3 Tbsp. butter or olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
1 quart fresh little beans
6 - 8 cups water (depends on how fresh your beans are and how soupy you want it)
4 cloves garlic, roasted
1 jalapeno, roasted
several shakes of chipotle powder
1 bay leaf
small pinch dried thyme
salt and pepper
fresh parsley and green onion to garnish
Melt butter in a large pot. Saute onions, carrots, and celery until soft and beginning to brown. Add the fresh beans and the water. Bring the pot to a boil and then let simmer for half an hour. While this is cooking, heat up a small cast iron skillet over medium heat. Toast the jalapeno and the garlic in its skin on the cast iron until it's charred on all sides. Wrap the jalapeno in foil so that it steams and the charred skin loosens. Peel and chop up the garlic and chile. Add them to the bean pot along with the bay leaf, thyme, chipotle powder, salt, and pepper. Let simmer another half hour or until beans are tender. Taste for salt. Serve with fresh parsley and green onions.
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Hey, doesn't an hour seem like an awful long time to be cooking fresh beans? But that's how long it has been taking for them to become velvety soft. Southerners, can you offer any insight here? Do you think that all the shelled fresh beans that I'm finding right now were frozen from last year's crop? Because it is a little early in the season. Or does it really just take this long to cook these sorts of beans?