This is a recipe I found in a book by the Australian Women's Weekly, which specifies “snake beans”. As usual, the quantities are just plain wrong; the requirement for 560 g of beans is particularly strange. This is an attempt to improve on them.

quantity		ingredient		step
25 g		coriander		1
40 g		ghee		2
30 g		ginger		2
30 g		garlic		2
10 g		fresh red chilies		2
10 g		black mustard seed		3
500 g		fresh green beans (“snake beans”)		4
4		curry leaves		4
200 ml		coconut milk, not “lite”		5
		fresh coriander leaves		6

Notes

I'm not 100% sure I wrote down these quantities correctly. On 19 January 2009 I cooked this recipe again and found the quantities a little strange, so I adjusted them, but too late to write down the exact quantities, in particular of ghee. The quantities are thus not as reliable as I would have liked. I also used 5 g of chili powder instead of 10 of dried chiles, which might have been too much. Watch this space; I'll update again.

Procedure

Start 45 minutes before serving.

1. Dry roast and grind the coriander.
2. Finely chop ginger, garlic and chilis and fry in ghee.
3. When nearly done, add coriander and whole black mustard seed and continue frying until warm.
4. Meanwhile, chop the beans into lengths of about 10 cm. When the mixture is warm, add the beans and curry leaves and stir fry for a couple of minutes.
5. Add coconut milk and a little water if necessary, cover and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes. They should still be crunchy.
6. Garnish lavishly with chopped coriander leaves and serve.

This dish can be quite raw; the original recipe hardly cooked the beans at all. Arguably they shouldn't be simmered, but I find them better that way.