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.              

Off the shelf, out of the freezer - Eggplant Curry

We worked hard all summer growing lovely plants and eating as much of them as we possibly could, but, as always, the harvest exceeded our daily capacity to consume. The result was a pantry full of jams, jellies, butters, pickles, and chutneys. The freezer was also filled to capacity with tomatoes; roasted and sauced, green beans, peppers, eggplant, berries and (lucky us) chanterelle mushrooms.

The winter challenge now becomes how to make the most of our bountiful stored harvest. Our eggplant harvest had been quite good - more than we could eat at the time, so I had cubed, blanched and frozen several pints for later. I had not tried that before, so was unsure of how the texture and flavor would hold up. To my delight, it's great.

Last night's dinner was Bryani, curried eggplant, green beans and, tomatoes over brown rice. For many years I have used and loved this recipe with fresh ingredients. This time I used eggplant, beans and, tomatoes from my freezer, along with onions from the cellar. The result was very nice. Here is my recipe, which I've adapted from a recipe in The Vegetarian Epicure, published in 1972.

I think the key to this is the individual spices, toasted in butter before the vegetables are added. This version is quick and easy.

Bryani

2 TBS Butter

1 TBS Olive oil

1 1/2 tsp. cumin seeds

1 1/2 tsp custard seeds

1/4 tsp cayenne

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp turmeric

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp coriander

2 cloves minced garlic

Melt the butter, then add all of the spices and cook for a few minutes, until bubbly and fragrant.

Add:

1 onion, coarsely chopped

Saute until beginning to soften, then add:

Eggplant, 3 cups cubed
green beans, 1 1/2 cups cut into 2" pieces

Stir to coat all vegetables with the spices and cook until they are just barely softened or unfrozen. Don't overcook or they will become mushy - especially if using frozen produce.

Near serving time Add 1 cup diced tomatoes - I used a package of previously frozen oven-roasted tomatoes

1/2 cup raisins or currants

1/3 cup chopped nuts - cashews, almonds, or pine nuts.

Cook until heated through, about 6 minutes, serve and  enjoy.

Serve with rice and perhaps a dollop of yogurt.

I was surprised at how flavorful the eggplant was. The texture was fine and all ingredients worked well together. The final dish may not have been as attractive as when made with fresh ingredients, but that could also have been because I was interrupted by a lengthy phone call and left it on the stove longer than I had planned.
* A bonus - the leftovers were great!