Chinese Yard Long Beans

These are frozen yard long beans, from my father’s garden. He sent them home with me last time we visited, and the minute we got home I put a large pot of water on the stove to boil. Half of the beans were part of our dinner that night — cooked adobo style, something like this recipe from Pinoy Cook, but with only a fraction of the meat — I guess closer to this one from Karen. The other half was topped, tailed, and broken into 3-inch pieces by the kids. Blanched for 2 minutes in the boiling water, then drained immediately and refreshed briefly in ice water, then drained again — the remaining beans went into a plastic bag, most of the air pressed and suctioned out (my low-tech version of a Food Saver) and frozen. A week later I took them out and put them in a vegetable stew in coconut milk, like the ginataan recipes listed below. They were as good as fresh! Next year I will have my own garden once again and I can grow as much of these as I want!

What to do with yard-long beans? Here is a long list of ideas from my fellow Filipino food bloggers:

• Kalabasa at Sitaw sa Gata (Squash and String beans in Coconut Milk), from Lea Alissa - or try these versions: Mita’s, MarketMan’s, or Myra’s
• Betchay’s Adobong Sitaw with Tofu
• JMom’s Gising-Gising
• KC’s Tocino Fried Rice
• English Patis/Celia’s Pinakbet; here’s Watson’s version, Baby Rambutan’s, and another from Abaseria Cafe
• Lafang/Mike’s Celia’s Gisok (you figure that one out, ok?)
• Bucaio’s Apayas Tan Agyep
• Yax’s Pochero
• Amadeo’s Laswa with Pinakas

Want to learn more about this vegetable? Karen sorts out the Filipino names for us here.
Around the world, here are the names these beans go by.