15 - Vaguely Chinese String Bean Salad


Isn’t there a game where you take one word from the last answer and move forward? I seem to be doing it with ingredients—taking the string beans from the Salade Nicoise—I’m sliding into this string bean salad.
This dish was a standard for parties as well as for Sunday brunches and potlucks. The original was from Greene on Greens, a vegetable cookbook so full of butters and cheeses, it could be the perfect transitional object for meat eaters as they move to healthier, lighter vegetarian fare.

For this recipe, like for the Salade Nicoise, blanch one pound of washed and trimmed string beans. Greene, and Donald Sacks from whom he got this recipe, are both insistent that the beans cook for no longer than two minutes. I have tried my best to abide by this. The beans after their quick boil in well-salted water are chilled in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

While they are chilling, squeeze the juice from a one and half inch piece of ginger root which you have peeled and minced (I've used a garlic press for this).

To the ginger juice, add 1/4 cup olive oil, 1 1/2 Tbs. sherry vinegar, 1/4 tsp. sesame oil 1/4 tsp. coarse salt, a pinch of sugar and 1/8 tsp. white pepper. Whisk together. Toss over the beans, coating well. Refrigerate for four hours--trying to remember to give it a toss every hour or so. Before serving toast two tablespoons sesame seeds in a heavy frying pan, and sprinkle atop.

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