the product, all the while trying to maintain flavor. But the only 3 ingredients you need to worry about today are Water, Sugar and Lime Juice.
I make my Margaritas with Triple Sec in them. Which, if you don’t know, is a sweet orange liqueur. But, if you’re not adding that, you might want to consider squeezing in an Orange with all of the freshly squeezed Limes. This, along with the sugar, will help balance the citrus and citric acid.
Sweetening and Heating the Margarita Mixer
This Margarita Mixer can be tweaked in several other ways and it’s important that you consider these options and understand you might like your Mixer better if it’s heated or unheated, Sweetened with Corn Syrup or Simple Syrup and made with granulated Sugar or Honey.
If you choose to make Simple Syrup, which I recommend, there’s no avoiding heat to fuse and bond the sugar or honey to the water. Simple Syrup is, of course, 1 part water and 1 part Sugar but you can substitute honey, if you like, but consider cooling it down first before mixing the other ingredients at room temperature. The flavor will be different than how it would taste after the ingredients are heated on the stove. To prove my point, think about fresh salsa vs. cooked salsa.
Using the Limeade to make a Margarita Mixer is a quick fix but, once again, you may want to consider mixing the ingredients at room temperature.
This Dill Havarti Cheese with Seared Pepper Salad is a real refreshing way to shake up your everyday greens. It’s got a wonderful blend of ingredients that make every bite explode with flavor. This recipe, in particular, was voted as one of New York’s top twenty must have dishes a few years ago. That alone sparked my interest in preparing this for myself and when I tried it, I knew I had to film it.
8 oz Dill Havarti (any Substitution)
12 Lunch Box Bell Peppers, halved and seared
1/2 cup Cherry Tomatoes, halves
1/2 Red Onion, sliced
1/2 cup Black Olives, halves
1/2 cup Green Olives, halves
2 tbsp Capers
2 tsp Fresh Mint, chopped
2 tbsp Fresh Parsley, chopped
1/4 cup Olive Oil (2 tbsp for Dressing 2 tbsp for Searing)
1 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
Salt and Pepper to taste
Dry Bread for Serving
Follow the instructions in my Seared Pepper Salad video tutorial.
