Snake bean curry

Name: Snake bean curry
Yield: Serves 6
Cuisine: Sri Lanka
Ingredients: 2 small green chillies, chopped; 125 ml (4 fl oz/½ cup) coconut cream; 350 g (12 oz) snake (yard-long) beans, washed and cut into 5 cm (2 in) lengths; 1 onion, finely chopped; ½ teaspoon fenugreek seeds; 1 teaspoon ground cumin; ½ teaspoon fennel seeds; ¼ teaspoon ground turmeric; 1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes; 2½ tablespoons vegetable oil; 1 sprig fresh curry leaves, leaves picked

Preparation info

Serves
6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Serendip

By Peter Kuruvita

Published 2009

About

This is such a tasty curry and as far as I am concerned, the best way to deal with the unusual flavour that a snake (yard-long) bean has.

When selecting snake beans, choose ones that are nice and stiff with the seeds tightly held in the skin. You should also look for a lovely purple tip on the ends of the beans.

Ingredients

350 g (12 oz) snake (yard-long) beans, washed and cut into 5 cm (2

Asia
Sri Lanka
Main course
Vegetarian
Gluten-free
Spicy

Method

Toss the beans in a bowl with all the ingredients except the oil and coconut cream.

Heat the oil in a heavy-based frying pan over high heat until the oil just begins to smoke. Add the bean mixture and stir for 5 minutes, then add the coconut cream, reduce the heat to low and simmer until the cream has reduced by half. Remove from the heat and season to taste with salt.<