Chop wood, carry water, cook beets! Still getting my breath back from a couple of stunningly right SCOTUS decisions this week, I came down to earth with Deborah Madison and a beet recipe.
Full disclosure: I don't like beets, but since they were in my farmshare I felt obliged to at least try a recipe.
And found to my surprise that I like them very much done this way, with pesto, and red onions and crushed walnuts scattered on, or atop, as recipe writers love to say. The steamed greens form a bed for the roots and the onions. This is really a side dish, but I made part of it my lunch. And I subbed as usual, walnuts for pine nuts, and rosemary pesto for the marjoram she uses but I don't have any of.
And since the steaming water and the skins were bright red I thought I'd see if they could make a good fabric dye. I know you can use beets but usually I think you cook them much longer and you use the parts I ate!
See Art the Beautiful for more on this...here
Before we get to lunch and Deborah Madison and her farmer's market book of recipes today, just a nod to the SCOTUS for a wise decision this morning on the ACA. And for poor old Scalia in such a rage that, in his dissent, he entered the expression SCOTUS for the first time in history into the proceedings of the Supreme Court!
What a person might be remembered for. Meanwhile, all the people scared to death their health insurance might be gutted or their subsidy vanish, pushing their premiums to the stratosphere, are now exhaling all over the US. And they won't care if it's called the ACA or SCOTUSCARE.
Anyway, here goes with the current LOTUS (lunch of the United States, that is, and the Dollivers are now campaigning to be known as DOTUS)
This is called Elixir of Green Pea Soup or something. Well, that told me right off it was pretty complex. And in the end calls for a dab of truffle oil! well, not having any truffle oil about me at the moment I skipped that bit, but did use my current crop of farmshare shell peas as well as the edible pod peas, to create this.
Very delicate and lovely flavor, in fact worth the trouble. Especially since peas have a short season. Enough for two large bowls.
Then on to using the first of the summer squash, just fried to golden, then served with a lovely handful of freshpicked herbs, basil, parsley. You can't really go wrong with summer squash, and the color is so lovely, perfect summer pastel! summer squash doesn't need a recipe, really, like a lot of farmfresh produce. Just the simplest way of cooking is fine.