Som Tam with Purple Beans

This Sunday at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market, you'll find pastured meats and eggs from Fair Valley Farm and Fog Hollow Farm, cut flowers from Tiger Lily Art Company, and fresh produce from Camas Swale Farm, including lettuce, gorgeous heirloom tomatoes, and beans.

With the hot temperatures I have been searching for no cook, refreshing dishes, and had a craving for Thai flavors. I found just what I was looking for in Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid's Hot, Sour, Salt, Sweet: a version of green papaya salad, but made with long beans. Swapping in Camas Swale's purple beans was the perfect way to preserve their brilliant color while infusing them, after a good pounding in a mortar, with vibrant lime juice, fish sauce, chiles, crushed peanuts, and tomatoes.

Som Tam with Purple Beans

from Jeffrey Alford's Hot, Sour, Salt, Sweet

1 large garlic clove
1/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp dry roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped
1 Tbsp dried shrimp, minced
1 to 2 bird miles, minced
pinch of sugar, or more to taste
1/4 cup lime juice
2 Tbsp Thai fish sauce
2 plum tomatoes or 1 medium tomato, coarsely chopped
1/2 lb long beans or green or purple beans, trimmed, cut lengthwise in half, and the cut crosswise into 1 1/2 inch lengths. (Note, if the beans are large and tough, you can parboil them briefly in boiling water and refresh them in cold water before trimming and cutting).

Accompaniments
Lettuce leaves
1/4 head Savoy cabbage, cores and cut into small wedges

Place the garlic, salt, peanuts, dried shrimp, chiles, and sugar in a large mortar or in a food processor and pound or process to a paste. If using a processor, transfer the paste to a bowl. Stir in the lime juice and fish sauce, then add the chopped tomatoes and a generous handful of beans. If using a mortar, stir in the lime juice and fish sauce, the tomatoes, and the handful of beans. Pound with the pestle or the back of a wooden spoon, being careful not to splash yourself, to mash the beans a little and combine them with the flavorings. Gradually add the remaining beans, mashing and blending as you do. Taste for salty-hot-sweet balance and adjust the flavors as you wish.

Mound onto a serving plate lined with lettuce leaves. Place the wedges of cabbage around the edge of the plate. Serve immediately. 

Salad Nicoise with an Instant Pot

This Sunday at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market, you'll find pastured meats and eggs from Fair Valley Farm and Fog Hollow Farm, cut flowers from Tiger Lily Art Company, and fresh produce from Camas Swale Farm, including lettuce and other greens, potatoes, green beans, and heirloom tomatoes.

During the summer months, a favorite meal at our house is self assembled salad Nicoise with lettuce, tomatoes, boiled eggs, potatoes, and green beans, and tuna in olive oil. As a treat last week, I made a batch with fresh olive oil poached tuna. This time, I experimented with making the components in an Instant Pot. It didn't necessarily save time, but it turned out to be pretty efficient with fewer pots to wash in the end. If you don't have an Instant Pot, you can easily cook the components on the stove top and it will be just as good.

Salad Nicoise in an Instant Pot

serves four

olive oil poached tuna (adapted from Melissa Clark's Dinner in an Instant)
~12 ounces high quality tuna
1 shallot, sliced thinly
1 clove garlic, sliced thinly
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
zest from 1 lemon
1/2 tsp sea salt
generous grinding of fresh black pepper
olive oil to cover the fish

other salad fixings
1 lb baby potatoes
1/2 lb green beans, trimmed
8 eggs
4 large tomatoes, cut into wedges
1 head lettuce

vinaigrette
1 tsp dijon mustard
2 Tbsp sherry vinegar
olive oil from fish poaching

1. In a ceramic ramekin that will fit the fish snuggly, cover the bottom with the shallot and garlic slices. Salt and pepper the fish and layer it on top of the shallot and garlic. Top with the fennel seeds and lemon zest and pour over olive oil to immerse the fish. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate to marinate for 1 hour up to 24 hours.

2. Set up the Instant Pot with 1 cup of water in the pot and a steamer basket. Rinse the potatoes and put them in the steamer basket. Layer on the eggs. Close the lid, seal the valve, and cook on LOW pressure for 4 minutes for jammy eggs or 5 minutes for hard boiled. While the pot is pressurizing, prepare a large ice water bath. When the timer is done, immediately and carefully vent the steam, remove the lid, and transfer the eggs to the ice water bath. 

3. Place the green beans on top of the potatoes in the steamer basket and cook on LOW pressure for zero minutes. When the timer is done, immediately and carefully vent the steam, remove the lid, and transfer the beans to the ice water bath. 

