Sautéed Green Beans with Garlic and Sesame Seeds

I Am From Here

It's been a while since I cooked from this book! But I grew green beans (so many green beans) this year, and I needed something different to do with them. And I'm always looking for a good vegetable dish to pair with an easy Indian simmer sauce. (Yes, I like to cook, but sometimes, I take shortcuts. Sometimes, it's just dinner.)

These are pretty fully cooked, but not mushy! I think it strikes a good compromise between a barely-cooked sauteed green bean and a long, slow, fully cooked southern green bean. Give it a try and let me know what you think! If you like spice you might be able to handle the full amount, but if you're feeding people who can't handle it (like my kids), you may want to cut the cayenne down by at least half. I did, and I could tell it was there but it was still not actually spicy, which was my goal.

One thing I have figured out this year, since my bean plants have been pretty fruitful, is that they can be time consuming to prep. A batch for dinner isn't so bad, but I have canned a lot and even pickled some and I can understand why people used to sit and chat while snapping beans. Many hands make light work, and this recipe asks for a small cut on top of the usual trimming. (He says the small cut isn't essential, but I do think it helps them cook more quickly and more evenly.) Personally, I put on an audio book or a podcast and just let my brain focus on that. It makes doing mindless tasks a little more bearable.

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