Balsamic-Glazed Green Beans and Shallots

Every year right around this time, no matter how hard I try and fight it, it sneaks up on me. You know what I'm talking about, because I know a lot of you are right where I am too. I'm talking about the Winter Blues. I don't know if it's the weather or something in the stars, but every year as February comes to a close I find myself in a weird funk, constantly feeling anxious, dissatisfied, and quite frankly a little lost. After weeks of contemplation and wallowing, I decided that I had to take action to shake this. I refused to take one more day of the Winter Blues. I made a list of things that make me feel the most positive and motivated, and made a list of goals to set for myself for the rest of the week and goals for the month. One of the goals I set for myself is to cook more and to take more chances with my cooking. I want to start making every part of the meal something special, and take every opportunity to experiment with food so that I can continue to learn and grow.

Yesterday, being day one of my kick to the Winter Blues, I offered to make dinner for my parents. At the grocery store my mom saw some beautiful fresh scallops and suggested I make something with them. Normally scallops would be something I would feel a little shy about attempting to make, but not the new me, no way jose! I found a great sounding recipe for scallops that I was really excited about making, so excited that I didn't want to stop there. I wanted to think up a killer side dish to go with my scallops. With extra shallots left over from the scallops, and fresh green beens in the fridge, it was easy to come up with my Balsamic-Glazed Green Beans and Shallots. Tender and crisp green beans are lightly coated in a sweet and balsamic glaze, and topped with sticky caramelized shallots, an outstanding side dish that is big on flavour and short on time!

Ingredients:

1 pound green beans, de-stemmed

generous pinch of salt kosher salt

3-4 shallots, sliced thin

1 tbsp butter

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

freshly ground pepper

Directions:

1. Bring a small saucepan filled halfway with water to a boil. While water is boiling, fill a medium-sized bowl with very cold water. Add a large handful of ice cubes. When water on stove is boiling, add the green beans and cook for for about 1 minute, or until bright green. Remove beans using tons, and immediately transfer into the bowl of ice water. Leave in water for about 3 minutes. Remove, dry, and set aside.

2. In a medium fry pan set at low heat, add the butter. When butter is melted and hot, add the shallots. Cooking, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, until the shallots have turned a medium-brown colour, about 15 minutes. Add the balsamic vinegar and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until the vinegar has reduced and the onions are sticky and have a generous coating of the balsamic glaze.

3. Add the green beans, stir to coat in glaze, and cook for another 1 minute. Transfer to serving dish, season with pepper and serve!

Listening To:

People Are Strange - The Doors