Preview: Green Beans with Cambozola & Pinenuts

Has anyone heard of Bamboo Salt? it is quite the health crazed ingredient in Korea, Japan, and China right now. It is said to come from the bamboo plant, and has tons of health benefits. I wonder if anyone has tried cooking with it. How is the taste? Has anyone improved their health? :)

I live in a small rural town in Alaska much of the year so I can't often find Cambozola cheese. I use brie with excellent results. Also, I have found fantastic baby green beans at trader joes that are pre-packaged and very easy to use or when in Alaska, I have substituted frozen organic whole green beans.

This is a fun, easy dish to prepare with a friend or loved one. My sweetheart snaps the green beans, while I toast the pine nuts and boil the water. This recipe is definitely one of our favorites!

i like beter light cheese. this will be the only think that i change...mmmmmm

I made this dish approximately 12 times :) and it is fantastic. Light, tasty and simply magnificent.

I’ve found that this dish can be improved just a little bit, first of all, standard black pepper is not so fragrant and tasty as Vietnamese black pepper, and all so tiny touch of grapes seeds oil makes this dish easier to eat, but it’s not mandatory.
Thank you again, for this amazing recipe.

P.s. I just love classical kitchen, and this recipe belongs to it. :)

Not quite sure what that is. However, I know that bamboo contains trace amount of cyanide, but not enough to kill anyone. Also in chinese cooking, bamboo shoots is added to balance the energy of foods, the yin & yang thing. Could this be the "health benefit"?
Faye

I have made this a few times and do like the simplicity of it and the great flavor. The other night, I was bored so decided to try something a bit different, I added my hot beans into some melted butter with brown sugar and a dash (or 2) of cayenne pepper and then topped it off with chopped toasted pecans and crumbled gorgonzola. It was really very tasty so I thought I would share it with you for when you are bored too! : ) The sweet with the heat, the tart and the crunch, it worked.

Thanks

I made this for the first time last night, and although I have always liked fresh green beans, with the addition of the cambazola bleu cheese and pine nuts, I now LOVE green beans! Looking for an elegant side, with little effort? Make this dish!

Not just how amazingly delicious this dish was but...I really have always hated vegetables.

But what's really cool, is this was the first time I made a Rouxbe dish and didn't pause the videos over and over again to make sure I was getting it right.

Sure it's a simple dish, but I'm always freaked out about getting everything exactly right and rely heavily upon rouxbe to guide me.

The "big moment" where i was unsure and scared to death I was going to screw this up was when I took the green beans out of the pot and put them into a colander and wondered if I should "dry" them with a paper towel.

Then the voice of rouxbe came into my head and asked, "Do you want them "soggy and runny" or do you want them with the full flavor and texture of the cheese and nuts?" Easy answer, took out a paper towel and "dried" them.

I probably didn't even need to do that, just wanted to mention that I'm finally starting to "think" for myself and it may not be long where I can intuitively start cooking on my own.

All thanks to Rouxbe!

You go girl!!! Glad you liked the dish. Cheers!

clean it out
throw it out
and never add salt
without first
checking Rouxbe out

skuze my language,
but what the heck is
Food Network about?

I used to enjoy it,
Now I avoid it,
What was once viewing fun
you've now undone

Oh, rouxbe, as I watch
these celebs undress
unable to explain
the fundamentals
of heating a pan

Gratitude is all I can muster
as I watch this capitalizing
culinary disaster

OMG! I watched someone the other day who is a famous chef, when asked how she knows when a pan is properly heated before adding food, she said, "No one really knows, you just hold your hand over the pan" Say what? How do people get on TV as "experts" and not know this?

But what really gets me is she was wearing a chef's coat. I wanted to reach inside the TV and yank it off her!

Love you and Thank you!!!

If you take Joe's advise in the Rouxbe intro video, it's all about technique(s).
That said, Cooks Country, Cooks Illustrated (PBS) and Alton Brown -_the techie - support the Rouxbe message.
I find you learn very little from demos you GOTTA DO IT!
Sometimes the learning curve is short but then there are times were the screw-ups are endless. How many onions did Julia chop up?

I was referring to Julia chopping onions in the movie ...
RE: your last paragraph ... "start to think" whoa what a grand slam comment that was ... a recipe takes on a whole different look once that starts. Not to say anything about the whole process.

I wish I was as poetic as Jude O. I agree with Jude that all these commercialized food shows are not about food, but about entertainment with food as bate for the viewers. Although Emeril Lagasse is very entertaining with his “Bam!” he failed to explain any cooking techniques in cohesive manner. He is either not a good teacher or does not want to be. I love Alton Brown though, but his shows are very distractive to learn (he has only 30 minutes after all to be a teacher, a clown and a businessman). I read his books though.
Nobody, not even cooking classes in CIA or FCI, that I’ve taken so far, came closer to ROUXBE in clear comprehensive cooking instructions. Rouxbe is the ultimate school format in my opinion.

Now about the green been salad. It rocks! I made it twice. Last Friday after watching newly release lesson on steaming, I steamed string beans instead of boiling and shocking. I’ve salted them half way though of steaming and the salad came out just as great. I also cut the string beans in 2 inch pieces before steaming. This way theay is more convenient to eat.I used Gorgonzola cheese as the Cambozola was not available where I live. I will have to check gourmet stores next time I am in NYC. Here is the link to wikipedia on Cambozola if anybody interested.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambozola

Rouxbe rocks!!

Thanks to everyone and to you for the great feedback! You are miles ahead on the steaming lessons and we still have a few in the pipeline to be released :) Good for you for taking the initiative and trying out an alternative cooking method. Happy Cooking!

I'm allergic to pine nuts, so as an alternative, I toasted and substituted an equal amount of walnuts which were then coarsely chopped. Also, I wasn't familiar with cambozola cheese and the one market I found it in was incredibly expensive. I substituted gorgonzola and got a delicious flavor! Although about the only thing my recipe has in common with the original is the green beans, I wanted to thank you for the "jumping off point." I am finally starting to become secure enough in cooking where I can tweak and not be afraid to veer off the page. Thanks Rouxbe!! :-)

That is so great to hear William. Honestly that is what we want for everyone because that's when cooking really becomes something one enjoys rather than something they just have to do. Thanks for sharing your comments. Cheers!

I'm sure you guys have better things to be doing than answering comments on Thanksgiving Day, but in case someone happens to wake up early and have a moment to spare:

What is the best way to prepare this salad at home so that I can take it to someone else's house for Thanksgiving and finish it off there without making a mess out of their kitchen.

I'm thinking about toasting the nuts and blanching the green beans at home and then steaming them in the microwave with a little water at my friend's house and then following the recipe. Should I be thinking about anything else?

How does that sound?

Great job for thinking ahead! By all means, blanch the beans in advance and toast the nuts. You could give the beans a quick steam in the microwave, or, if there is space at your friend's place, you could also put the beans into a pan with a tiny bit of hot water, cover and give them a quick steam that way. (We love the steaming method!) Then just lift them out to leave any excess water behind and toss with the remaining ingredients. There's not much else to worry about on this one. Have a great dinner and Happy Thanksgiving! :)

Amazing flavors. This dish could not be any easier to put together and is one of my go-to sides. It went extraordinarily well with some steamed potatoes and a rib eye steak. Loved it!