Tracy Lee Teixeira calls it “the memory flavor mark” — that distinct taste quotient that can really take you back.
To the school cafeteria, in Teixeira’s case, where a particular meal was beloved.
“The dish was called Spanish Green Beans, and it was the best lunch ever,” she wrote.
Teixeira is one of those kind strangers who discovered a soul in need and offered her assistance.
That lost soul — Patrick Furuyama — was looking for a cafeteria dish from his school days in the late ’50s and early ’60s made with green beans, hamburger and “possibly other ingredients, which I have forgotten.” His request was printed here a few weeks ago.
Teixeira attended Royal Elementary School in the 1960s and says she and her sister both remember the dish fondly. They even remember the cafeteria manager’s name: Olive Simao.
Once removed from Simao’s field of influence, Teixeira began a quest to “recapture the ono-ness of the dish”; she believes she’s done it.
“It is absolutely to die for over rice, but you can eat it over spaghetti noodles or with crusty French bread or roasted garlic bread, and I love it with soda crackers!”
Meanwhile, a call to the Department of Education’s School Food Services Branch turned up a recipe, although the dish is no longer served in Hawaii public schools. We’ll get to that in a moment.
First, another devotee of Spanish Green Beans — who didn’t want her name used — wrote in to say she’s been making the dish for years after encountering it, she thinks, when teaching at Mokapu Elementary School many years ago. She also developed her own recipe.
So what’s in this beloved dish? Simply, ground beef sauteed with onions and garlic, then simmered in a light tomato sauce with canned green beans. The official DOE version, based on the dish as once served at August Ahrens Elementary School in Waipahu, uses quite a bit of celery and ground cumin.
If you make it and it doesn’t quite hit that memory flavor mark from your school days, consider these adaptations from our kind strangers: Teixeira uses Worcestershire sauce (four to five shakes), and she adds canned corn. The retired Mokapu Elementary teacher adds dry Italian seasoning. Both of them add sugar and neither uses cumin or celery.
Spanish Green Beans
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 onion, diced (about 2 cups)
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 3 celery stalks, diced (OK to include leaves)
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1/2 teaspoon salt (or more, to taste)
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 heaping teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce or 1 ounce tomato paste
- 1-3/4 cups water (fill up the tomato sauce can)
- 2 (14.5-ounce) cans green beans, drained
- 1 tablespoon flour dissolved in 1 tablespoon water
Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high. Add onions, garlic and celery; saute until softened. Add ground beef with salt, pepper and cumin. Saute until meat is browned.
Add tomato sauce and water; simmer 30 minutes.
Stir in beans. Drizzle in flour-water mixture. Simmer another 5 minutes to thicken. Taste and adjust seasonings. Serves 6.
Approximate nutritional analysis: 210 calories, 9 g fat, 2.5 g saturated fat, 45 mg cholesterol, 900 mg sodium, 12 g carbohydrate, 4 g fiber, 6 g sugar, 19 g protein
Write “By Request,” Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, Honolulu 96813; or email requests to bshimabukuro@staradvertiser.com. Nutritonal analysis by Joannie Dobbs, Ph.D., C.N.S.
