And it counts as a daily serving of vegetables.

It’s a rainy day here in Los Angeles and my mind of course turns to pickling. Specifically, in my case, it turns to  the pickled string beans that are served in the Catalina Express’ plastic-cupped splash of tomato sunshine. For those of you that are regular visitors to Avalon and Casino Pt, you know there is nothing better after a day or weekend on the island than one of these bloody buddies to pass the time on your quick ride home to the mainland. I don’t say this too often, but it is the greatest drink ever invented and little known fact is that the magical key to it deliciousness is a little pickled bean.

Now I hear what you when you say “There is no way that this bean could be the key to this lovely libation OSD?” I answer that with “Go to hell and don’t back sass.” I suppose I would probably then feel kind of bad for telling you to go to hell and backtrack a little bit, conceding that is probably only just really good but you should try it. Then we’d make plans to go out to Catalina at some point, probably forget about it and talk about the great price on printer paper at Staples the next time we ran into each other. We’ll I’m going to take the bull by the horn my friends and make it easy for you to enjoy this treat in the dark lonely privacy of your one-bedroom apartment by giving you a recipie how you can recreate the channel-crossing classic in your own living room/kitchen(if you live in a studio.) You’ll save time and money and you won’t have to rinse out your dive gear to get it done. So sit back and relax and enjoy while I unwrap the mystery of the bean.

Ingredients for you brine

  1. 5tbls kosher salt.
  2. 1 tsp dill seeds.
  3. 1/2 cup white vinegar.
  4. 1 tbls Pickling spice
  5. 1 tsp peppercorns
  6. 5 cups water
Beans are truly a magical fruit.

Combine these ingredients and boil for 3 minutes. Give it a little space as the boiling vinegar can be a wicked surprise to  your nose. Then let it cool completely. Pour over blanched beans or haricot vert, garlic cloves and dill sprigs  into mason jars or some other non-reactive container.  Seal them up and put them in the back of your fridge.

This recipe will give you about a pound of bad-ass beans after the 3 weeks it takes to pickle to full strength. Then just add your favorite bloody mary recipe and some ice and you’ll soon be feeling the sea beneath your feet. Then the rug against your face. Then nothing but I digress. This is a great bean and the recipe also works for pickles so get your dive on and enjoy a great part of the California dive experience today