Wishes and Dishes - Wax Bean Stew

This is a dish that is part of my fake it till you make it category. I've never cooked green bean stew before, not because I don't like it, but because I have high expectations when it comes to this type of beans. It's like the lottery, you never know what you're buying. At first glance these can look fresh and just perfect, then when you start to clean them, you find out they are already too old.

Last week I got some wax beans from my dad, that he has been growing in the garden. It was the first harvest and I knew it's fresh and just perfect. My dream came true as the beans were really what I love. I had wax bean soup a week before, so I thought let's try out the stew.

I didn't have a recipe, but it's not rocket science, so I thought about what I would like to get, what to add to it to get the result and here it is what I came up with.

Ingredients:

• 1kg wax beans,
• 2tbs olive oil,
• 65g red bell pepper,
• 75g onion,
• 3 clove garlic,
• 2tsp salt,
• 1tsp red paprika powder,
• 2 bay leaves,
• black pepper (optional),
• 2tbs all purpose flour,
• 100ml milk
• little vinegar.

Method

First trim the edges of the wax beans and break them into small pieces. The size of the pieces is up to you, as you wish to see them in your plate. Wash then and put them aside.

Cut the pepper and onion in small pieces. I used two types of onions as it gives the dish a better flavor. Heat the olive oil in the pen, add the pepper and saute till it's soft. Add the sliced garlic and saute for another minute or two.

Add the red paprika powder, stir well, then add water. Make sure not to burn the paprika as it becomes bitter.

Finally, add the beans, salt, pepper, bay leaves and water to cover. Put on the lid and on medium heat, cook till it's tender.

In a bowl, mix the flour with milk, then add to the stew. Stir till the flour starts to thicken. Add salt if it's needed and finally, add vinegar.

You can serve it as it is, but never hurts to add some extra, to make it more delicious, I decided to serve it with a sunny egg, sprinkled with some French spices and some grilled sausage. You can serve it with a slice of toast as well, but for me that was just for the photo as I don't eat bread.

This is a light summer dish, that you can actually cook during winter too, if you can buy fresh beans (at a reasonable price), or you can also use frozen ones as the result is almost the same. By the way, any type of beans is good and also, as spices, if you don't like bay leaves, you can use something else.

I was a bit hesitant to use bay leaves for this dish as I've never used it for beans, but the two go well together. I'm not sure how it would go with a bean soup, but never hearts to try it out. We are usually using parsley, but I didn't have fresh parsley, not that I regret it.

Now that I tried this dish out, I'm thinking of making it regular, especially during winter, when frozen beans are available.

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