4. Remove the plastic wrap from the tuna ramekin and cover with tin foil. Make a tin foil sling to be able to lower the ramekin in and out of the pot. Layer the ramekin on top of the potatoes and cook on LOW pressure for 5 minutes for medium rare tuna or 6 minutes for more well done. When the timer is done, immediately and carefully vent the steam. Check the tuna and potatoes for desired doneness and cook either or both for a little longer if needed.

5. Arrange a platter with lettuce and tomato wedges. Drain the eggs and beans. Peel and half the eggs and arrange with the beans and potatoes on the platter. Mix the olive oil from the poached tuna into a vinaigrette with mustard and vinegar to taste. Serve the salad fixings, tuna, and vinaigrette for everyone to assemble their own salad. Enjoy.

Pesto Pasta with Roasted Cauliflower and Sausage Meatballs

This Sunday at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market, you'll find pastured meats and eggs from Fair Valley Farm and Fog Hollow Farm, cut flowers from Tiger Lily Art Company, and fresh produce from Camas Swale Farm, including potatoes, snap peas, and heirloom tomatoes.

I love Camas Swale's torpedo onions, which are delicious roasted with other vegetables like cauliflower. I wanted to incorporate these into a pasta dinner, but lately we've been at a family pasta impasse between my pesto-loving daughter and my son and advocate for tomato sauce and meatballs. 

I decided to place peacemaker by roasting a sheet pan of meatballs along with the vegetables, using Fair Valley Farm pork sausage, and serving these on pesto pasta. Everyone was happy with dinner.

Pesto Pasta with Roasted Cauliflower and Sausage Meatballs

roasted vegetables
1 head cauliflower
2 small onions
olive oil
salt

meat balls
1 lb ground pork sausage meat
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 egg
fresh ground pepper

3/4 cup pesto sauce (such as this recipe)
1 lb pasta
cherry tomatoes for garnish
parmesan cheese for garnish

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and put in one sheet pan. 

2. Cut the cauliflower into bite sized pieces. Cut the onions into sixths. In a large bowl, toss the vegetables with a pinch of salt and olive oil to coat.

3. In a medium bowl, mix together the ground pork sausage meat, bread crumbs, egg, and plenty of fresh ground pepper. Coat a second sheet pan with a thin coat of olive oil. Form small one inch meat balls and arrange on the sheet pan (you should have about 40 meatballs). 

4. Toss the vegetables onto the preheated sheet pan and put the sheet pan of meatballs into the oven. Bake both for about 35 minutes, turning over about halfway through, until vegetables are well caramelized and brown on the edges and the meatballs are cooked through. 

5. Meanwhile bring a large pot of salted water to boil and cook the pasta. Drain and toss the pasta with the pesto. Serve topped with vegetables and meatballs (or serve them on the side). Garnish with cherry tomatoes and grated parmesan cheese. Enjoy.

Grilled Vegetable and Stale Bread Tuna Salad

This Sunday at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market, you'll find pastured meats and eggs from Fair Valley Farm and Fog Hollow Farm, cut flowers from Tiger Lily Art Company, and fresh produce from Camas Swale Farm, including torpedo onions, summer squash, cherry tomatoes, and radicchio for grilling.

We grilled a large platter of vegetables for the 4th of July, to go along with our Fair Valley Farm beef burgers. My philosophy is that you can not have enough leftover grilled vegetables, which can be reincarnated in many guises such as on pizza or in grain salad.

When assessing the leftover situation for packing lunch this morning, I realized that we still had some grilled vegetables and a quarter of a stale baguette. In my family I am famous for my aversion to soggy sandwiches and I generally avoid packing any ladened bread that will have to sit from morning until noon. These ingredients, however, inspired me to throw together a lunch in which the intension was to hydrate the bread into an edible state by lunchtime. 

On top of cubed stale baguette I layer a can of tuna in olive oil and then the grilled vegetables with some balsamic vinegar and basil. By lunchtime the flavors had melded, the bread was softened but not soggy, and the whole mixture made a delicious meal mounded on top of fresh, crunchy lettuce leaves.

Grilled Vegetable and Stale Bread Tuna Salad

recipe for two servings

~8 slices stale baguette
~two cups of grilled vegetables such as zucchini, eggplant, peppers, onions, corn, mushrooms, and radicchio
1 can good tuna in olive oil
~1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
~8 basil leaves
~12 lettuce leaves, washed

1. Chop the baguette slices into bite size pieces and layer on the bottom of a serving bowl or transportable lunch container.

2. Flake the tuna and layer it over the bread pieces, drizzling over the olive oil.

3. Cut the grilled vegetables into bite size pieces and layer over the bread and tuna. Drizzle with a little balsamic vinegar. Sprinkle with some torn basil leaves.

4. Allow the salad to marinate for several hours at room temperature so that the bread absorbs the dressing and flavors. To serve, tear the lettuce leaves and distribute over two plates. Toss the bread salad to mix and distribute it over the lettuce on the two plates. Enjoy.