Sauteed Green Beans and Cherry Tomatoes

Picture
Ingredients
4 cups green beans, trimmed
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 shallot minced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon dry white wine
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1 tablespoon tarragon, chopped
salt and black pepper to taste

Directions
  1. Trim the stems from the beans; cook in boiling salted water for approx 6-8 minutes, until tender. Shock the beans in ice water and drain. Chill until needed.
  2. Heat the butter; add the shallot and garlic, and cook 2 minutes. Add the lemon juice and wine, and cook 1 minute more or until almost dry.
  3. Add the beans; season and cook 2 minutes.
  4. Add the cherry tomatoes and tarragon. Cook 2 minutes or just long enough to heat tomatoes.
  5. Season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

Critique
Chef: good color on the beans, but they were underdone.

Personal/team: this was a bright and colorful dish--wish I had a picture of it on its own. The tomatoes were a good texture (soft, but not mushy and kept their bright color); dressing was nice, but beans should have cooked more when originally blanched. This would have been nice with some gorganzola or blue cheese (Maytag blue would be a regionally appropriate choice).

Lesson Learned: Cooking beans, you want to have some bite, but you still need to blanch for at least 4 minutes to get them cooked enough. They will only cook a little bit with the tomatoes and not as much as you need in a saute pan.