Tag Archives: string beans

Ye Grande Olde Yakitori

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“Greetings from Nashville, Tennessee,” said my father-in-law in a recent email, attaching this tantalizing photo.

Yakitori by chef Chieko Hamado – Nashville, TN – July 2012

The colors and textures of this meal look fantastic, and I love the bamboo placemats as well. Steve, my father-in-law, enjoyed this eye-catching Yakitori at his friend Chieko Hamado’s home in Nashville, TN. I researched Yakitori and learned from Wikipedia that it can refer to any skewered foods. Here are some details about the meal as told by Steve, my father-in-law and roaming gourmand.

Organic home grown carrots, cold new potatoes, shrimp and mashed avocado with onion and cream cheese, couscous and tomato and onion salad, prosciutto wrapped around cucumber, miniature tomato mozzarella.  Korean style BBQ beef and Yakatori chicken.  Garlic and olive oil  sauce from ground green leaf like basil called beef steak leaf.

Take me to Tennessee, I say.  Steve, please chime in on anything I missed.

Pasta al Pesto Genovese per il Pranzo di Domenica, or Sunday lunch Italian-Style

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A few days late, but wanted to share details on Sunday’s yummy lunch, prepared primarily from Saturday’s CSA pick-up. We made a delicious, traditional Pasta al Pesto Genovese. The traditional version is prepared with boiled potatoes and green beans in addition to your standard pesto. You use the same boiled water for the veggies as the pasta, giving the pasta another layer of flavor. I was inspired by a few things:

  • String beans, potatoes and garlic in our CSA stash
  • Basil plant in my garden growing like wild. Growing like wild for Western Massachusetts, not the Mediterranean, meaning it was about 6″ high, bright green and bushy, and in want of a haircut
  • My upcoming trip to the Italian seaside (please don’t hate me)

I’ve only had this dish in restaurants or at someone’s home and never prepared it on my own, so I was excited to give it a whirl. Here’s the final product:

Pasta al Pesto Genovese with local green beans, potatoes and pesto

It did not disappoint. Hubs and I loved it. We used orecchiette pasta (shaped like little ears) because  it would be easier for little Sam to eat than spaghetti, which would be the traditional pasta to use. Ironically, omnivorous Sam wanted nothing to do with the Pasta al Pesto lovingly prepared by his parents. Normally a big fan of pasta, I guess he’s just not that into pesto. His loss. Here’s the recipe for 4 servings

Pasta al Pesto Genovese

  • 2 medium new potatoes, sliced 1/4″ thick
  • 1/4 – 1/2 pound string beans, trimmed and cut into 2″ pieces
  • 1/2 pound spaghetti (or other long, thin pasta)
  • Pesto. Here is a basic recipe to follow (1/2 a batch should do, and you can keep the rest of the batch for another use)
  • 2-3 tablespoons reserved cooking liquid from the pasta

Instructions:

  • Fill a large pot halfway with water and bring to a boil. Salt generously and add potatoes. Cook until tender. Remove from pot with slotted spoon and set aside Some recipes instruct you to cook the potatoes whole, then slice them after they’ve been boiled. I think it is easier to start with the potatoes sliced so you don’t have to wait for them to cool later
  • Add string beans to the same pot of water. Cook until tender (not overcooked), and remove with slotted spoon and set aside.
  • Add pasta to water and cook according to directions on package. Test for doneness and reserve a few tablespoons of the cooking water when you drain the pasta.
  • Toss the pasta in a serving bowl with the pesto, potatoes, string beans and cooking liquid (as needed). Serve immediately.

American Classics: CSA Pick-up 7/28/12

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This veritable bounty will be transformed into:
– Tangy mustard coleslaw – use cabbage
– Corn chowder – use corn, potatoes, tomatoes, shallots
– Spaghetti al pesto genovese (ok, this isn’t an American Classic. Realized that after I published. Oops) – use string beans, potatoes, garlic and basil (from our garden and Wolfe Spring)

And more…stay tuned

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Lobster and Friends

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Had a fun dinner out last night with Hubs and dear friend Luiz Biagiotti visiting from Sao Paolo. In the midst of a thunderstorm, we waited and waited for a table at the John Dory Oyster Bar. Happening spot, but the no reservations policy can be a drag. Apart from the great company, the highlight of the meal was this eye catching Lobster Thermidor.

Lobster Thermidor at John Dory Oyster Bar

I had never tried this dish before, so I was excited to find a willing partner in crime with Luiz. Lobster Thermidor has such a great old school ring to it – feels like a dish one would eat on a Pullman car back in the day when rail travel was civilized and elegant. Apart from being easy on the eyes, this dish was rich and very flavorful. The lobster meat from the tail had previously been removed, sauteed with a cream sauce, then replaced and sprinkled with bread crumbs and broiled. According to Wikepedia, the traditional French preparation also includes melted Gruyere cheese on top, so I guess this was a “lighter” version.

My thoughts: The lobster meat from the tail was very tasty – cream and bread crumbs added to already sumptuous lobster meat, how could you go wrong?? And I loved the  veggies in the skillet. They prepared fresh English peas and white green beans in a tasty butter sauce. The one critique I’d give is that the lobster meat itself was a tad overcooked. When we cracked open the claws to get to the rest of the good stuff, the lobster was rubbery and not worth the effort. The staff at theJohn Dory also neglected to give us tiny forks to scoop out the claw meat. Maybe they knew…Sorry, John Dory. Nonetheless, it was a festive departure from your standard boiled lobster.

By the way, did you know there is an overstock of lobster this season? It’s selling for $3.99/lb in Maine, perhaps less even now.

Back on the Chain Gang

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I am getting geared up for my CSA pick up tomorrow morning. I’ve been missing me some Wolfe Spring Farm. And to hit the pots and pans again. Fortunately the weather is cooperating and the heat has lifted, too. I missed last week’s pick up due to our Maine excursion, but I am getting psyched for tomorrow. When I am not in town to pick up at Wolfe Spring, we give the pick up to our neighbor, Dan Doern. Through the grapevine, I heard that we missed out on:

  • Mini eggplants
  • Squash
  • Salad greens
  • Awesome garlic
  • Yellow shallots (which I’ve never seen before)
  • String beans
  • 1 tomato
  • And a repeat offender: Beautiful sunflowers

[Dan sent me an update today,7/22/12, adding on the original list. He said that he also picked up new red potatoes, broccoli, zucchini. Dan said he,

took the whole potatoes, sliced zucchini, the whole mini-eggplants and pieces of broccoli, tossed them with some olive oil, salt, pepper, lots of fresh oregano from our garden, lemon and orange slices, dumped them in a roasting pan and slow cooked them.    They were delicious!]

Also in time for the weekend, there was an article after my own heart in Wednesday’s Dining section of the NY Times. Entitled “Raw Panic,” Julia Moskin writes about the home cook’s anxiety at mid-summer when you’ve brought home more fresh fruits and veg from the market than you know what to do with. I want to try this recipe for veggie fritters tomorrow, using beets and leeks:

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s pick up. And tell me about your vegetable anxiety. Or tell me that I’m crazy for having vegetable anxiety.