Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Green Bean Stir-Fry

I'm fairly certain my friend Rachel never thought she would see her picture under the heading "Green Bean Stir-Fry". Sometimes we just never know what is going to make us famous.

This is my friend Rachel Thurman and her husband Glen. And I'll be quite honest with you, I'm not exactly sure Rachel's husband's name is Glen or if he spells it with one N or two because he's a Greek Orthodox minister and always goes by Father Matthew. Don't you love that? It always strikes me funny that Rachel is married to a minister because she's really irreverent (one of my favorite qualities in a person) so I think Glen, or Fr. Matthew, must be a pretty cool guy. I've never met Rachel's husband, as you may have gathered because they live in Ohio. Rachel is a pediatric nurse and gives fabulous advice over Facebook; you should friend her for her really great pediatric medical advice and Mennonite recipes.

Here's a fab picture of Rachel and I being all cute and cheeky in our college days at Montana State. Neither of us can recall what we were doing in this picture but firmly believe that it must have been fabulous since Elvis was involved.



Alas, the Green Bean Stir-Fry recipe. A picture of this recipe on her Facebook page had me drooling for days (her picture was a lot better than mine). With the exception of canned, I've never met a green bean I didn't like however my family would positively sell me to gypsies if I didn't add carrots to the mixture because they aren't nearly as keen on the green bean as I am. I served it over steamed rice and topped it with toasted sesame seeds. It was Awe.Some. Hats of to Rachel for her dee-lish recipe!

Stir Fried Green Beans

Combine in small bowl and set aside:
1 t. salt
2 t. sugar
2 t. corn starch
2 T. soy sauce
1 c. water or soup stock

Heat in a skillet:
2 T cooking oil
Add:1 lb meat (beef or chicken, cut stir-fry style)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 c. onion, diced
Stir-fry over high heat until beef begins to change color. Remove beef, onions, and garlic from skillet and set aside.

If necessary, add more oil and reheat skillet.
Add:1 lb. long green beans (fresh or frozen works)
Stir until beans become bright green. At once add reserved soy sauce mixture and cook, stirring until clear. Cover skillet and cook over medium heat until beans are just crisp-tender. Return beef to skillet, stir well and remove from heat. Serve with rice (I mix white and brown rice, cooked with stock or with some bouillon added).

3 comments:

Amber said...

I'm impressed.

With irreverant ministers' wives.
And that outfit you are sporting in the picture.

And that people actually eat green beans that don't come in cans.

Rachel T. said...

:-) His full name is Glen Matthew Thurman. He goes by Fr. Matthew in church circles, and Glen in others. It's quite confusing. He used to go my Tikhon (or as Randi would say "Tee-corn") in church circles, another long story. I think some people may suspect I secretly have several husbands!

It was fun to read about myself on your blog, thanks! Love ya!

Becky T. said...

Just for the record, I introduced Rachel to this recipe. Not that it's a competition or anything, because we've totally outgrown sibling rivalry. It's from a cook book called More with Less, but Rachel did make a few changes to make it even more delicious.

Not sure if this would go over well with anyone's kids, but I made this tonight and added a sprinkle of red pepper flakes. It added a nice kick.