So jam/preserve season in officially open in our house. We’ve started off with 9 liters of strawberry freezer jam and 5 liters of black currant. That’s just a warm-up before tons of strawberry, raspberry, and plum jam, black currant marmalade and maybe apricot confiture. Fruit preserves are eaten in enormous quantities in our family, while two or three boxes of chocolates we got for Christmas are still collecting dust in the pantry. Fruit preserves are so much healthier than candies, aren’t they? And making them is healthy too: my arms got some extra workout today!
Between hulling and pureeing berries, we sometimes make meals for the family too, although the air is hot and humid outside (our small Cambodia, as I call it), and nobody feels like eating a lot, let alone cooking or (God forbid) baking. As I’m writing this however, it looks like it’s finally going to rain, so if the rain brings us some freshness, I might finally test my new muffin forms tomorrow!
As a compromise with the heat and sultriness, we made these beans and cauliflower today – they may be served lukewarm and they don’t require a lot of cooking. Yellow Wax beans, or Butter beans as they’re called here, turned out to pair extremely well with slightly fried cauliflower. Toasted cashew nuts bring some pleasant crunch to the tender vegetables, and shredded Parmesan adds a sharp, salty note. It takes minutes to boil the beans, and then you just cook them and cauliflower in a pan until they’re as golden-brown as you like.
Ingredients
700g Yellow Wax beans
1 large head cauliflower
3 tbsp cashew nuts
1 cup shredded Parmesan
5-6 tbsp butter
Salt to taste
Serves 4
In a rather large saucepan, bring to a boil about 1.2 liters water. Add salt when the water begins to boil.
Cut the tips off beans, rinse them in water and cook in the boiling water for 8-10 minutes until you can poke them with a fork. Drain off the water when the beans are ready.
In the meantime, wash the cauliflower and divide it into florets. In a skillet, melt 2-3 tablespoons butter and cook cauliflower under lid for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add salt to taste. When the florets are tender, shallow fry them on a high heat until golden at least on one side.
In a separate skillet, cook the boiled beans with 2-3 tablespoons butter until golden.
Crush cashew nuts and toast them without oil or fat for a couple of minutes.
When all vegetables are ready, combine them and serve with cashew nuts and Parmesan cheese.
