Ciao!

Spicy and Snappy String Beans with Sesame and Lime

I thought it might be time to say hello and wish a warm welcome to all of you new subscribers. Thanks to my pal Ali Stafford, who writes the amazing Farm Share Newsletter, for recommending you sign up! I’m so glad you’re here!

For those of you who are not familiar, it’s lovely to meet you! I’m the author of Back Pocket Pasta and my second book Colu Cooks: Easy Fancy Food came out in April and was just named one of NPRs best books of the summer! I have nearly 100 recipes up on New York Times “Cooking” (paywall, sorry, not my fault) and also have contributed to Vogue.com and Food & Wine. I’m currently at work on my third cookbook.

Colu Cooks is a recipe, recommendations and storytelling newsletter with some lifestyle elements thrown in. I hope you’ll also enjoy hearing about the new products I can’t live without, books I can’t put down, travel tips, and other anecdotes I deem fit.

Feeding people I love (while drinking wine or a cocktail), is my favorite thing to do and I always want to empower people in the kitchen. My recipes are simple, but sophisticated and often (not this time) lean towards my American-Italian background.

I will also occasionally be sharing home updates from Nova Scotia, CA, where my husband and I are currently spending the summer renovating an 1866 farmhouse, named “The Bonnie.” How we got here is a very good story for another time.

A little housekeeping… My lovely Patreon supporters, we have moved over to join our friends at Substack. If you are a monthly subscriber, I have set you up with a complimentary month here, yearly subscribers will also get a year sans payment as you already made it! The content is still there for you. If you choose to renew, I thank you in advance. Please reach out with any questions about billing. 

Paid subscribers will get additional features including bonus recipes, special guests, travel guides, bonus recipes, early access to video content and more. On that note, if there are any features that you’d like to see, I’d love to hear about them! I very much appreciate you all being here. 

I will leave you with a recipe with string beans grown up the road at this adorable farm by the sea called Opa’s Garden. 

Spicy and Snappy String Beans with Sesame and Lime

These beans can be served hot, room temperature or even cold, why not?! It’s summer, be free! You could also sub out the beans for baby bok choy or broccolini. My friends over at Jacobsen Salt and Fly by Jing, sent me some of their new collaboration Tingly Sichuan Salt, which I finished the beans with. It’s so good and I’ve used it on eggs and to finish other vegetable dishes, stir fries and more. Grab some if you can, but in the meantime, season with flaky salt. 

Serves 4 as a side 

Ingredients

Kosher salt

1 ¼ pound string beans, tipped and tailed 

6 garlic cloves, crushed with the back of a knife

1 large shallot, thinly sliced into rings

2 birds eye Thai chilis finely chopped or 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes 

2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil

1 scallion thinly sliced

3 tablespoons roughly chopped cilantro 

1 tablespoons sesame seeds

Lime for serving 

Flaky salt for serving 

Method

Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Blanch the beans for 3 to 4 minutes, drain and run under cold water to stop them from cooking and further. 

Meanwhile, heat the olive olive in a 12-inch skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic, shallot and chilis and cook until they begin to soften and the garlic is fragrant, about 3 to 5 minutes. Season with salt.

Add the beans to the skillet and toss to coat in the garlic oil and cook for 1 to 2 minutes more. Season with salt.

Transfer the beans to a platter and drizzle with the sesame oil and a good squeeze of  lime. Scatter with the scallions, cilantro and the sesame seeds. Taste and adjust seasonings with salt as needed as well as a pinch of flaky salt or Tingly Sichuan salt, should you have it.

I hope you make it and enjoy it.

Love,

Colu