#COOKING WITH CLORIS--GREEN BEANS ALMONDINE RECIPE AND A NEW MARKETPLACE MYSTERY

Photo Credit: Green Beans Almondine, photo by Sara, Dinner at the Zoo

A former journalist and magazine editor, Judy Penz Sheluk is the bestselling author of two mystery series: The Glass Dolphin Mysteries and the Marketville Mysteries. Her short crime fiction appears in several collections, including the Superior Shores Anthologies, which she also edited. Learn more about Judy and her books at her website. 

I have a confession to make. Unlike Calamity (Callie) Barnstable in my Marketville mystery series, I’m a dreadful cook. But Callie, bless her cold case solving heart, finds great solace in cooking. In my latest book, Before There Were Skeletons, Green Beans Almondine play a small, but surprisingly significant, part to the story line. 

 

The French word amandine, often Anglicised as almondine in American cookbooks, is a culinary term meaning a garnish of almonds. This recipe is both nutritious and easy. In fact, even a dreadful cook like me could make it!

 

Five-Step Green Beans Almondine

 

Ingredients:

1-1/2 lb fresh green beans, stems trimmed

1/4 cup sliced almonds

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp butter

2 tbsp minced shallot or garlic (whatever you prefer or have on hand)

Salt and freshly ground pepper (to taste, but a pinch of each is plenty)

Juice from 1 lemon

 

Place trimmed green beans in salted, boiling water and blanch until bright green and tender-crisp about 3-4 minutes. Drain and rinse in cold water.

 

Toast almonds in a dry skillet over medium heat, stirring, until golden. Remove from the skillet and set aside.

 

Add butter and olive oil to the skillet, then add garlic or shallot and salt and pepper to taste. Cook, stirring, until garlic or shallot is softened and fragrant. Add lemon juice and continue cooking until slightly thickened.

 

Add the green beans back into the skillet. Continue cooking until beans are heated through.

 

Place in a serving dish and top with toasted almonds.

 

Click here for a PDF of the recipe. 

 

Before There Were Skeletons

A Marketplace Mystery, Book 4

 

The last time anyone saw Veronica Goodman was the night of February 14, 1995, the only clue to her disappearance a silver heart-shaped pendant, found in the parking lot behind the bar where she worked. Twenty-seven years later, Veronica’s daughter, Kate, just a year old when her mother vanished, hires Past & Present Investigations to find out what happened that fateful night. 

Calamity (Callie) Barnstable is drawn to the case, the similarities to her own mother’s disappearance on Valentine’s Day 1986 hauntingly familiar. A disappearance she thought she’d come to terms with. Until Veronica’s case, and five high school yearbooks, take her back in time…a time before there were skeletons. Universal Book 

 

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