Cold Sesame Green Beans: Vacation whiplash
Our family has just returned from a 7 day vacation in Cancun, Mexico. Although the trip was filled with tons of fun for the family as they flew on a trapeze, played at the beach, played tennis and swam, my trip was decidedly less exciting. My 7 day vacation consisted of not thinking about cooking, shopping, dishes, food, meal planning for an entire 21 meal period.
21 meals that I did not have to worry about. 21 meals where I just showed up and food appeared. 21 meals where I got up from a table laden with dishes and I did not even have a milisecond to inwardly groan at the mess that Family made. I got 21 meals, in a row, of liberation.
However, upon our return from the airport on Sunday night, four pairs of eyes looked expectantly in mine awaiting my return to the kitchen. Mind you - I was just off the plane, doing mental gymnastics around the sheer number of laundry loads I'd have to do just to get on top of things, and already contemplating the tough work week ahead. Motherhood was not going to offer me a break. I threw together the quickest meal possible, with all the family gobbling down Korean food as if they'd been starving in the desert and not eating super filling meals on vacation, and the four people satiated their desire for homecooked meals while I daydreamed and reminisced about my days without the responsibility of feeding my family.
Monday morning was filled with a series of moments where I had to just shake my head in disbelief. What - I go grocery shopping again? I'm supposed to make every single meal? The kids want a complicated Korean dinner that evening? This cart is heavy. How can I
load all these groceries? When did filling the refrigerator with food become a Herculean task? Where is my vacation free of thinking about food?
load all these groceries? When did filling the refrigerator with food become a Herculean task? Where is my vacation free of thinking about food?
Vacation whiplash I call it. It's the residual effects of missing your vacation when you're back in your reality, making your reality a bit more painful. I never thought about how much work went into my regular daily life, but here I was breaking a sweat at just trying to get groceries from the car into the house. My vacation had basically made me unfit to be a mother.
But when duty calls, sometimes you just have to be better than you want to be. This week I wanted back on my vacation, but reality put me back in the kitchen, thinking about and cooking food. I tried to keep things very simple, to help me adjust, and this is one of the dishes I made.
This cold green bean salad is my take an a Japanese/Korean style green bean dish. It's sweet, salty, and nutty with the sesame seeds. It's a favorite with our family, although Son prefers a version I do with tofu. (I'll post that one later.) It's simple because it's about cooking green beans, cold shocking them in water, and then making a dressing. The finish is simply tossing the green beans with the dressing.
But when duty calls, sometimes you just have to be better than you want to be. This week I wanted back on my vacation, but reality put me back in the kitchen, thinking about and cooking food. I tried to keep things very simple, to help me adjust, and this is one of the dishes I made.
This cold green bean salad is my take an a Japanese/Korean style green bean dish. It's sweet, salty, and nutty with the sesame seeds. It's a favorite with our family, although Son prefers a version I do with tofu. (I'll post that one later.) It's simple because it's about cooking green beans, cold shocking them in water, and then making a dressing. The finish is simply tossing the green beans with the dressing.
Cold Sesame Green Beans
Serves 6 to 8
Ingredients
1 lb of haricot vert, or thin green beans
5 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
3 tablespoons of sugar
6 tablespoons of soy sauce (I use Kikoman low sodium with the green top)
1 tablespoon sake
salt to taste
Method
Bring a large pot of salted water to a rapid boil. While getting water to a boil, prepare a large bowl with lots of ice and water where you can dunk your green beans after cooking into it to cold shock it.
Once water is boiling, add green beans and make sure all beans and swimming in water. Stir and cook until green beans are bright green and tender crisp to the bite, about 4 minutes. Drain green beans, and place in ice cold water. Once beans are cooled in the water, drain the ice water out, and cut each green bean into halves or thirds, depending your preference. (Easy way to do this is to grab a handful, line them up and do a single cut down a bunch of beans.) Green beans can be prepared ahead of time and placed in refrigerator until ready to serve.
To make the dressing, place toasted sesame seeds and sugar in the bowl of a mini food processor. Process together until sesame seeds and sugar become a fine powder. Remove from processor and place in a bowl. Add soy sauce and sake. Set aside until serving green beans.
When you are ready to serve, toss together green beans with dressing. Season with salt if necessary. Serve immediately.
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