David Lebovitz/ Pantry essentials/ Vegetable

Green Beans with Snail Butter – Cook-the-Book-Fridays

These are haricots verts at their best, one of my favorite vegetables, served with garlic herbed butter. No snails though, as the name may suggest. David Lebovitz explains: “The name refers to butter mixed with a copious amount of garlic that is used for baking snails, those wriggly little creatures that need to be highly seasoned…”

We’ve never left a plate of snails alone (when we ordered it in France) without sopping up the last drop of the luxurious garlic herbed butter sauce with pieces of bread. Who’d have thought the sauce tastes just as good with green beans and without the snails? This dish is a big hit in my family.

Ever since I took a fine-dining course at the French Culinary Institute in New York city, the tips of my green beans are always trimmed. That’s the only way beans are prepared. I believe I got some remarkable training in French cooking at the Institute. However, you have to be willing to endure the rigorous regiment of following a set of aesthetics and culinary rules, including saying “yes, chef,” repeatedly, no questions asked. That’s what expected from the apprentices. I probably asked too many questions to be considered a good one there.

So tips of green beans are always cut in my kitchen. (First, line up a bunch of beans horizontally with the tips against the blade of the chef’s knife you are holding. Cut off the tips in one down motion all at once. Turn the beans around. Tuck and line up the green beans again, tips against the knife, and cut. Repeat until all the tips of the green beans are trimmed.) I have to say that I enjoy my beans without the tips.

According to David’s recipe in My Paris Kitchen, three tablespoons of minced garlic, half a cup of finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley and half a stick of butter (two ounces) went into making the butter sauce for one pound of green beans. What can be better?

Next time, I may make this garlic-parsley butter sauce in a cast iron pan. (Shallots and fresh tarragon leaves are good alternatives to parsley.) Then add in the green beans in the sizzling hot pan, in the manner that escargots à la Bourguignonne are served.

Please visit Cook-the-book-fridays to see the comments and discussions on this green beans dish from the online group, a community of engaging home cooks, who are working through each and every recipe in David Lebovitz’s My Paris Kitchen. You are welcome to join the group and cook along with us.

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12 Comments

  • Reply
    Emily
    March 31, 2017 at 5:40 am

    Looking good! I like your 'next-time' plan too!

  • Reply
    Mardi (eat. live. travel. write.)
    March 31, 2017 at 10:10 am

    Wasn't this good? My beans didn't spend long in the sauté pan, they don't need long at all!

  • Reply
    Nicole
    March 31, 2017 at 10:40 am

    I actually took mine off the heat right at the end, to mix, because I didn't want to discolor them. These were so delicous though! Yum!

  • Reply
    flour.ish.en
    March 31, 2017 at 11:15 am

    I see your point. Your green beans remained so vibrant green.

  • Reply
    lisa brown
    April 1, 2017 at 1:14 am

    Looks great!! I loved this dish! and it was so easy too

  • Reply
    Nana
    April 1, 2017 at 8:05 pm

    Thanks for the tip on cutting the beans. A very time consuming job but necessary because I will not eat those ends under any circumstances. Yours look great, and yes, vibrant comes to mind.

  • Reply
    KB from Prof Who Cooks
    April 3, 2017 at 5:39 pm

    Huh, people leave the tips on? Thanks for the description of trimming the beans–I pretty much do that, but I don't line them up using the knife as a guide! Will start doing that for sure to help it go faster.

  • Reply
    kitchen flavours
    April 5, 2017 at 3:21 pm

    This is a delicious dish! Will be making this again soon!

  • Reply
    Karen @ From Scratch
    April 5, 2017 at 8:36 pm

    Beautiful photo of a delicious dish!

  • Reply
    Teresa
    April 6, 2017 at 2:47 am

    I love your idea for serving these in a cast iron pan and I agree that shallots and tarragon would be terrific additions. As much as I love escargots, I think I'll have vegetable versions more often. (Though, ask me again during the annual snail infestation of my backyard garden.)

  • Reply
    Betsy
    April 10, 2017 at 1:52 am

    I'm still dreaming about the snail butter. I can't wait to make this again (and again and again).

    • Reply
      Shirley @ everopensauce
      April 18, 2017 at 3:57 pm

      I feel exactly the same way. I would take the snail butter to other vegetables too.

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