Green Beans

Total time: 35 minutes Servings: 6 Note: From "The Bon Appétit Cookbook" by Barbara Fairchild. French green beans called haricots verts are perfect for this salad, but if you can't find them, look for the skinniest American green beans you can find. The recipe does not indicate thickness of steaks. We used steaks about one-half- to three-fourths-inch thick and changed the grilling time accordingly for medium rare. Salt 1 pound slender green beans, trimmed 6 cups baby arugula (about 6 ounces)

Recently, I was invited to a friend's house in Patzcuaro (Michoacan), Mexico , and we spent the week madly cooking. The market there was so fantastic --  fat yellow chickens, fresh chayote, baby jicama, a rainbow of fresh and dried chiles, heaps of garlic and herbs. Indian women sat with produce from their gardens on blankets in front of them. They always had the freshest ingredients, including hand-patted corn tortillas, and when things were slow, they'd trim the thorns from nopales (cactus paddles)

This vegetable saute, made with tender young green beans and thin, julienned sweet red peppers sauteed with a large amount of minced garlic is perfect when served with chicken and buttered noodles. After sauteing, toss grated Parmesan cheese and fresh basil with the vegetables.

Sunday morning I went out to my garden and picked some fava beans. Then, because I'm a modern kind of guy, I did what everybody does and posted a picture of them on Facebook and tweeted a link. That's just how I roll these days ( @russ_parsons1 ... come join the party). I've been a big fan of favas for years, mostly because they fit so well with my cooking aesthetic -- they take a lot of work to prepare, are only available for a short window of time, and then usually only at farmers markets.

Although green beans appear to be a rather simple vegetable to cook in a microwave, we continually hear complaints such as: "Not tender enough," "They get brown spots," "Some get tough while others stay tender." Let's tackle these problems one at a time. When green beans aren't as tender as you'd like, it's probably because there isn't enough liquid added to them, or else they aren't cooked long enough. For every pound of cut-up beans, you need half a cup of liquid.

Finally, summer has ended in Los Angeles. This weekend's jolt of brisk weather made it official. But if you're still not quite ready for stews and hot soups, try a warm grilled salad. It's good transition food to help psyche you into cold-weather cooking. Boneless pork--fast, flavorful and lean--was our choice of meat. Pork is higher in protein and other nutrients than it used to be--and it's a lot leaner. It is also more tender, and needs to be gently treated.

Question: How do I go about growing green beans? M.C., Garden Grove. Answer: Beans can be grown in average soil anywhere in Southern California and are a favorite crop of gardeners. There are two types of green beans: bush, which produce sooner but require more space, and pole beans, which require more fertilization but produce several pounds of beans per plant. Suggested bush types include 'Tendercrop,' 'Roman,' 'Harvester,' 'Contender,' 'Goldencrop Wax' and 'Resistant Cherokee Wax.'

Do you equate the ubiquitous green bean with the limp, sliced vegetable mixed with canned mushroom soup and topped with slivered almonds? If so, your taste buds may be in for a surprise. Today, green beans come in a kaleidoscope of colors, including yellow, purple, and the mottled, exotically named dragon tongue. Perhaps one of the most delicate varieties is the shoelace-thin French haricots verts, long a French staple, whose rise in popularity is due to upscale American chefs.

The Food and Drug Administration has announced a 12-state recall of institutional-size cans of cut green beans that may be contaminated. The recall by Seneca Foods Corp. of Marion, N.Y., involves cans of 6 pounds, 5 ounces and 6 pounds, 6 ounces that have seam defects that could permit the product to become contaminated, officials said.

Dear SOS: I'm a regular at BLD on Beverly Boulevard and absolutely love its fresh vegetable salad -- so simple yet all the ingredients blend perfectly! Would love the recipe, especially for the dressing! Thanks, Stephanie Swedlove Los Angeles Dear Stephanie: Fresh, lightly herbal, sweetened with a touch of honey and with just the right amount of tang, BLD tosses its homemade dressing with a wonderfully bright and colorful salad of crunchy fresh corn, edamame, roasted bell peppers and green beans, along with diced rich avocado and toasted cashews.

