Sorry to be late with this week’s post.
And I have to say I am in awe of the people who stack our Riverview boxes up so high. How do they manage it with a watermelon that weighs 50 pounds all by itself? It’s all I can do to get the melon out of the box!
More watermelon – and could you ask for a better thing to enjoy with temperatures like we’re having?
Did I mention watermelon mojitos? Oh, yes. Last week. Well, I see watermelon mojitos in my future this week as well.
So with my two tomatoes, I’m going to be making a few fancy tomato sandwiches following this idea from Saveur magazine (except that I’m using Banjo from Oxford, Georgia-based cheese makers):
Take one of those dense, rectangular breads that are chock-full of seeds and grains, and cut thin slices the long way, so that your piece of toast is as long as the loaf they cut it from. Then they griddle it in a tiny drizzle of olive oil until its edges are crispy and it has veered into toast territory. On goes a smear of Fromager d’Affinois cheese, a cousin of Brie, which is applied evenly and to the edges like they’re icing a cake. The whole thing is topped with slices of technicolor heirloom tomatoes cut thin enough to resemble stained glass and gilded with a bit of olive oil and crunchy salt. The slices drape lazily over the edge of the toast, hiding everything below it such that an uninformed viewer with mediocre eyesight may see the composed dish as a pile of sliced tomatoes.
Can’t wait.
I haven’t talked much about the okra that’s appearing each week. I love it – and last week I chunked it up, added a chunked onion and a chunked tomato (you get the picture) and when I found the remnants of a bag of pole beans (I had eaten most of them right out of the bag, then forgot about it!), chunked those up and added them, too. A dash of hot sauce, a sprinkle of salt. Cooked until the okra was tender but not mush. That might be my favorite summer meal. (I probably say that about a lot of things.) My husband won’t eat okra, so more for me.
But maybe you want to preserve some of that okra for later in the year. Then pickle it. We have several pickled okra recipes at https://grassfedcow.com/ingredient/okra/including one that calls for jalapenos but could use the Cubanelle-type peppers (what are those, anyway?) we’ve been receiving most weeks.
Green Bean Salad with Feta and Mint
Here’s one more idea, something for those pretty green beans. And again, I recommend Mary Rigdon’s Decimal Place feta. Yum.
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic, finely minced
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 pound green beans, trimmed
1/2 pound feta, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 cup mint leaves, roughly chopped
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced (or whatever onion you have on hand, Vidalia-types being particularly good here)
Whisk together vinegar, oil, garlic, salt and pepper in a large bowl; set aside. Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil; add beans and cook until tender, about 3–4 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to a bowl of ice water. Drain and toss with vinaigrette, feta, mint, and onion.