Oh, baby, beans!

Baby beans tonight - I picked our first grean beans today, Blue Lake bush beans.  For the past several years Reyn has grown a pole bean variety called Fortex. He set up two large orchard ladders with a trellis between them and twine to support the runners.  They were prolific, delicious, and beautiful.  The first year that we used this system he planted 16' of beans.  Last year he pared it down to 8' of beans. He always saves seeds from our plants for the next year.  We usually have so many beans that we are unable to eat all of them over the winter.  I still have at least a dozen packages of last year's beans in the freezer.

This year, due to our new plan to have a year-round garden, the beans were not planted until the garlic came out of the ground - in July.  We didn't have space left in the garden for the pole arrangement, so we compromised with Blue Lake Bush beans. They have grown well, apparently happy with the soil vacated by the garlic, and now we have  tender, delicate baby beans.  My harvest for tonight's dinner consisted of beans,  patty pan squash, a nice cucumber, small walla walla sweet onions, and basil.  For a little protein I added a fillet of wild silver salmon.

Menu:  Grilled Salmon with a Lemon/Basil Pesto Sauce
             Patty Pan Squash Grilled with Assorted Fresh Herbs
             Sauteed Baby Green Beans with lemon
             Sweet Onions glazed with Pomegranate Molasses
             Salad of sliced cucumbers and onions

Patty Pan Squash- I simply washed and quartered the squash, tossed them with a little olive oil, then added chopped fresh herbs and some salt.  Reyn grilled them in a grill basket along side the salmon.  Both took about 11 minutes to cook.

Sauteed Baby Green Beans with Lemon - Heat a small saute pan with 1 TBS of lemon infused olive oil, add beans and saute about 2 minutes.  Add 2 TBS water and cook for 4 - 5 minutes longer.  Sprinkle with lemon zest, salt, and pepper.

Sweet Onions, glazed with pomegranate molasses - Steam or parboil small sweet onions.  Just before serving heat 1 TBS. olive oil in a saute pan.  Add onions and saute until lightly browned.  Add 2 TBS white wine and 2 TBS pomegranate molasses.  Continue to cook, shaking the pan from time to time until the onions are nicely caramelized and coated with the glaze.  Season with salt and pepper - you may want to add just a touch of sugar.

Grilled Salmon with Lemon/Basil Pesto Sauce -  Rub the salmon lightly with olive oil, season with salt and pepper.  Grill for about 10 min. per 1" of thickness.  Top with Pesto Sauce.

Lemon/Basil Pesto -  In a food processor combine 1 cup of fresh basil leaves, juice and zest of one lemon, 2 TBS of pine nuts, and about 1/3 cup of olive oil.  Process until combined, but not completely smooth.  Add 1/4 tsp of salt.
                                                  
I had never made pesto with lemon in it before, but thought it would compliment the fish.  It did, indeed.  I left out the parmesan and used less oil.  The finished product with very nice and went well with the grilled salmon.