Week 7: Corona Beans (Sweet White Runner Beans)

Corona Beans.  Wow.  I may have a new favorite bean.

My cousin, Bria, asked if I'd tried Corona Beans.  Not only had I never tried them before, but I searched among the beans I'd ordered and I didn't have them.  A quick trip to amazon.com quickly changed this.

Sadly, I forgot to snap a picture of them before I soaked them.  But here they are post over-night soak...

For the recipe I intended to model dinner after, I needed plainly cooked beans.  After draining them from soaking overnight, I placed them in a pot, covered with a couple inches of water, brought to a boil and then lowered heat to a simmer.  After a couple hours, most of the water was cooked out and the beans were a delightful creamy texture. I took them off the heat, added ~1 teaspoons of salt and let them sit ~10-15 minutes.  Since most of the water was cooked out, I didn't need to drain them...

The recipe I was modeling after was also the recipe my cousin, Bria, recommended.  It can be found here, as part of Cookbooks 101.  Since proper preparation of kale is something I find hard to manage with four small children, I used a package of pre-prepped "Baby Kale", which was exactly the time saver I needed.  Incidentally, I also found a very similar recipe (but without the beans) inside the package...

In the end, I created a hybrid of the two recipes...

Pan-Fried Corona Beans with Baby Kale

Ingredients:

• 12 oz cooked Corona Beans
• 11 oz pre-packaged "Baby Kale" (or equivalent washed/stemmed kale)
• 5 cloves garlic
• oil for frying (olive or your choice)
• salt, to taste

Procedure:

1. Cook your Corona Beans (see above)
2. Warm a skillet with oil.  Add beans in a single layer.  Cook 3-4 minutes then turn/stir to other side and cook 3-4 minutes more (beans will be slightly crispy).  (The 12 oz took two 12" skillet batches to fry.) Remove beans to side.
3. Meanwhile, crush garlic cloves.
4. Add another thin coating of oil to pan (or use another pan).  Once the pan is warm, add garlic for ~30-45 seconds.
5. Add the entire 11oz of baby kale.  Cook until wilted.
6. Add beans back to kale and mix, thoroughly. 
7. Salt to taste.

Notes:

• Serves beautifully over rice.

Pan-frying the two batches of Corona Beans...

Wilting the kale with the garlic...

 

Add the pan-fried beans to the kale... 

Ready to serve... 

Plated with rice...

This was superb.  I will be placing an order for more Corona Beans this week.  I can no longer imagine not having them in my pantry.  This was one of the best dishes I've made in ages.  While I greatly enjoyed the Christmas Lima Beans from Week 3, this, I believe, is my new favorite bean!

Have a great week!