Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Stretching Vegetables

Between our farm delivery and some purchases from the store, and after some meals, I realized that we didn't have enough corn for one meal, nor enough green beans for one meal, nor enough lettuce for one meal. But, we did have, between the three, enough for two dinners, if properly mixed. We also had tomato and garlic. 

On the first night I grilled the corn over my burners on the stove. It popped and smoked and smelled pretty good. I cut the kernels off and into that mixing bowl. I then cut up some tomato and garlic, and then trimmed the green beans down to about a half-inch pieces, visible here:


I heated up some oil in a pan and started sauteing the green beans, since they'd take the longest. I tossed in the garlic and let it bloom, and then added the tomato, since it adds acid and juice. Quickly I added corn, and about a half cup of water, and turned the heat down.


It simmered and was good enough for dinner and the missus' meal the next day at the office.

The next night I cut the remaining green beans in the same way, then blanched them. I diced the last of the tomato and finely sliced the remaining lettuce. I added them to the green beans, and then added some feta, olive oil, and salted sherry vinegar.

Two nights in a  row, stretching the vegetables.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

From the Missus: Sweet Potato Salad

From our farm delivery we were inundated for a two weeks with sweet potatoes.

On one day I made a side dish that was between a pan-fried biscuit and a sweet potato pancake. They were pretty freaking tasty, and with the spicy Italian sausage sauteed with peppers and onions over top, the combo was nice in the flavor department and consistency department, if the look was a little lacking.

The next day the missus put together a potato salad using boiled sweet potatoes (a little too far), but without mayonnaise. Here's a look:


It had thinly sliced baby beets and flash sauteed garlic and beet greens. Topping off the flavors, she'd taken some of our freshly grown dill seeds to the mortar and pestle and then added them to about a quarter-cup of sherry vinegar. Maybe it was less than a quarter-cup, but it was damn good. It was creative and used up plenty of our farm delivery material.

Sometimes that just works out like that.