THE HOME COOK : Unfancy Food

Presume nothing about cooking unless you test and taste; you cannot “cook in your head.”

I seem to have to learn this lesson over and over. I had never cooked green snap beans the Southern way (long cooking with salt pork or bacon) until recently. I’ve always cooked all vegetables just until tender, mindlessly holding to the idea that the closer we keep to nature’s raw bounty the better.

Forget that notion and try Southern Green Snap Beans yourself. This is a main dish for a supper--robust, filling, with a wonderful taste. The ingredients are few and mostly things you have on hand--except for the snap beans: just bacon, green onions, a couple of potatoes, salt, pepper and a cup of water. Cook them together for 40 minutes and you have enough for six people. Serve this with rye bread, sliced tomatoes dressed with mayonnaise, and the Apple-Walnut Pudding. This dish is even better the second or third day.

As straightforward as green snap beans seem, they have had a dramatic history during the past 50 years. We used to call them string beans until the strings were bred out of them--tough little strings that ran down each side of the bean and had to be removed before cooking. De-stringing beans was as much work as shelling peas.

There was also an infamous period during the ‘40s and ‘50s of trying to make the green bean fancy. Every fund-raising dinner, large banquet and fancy dinner party sported a dish of snap beans done up in either a dill-herb sauce or a Cheddar-cheese sauce, most often with slivered almonds and mushrooms. In spite of fads that come and go, Southerners have wisely stayed faithful to their classic recipe, which they knew they couldn’t improve.

Apple-Walnut Pudding, as plain as a brown paper bag, is another amazing recipe. I’ve given this recipe to several friends; two of them telephoned to ask if it really worked. It does--and better than you can imagine. They were puzzled because of the two cups of boiling water, with brown sugar and butter, that are poured over the apple-walnut batter just before it is put into the oven to bake.

This strange addition does seem odd, but don’t question--just try it once. This is an old recipe that originally called for dates instead of apples, and it is equally good with them. If you want to try dates, use one cup, chopped, in place of the two cups of diced apples.

APPLE-WALNUT PUDDING

1 cup flour

1 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk

2 cups diced apple, unpeeled

1 cup walnuts, chopped

2 cups water

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1 tablespoon butter

Unsweetened whipped cream

Butter 10-inch square, 2-inch-deep pan. Combine flour, granulated sugar, baking powder and salt in mixing bowl. Stir and mix well with fork. Add milk and mix briskly until smooth. Stir in apple and walnuts. Spread batter in baking dish.

Combine water, brown sugar and butter and bring to boil. Pour over apple batter. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees about 1 hour, or until top is golden and bubbling. Serve warm with unsweetened whipped cream. Makes 6 servings.

SOUTHERN GREEN SNAP BEANS

3 or 4 slices smoky-style bacon, diced

1 pound green snap beans, washed, ends trimmed, cut in 1-inch lengths

1 cup water

Salt, pepper

2 green onions, sliced

2 potatoes (about 1 pound), peeled and diced

Heat Dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot with lid. Add bacon and cook over medium-low heat until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add green beans and water. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cover and cook about 10 minutes over medium-low heat. Add green onions and potatoes, stir to mix. Cover and cook 30 minutes longer. Check once or twice to make sure liquid hasn’t all evaporated. Serve hot. Makes 6 servings.