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When sautéing green beans (or snap peas, asparagus, etc) in butter with garlic, how do you get the garlic to stick to the beans?? I've tried varying the amount of butter up and down, and I've even tried adding corn starch, but nothing seems to get it to stick like I've seen in restaurants.

Sue Saddest Farewell TGO GL
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Joshua Faulkenberry
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  • Is this more an issue of flavor or appearance? I would think that cooking the garlic in the butter would be sufficient for getting the flavor into the beans. If it's just not garlicky enough, maybe you should add more garlic. – Era Apr 07 '16 at 16:20
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    Minced, pureed, diced or sliced garlic? – Scott Downey Apr 07 '16 at 16:37
  • How are the beans prepped before they're sauteed? stir-fry has the beans steamed and evaporated-dry before hitting the oil and garlic. – Pat Sommer Apr 10 '16 at 07:03

3 Answers3

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I'm going to guess that you're using fresh garlic, because I had that problem with another dish. I solved it by toasting my chopped fresh garlic for five minutes at 250°F on a pre-heated cookie sheet first lightly sprayed with Pam with Olive Oil. That way, it's dry on the outside (and thus more prone to sticking), but still moist and tender on the inside.

Shalryn
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I use a microplane zester/grater to essentially reduce my garlic to very fine shreds, almost a paste:

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This produces fine enough pieces of garlic that they essentially become part of the sauce. It also really maximizes the flavor because of the increased surface area.

The only issue with this method is that the very fine pieces of garlic can burn easily, so be careful about when you add them to the hot pan. It takes half the time or less to sautee garlic in this format than it does the chopped equivalent.

Community
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logophobe
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I've watched how hey do it at some restaurants by cooking the beans first and then putting them in a bowl and tossing them with garlic that is added at that point. This eliminates the potential of the garlic getting overcooked and ruining the dish while also making it easier for the garlic to stick.

haakon.io
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