Cold Green Bean Salad with Soy-Glazed Almonds

My friends Pat and Denny have adopted this as a standard, but they put the cilantro on the side, and so can you if your family is polarized on the cilantro front. Pat and Denny also use low-sodium soy sauce, which is a great idea if you tend to have it around and handy. Even better is tamari sauce, which leaves the nuts sticky and shiny but not crusted to the pan (a drawback of soy); also, it's gluten-free. My friend Zarmik had this to say about the nuts: "Soy-glazed almonds were a revelation. I suspect I would think the same of soy-glazed cardboard. In fact, for the next few days, if it does not move, it stands a good change of getting soy-glazed."

Ingredients

For the beans:

• 1 pound slender green beans

• Salt

• Ice

For the almonds:

• 1 cup whole almonds

• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil (any kind except olive oil)

• 1/4 cup soy or tamari sauce

• 1-1/2 tablespoons sugar

For the dressing:

• 1-3/4-inch chunk ginger, peeled and minced

• 1 large garlic clove, peeled and minced

• 1 tablespoon corn or canola oil

• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar

• 1 teaspoon soy sauce

• 3 small or 2 medium scallions, finely sliced on the diagonal (use both white and green parts)

• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro

Instructions

1. Prepare the beans: Trim the stem ends of the green beans (you can leave the pointed tips). Halve the longer ones if you wish. Bring a large pot of generously salted water to a boil. While the water's heating, fill a large bowl with ice water (using at least a dozen cubes of ice).

2. Once the water boils, add the beans and cook briefly: 1 or 2 minutes for tiny haricots, 4 or 5 for bigger beans. Don't walk away. Drain the beans quickly. Then shock them by dumping them in the ice water, agitating them briefly until they are quite cool (about a minute). Drain again and set aside. They can be refrigerated in a tightly sealed plastic bag for several hours with no loss of color or texture. If you do refrigerate, first dry them extra-thoroughly on a dish towel.

3. Prepare the almonds: Heat a small, heavy skillet over a high flame. Reduce to medium heat and add the almonds. Toast briefly — no more than 5 minutes — until the nuts take on a little color and begin to release their aroma. Transfer to a plate to cool.

4. Add the oil, soy sauce, and sugar to the same small skillet and bring to a boil. Reduce until syrupy, about 3 minutes. Add the almonds and stir to coat thoroughly until they're sticky and completely glazed. Transfer to a chopping board to cool. They'll stick together, but that's fine. Chop roughly.

5. Prepare the dressing: Mince the ginger and garlic together as finely as you can, and press hard with the side of your broadest chef's knife until you get something like a paste, or at any rate something cohesive. If you prefer, you can whiz them in a blender with the rice vinegar. Or — and this is the easiest alternative of all — you can just measure out 2 tablespoons of ginger-garlic paste from a jar, if you live near an Asian grocery that stocks Indian condiments.

6. Transfer the ginger-garlic paste to a large bowl and whisk in the oil, vinegar, soy sauce, and scallions. (You can hold the dressing in the refrigerator at this point for up to a day.)

7. Toss the blanched beans and the cilantro in the bowl with the dressing, scatter in the nuts, and serve at room temperature.