If you've ever been in Italy in the late fall and early winter, you know how amazing the perfume of really fresh olive oil can be -- artichokes, green beans, call me crazy but I get something deeply floral, like roses and, oh yes, olives. The problem is, fresh oil doesn't last very long and it rarely seems to ship well. All of those vibrant grassy aromas and flavors mellow into something that's quite delicious, but nutty rather than vegetal. But I've just found the first California oil so far that delivers that remarkable olio nuovo pungency.

Looking for a great recipe for green bean casserole? Former "Dancing With the Stars" champion, occasional Times blogger and two-time Super Bowl champion Hines Ward has one he wants to share with you. The former Pittsburgh Steelers star was kind enough to share our request for his recipe with all his fans out there. This is a must if you are an NFL fan!  Green bean casserole 10 3/4 ounces of Campbell's cream of mushroom soup 3/4 cup of milk 1/8 teaspoon black pepper 1 1/3 cups of French's French fried onions 2   14 1/2-ounce cans of green beans (drained)

When roasted at 475 degrees, coffee beans are sometimes described as rich and full-bodied. But for the full-bodied person who is not so rich, unroasted coffee beans - green as the day they were picked - may hold the key to cheap and effective weight loss, new research suggests. In a study presented Tuesday at the American Chemical Society's spring national meeting in San Diego, 16 overweight young adults took, by turns, a low dose of green coffee bean extract, a high dose of the supplement, and a placebo.

Kids don't always eat their vegetables, but does showing them photos of veggies make them consume more? A research letter published online Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. employed about 800 kindergarten through fifth-grade students at one elementary school in Minnesota as study subjects. On two separate days in 2011 they received a school lunch; on the first day it was business as usual, as the kids helped themselves to the foods available. A few months later they had the same meal, but this time their trays were fitted with photographs of the vegetables they served: green beans and carrots.

Houston might be green bean casserole heaven. Where else would chefs work hard to provide an upscale (read: adult) version of the gloppy Thanksgiving staple made from canned mushroom soup, milk, green beans and French-fried onions. "It's a standard in the South," Executive Chef Mike Potowski at Benjy's in Houston explains. "If you don't offer it, it's taking something away from Thanksgiving dinner. " And offer it he does, but not in the "traditional" way. Potowski makes his dish with local green beans blanched in saltwater and forest mushrooms blended with an aromatic bechamel sauce topped with home-fried onion rings.

Dear SOS: I'm a regular at BLD on Beverly Boulevard and absolutely love its fresh vegetable salad -- so simple yet all the ingredients blend perfectly! Would love the recipe, especially for the dressing! Thanks, Stephanie Swedlove Los Angeles Dear Stephanie: Fresh, lightly herbal, sweetened with a touch of honey and with just the right amount of tang, BLD tosses its homemade dressing with a wonderfully bright and colorful salad of crunchy fresh corn, edamame, roasted bell peppers and green beans, along with diced rich avocado and toasted cashews.

Total time: 1 hour, 15 minutes Servings: 8 to 10 Note: Merkén can be found at select cooking stores and gourmet markets, as well as online. 1 cup dry white beans 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 clove garlic, peeled and smashed 1 onion, finely chopped 1 cup diced zucchini, chopped into small cubes 1 cup diced yellow or crookneck squash, chopped into small cubes 3 tomatoes, chopped 1 to 1½ cups corn 1 green bell pepper, chopped 1 tablespoon oregano Salt and pepper 1 to 2 tablespoons merkén 2 cups green beans, chopped into roughly 2-inch pieces if the beans are very large 1. Rinse the beans and cook in a large saucepan of simmering water, partially covered, until tender, about 1 hour.

  Dear SOS: My family recently vacationed in Jackson Hole, Wyo., and our favorite meal by far was at Nani's Cucina Italiana . The surprise star of the evening was the tortino di fagiolin i, a delicious green bean tart that reminded us of a refined Italian version of green bean casserole. Maybe you can convince them to share the recipe? Jonathan Alexander Los Angeles Dear Jonathan: A great make-ahead recipe when you're expecting company, this tortino from Nani's combines fresh green beans, grated Parmigiano and a touch of garlic in a baked egg tart similar to a frittata.