Where am I?, I wondered, waking this morning.

Still in Corfu? It was hot enough at 7 am.

I quickly established that I was in France by looking out of the window.

No sign of the Albanian hills or the infinity pool.

Back to earth! But hot! hot! hot!

At the end of the garden though it was cool enough to tie up the tomato plants that had grown as much as the chickens in our week away.

The bees were still snoozing so it was safe to sit on a stool and talk to the plants!

Then off to Réalmont and its Wednesday market.

I’d missed the markets–they are rare in Corfu.

This is green bean time and here on the stalls they are piled high–picked last night I am assured.

a pile of beans

Joy!

Cooked enough to be tender,  yet still a vibrant green–but not too much so that they become flabby and dull in color. It’s hard to tire of them.

It’s always good to discover new ways to cook them.

I spotted this simple recipe in The New York Times a few weeks back. As I’d bought half a kilo of new season garlic and ginger this morning, Give it a go!, I thought.

My slightly adapted version

for 4

1lb green beans— topped, (no need to tail)

1 teaspoon of salt

2 cloves of new garlic-– (or the best looking you can find)

a large thumbnail size piece of ginger–peeled and chopped small

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons of olive oil

• Have a bowl of cold water ready to plunge the cooked beans into.
• Pound the garlic, ginger and a teaspoon of salt into a pulp.

• Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil.
• Add the beans and cook them until almost tender to the bite–(a pair of cooking tongs comes in handy here to whip a bean out for a bite test).
• When you judge they’re ready, transfer them quickly into the bowl with the cold water–to stop them cooking further.
• Drain them and leave to dry a little.
• Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan.
• Add the beans and the gorgeous garlic and ginger gunge.
• Over a gentle heat turn the beans in the mixture until they are nicely heated through.
• Taste them and add more salt if needed.

We had them for lunch today…

with a butterflied pork chop–of which more later….

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