I was away for the past week and left my garden in the care of my housemates and neighbors. When i came back my garden was a rainbow of all sorts of colorful vegetables that needed to be picked. I picked a full basket of squash, black-eyed peas, big tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, purple peppers, sweet peppers, cucumbers and my favorite, corn. Conveniently enough, i just received in the mail my long awaited new cookbook, which i am now obsessed with. Its called "Serving Up the Harvest: Celebrating the Goodness of Fresh Vegetables" by Andrea Chesman. Its wonderful, she organizes her recipes according to what should be blooming in your garden at the time. There is a section for every vegetable that you could imagine, complete with growing and harvesting instructions; kitchen notes specific to that vegetable; and "veggie math" for example: 1 pound of corn= 5-6 ears, etc.
Anyway Kirsten and I had the afternoon off work today which we were planning to spend watching "A Walk to Remember", oh how i love that movie! I also made us a garden fresh lunch. I began by opening up the new cookbook and while snacking on some cherry tomatoes, searched for a good recipe. And this is what i found...
BRAISED SHELL BEANS
You can use any kind of shell bean, the recipe particularly recommended fava beans, but seeing as i had an excess of black-eyed peas, that is what i used.
INGREDIENTS:
2 pounds fresh shell beans in pods (about 2-2 1/2 cups of beans with shells removed)
2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tablespoons white wine
2 Tablespoons of water
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh herbs (basil, oregano, thyme, parsley, alone or in any combination)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Shell the beans, again you should have 2 to 2 1/2 cups of shelled beans. Place beans in a medium saucepan and cover with lightly salted water. Cover the pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat and boil gently until the beans are barely tender: 5-25 minutes. Drain
Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and saute until limp: about 2 minutes. Add the beans, wine, water, and herbs. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer, covered, until the beans are completely tender: about 5 minutes. Serve hot
*the recipe above is how i made it, you could also use 2 shallots instead of the garlic, and/or 1/4 cup vegetable/chicken broth instead of the white wine and water.
I loved this recipe, but if i made it again i would have added more garlic, and more white wine.
SAUTEED CORN WITH CHILI LIME BUTTER
This recipe i owe to my sister, she made it for my family years ago and it has been a favorite of mine ever since. Because i learned this recipe by just watching her, i don't know the exact proportions of ingredients but i will do my best to guesstimate. Otherwise i would suggest just throwing the ingredients together, starting small and adding more until it tastes the way you like. Just be easy on the cayenne pepper, a little bit goes a long way.
4 ears of sweet corn, kernels cut off the cob
1 1/2-2 Tablespoons of butter
a couple of dashes of cayenne pepper
1 Tablespoon of lime juice
Salt to taste
Cut corn off the cob. Heat butter in saute pan over medium heat until melted. Add corn kernels to the pan and stir until butter is evenly distributed. Season with salt and cayenne pepper. Saute for about 3-5 minutes until tender but with a slight crisp. 1 minute before it is done sautéing add lime juice and stir. Serve hot.
Well i hope this is the beginning of my being more diligent about posting on this blog. Until next time
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