french pole beans – Goboroot.com

Celebrating the Last Week of Summer

I can’t think of any other way to celebrate the last week of summer than by making these salad dishes to enjoy every bite of the intense sun ripened ingredients. Today’s post is meant to help compile ideas for what you can do with these amazing summer fruits and vegetables to create simple dishes to enhance your garden party table or even a small kitchen table for two.

Heirloom Tomato & Bocconcini Salad

Serves 4

6 large heirloom tomatoes, quartered

1 clove garlic

4 bocconcini cheeses, sliced into ¼ inch pieces

A bunch of basil

Good quality extra virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Place the tomatoes and garlic clove into a large bowl. Using a pestle, smash the garlic clove and then roughly crush the tomatoes in order to let the garlic permeate.

Discard the garlic or save for another use. Transfer the tomatoes and their juices to a large platter. Scatter the cheese and basil leaves, drizzle with the generous amount of oil and adjust with salt and pepper.

Serve immediately with a piece of crusty bread.

Cantaloupe, Prosciutto & Bocconcini Salad

Serves 5 to 6

1 large cantaloupe

20 pieces prosciutto

4 bocconcini cheeses, sliced into ¼ inch pieces

A few leaves of Italian parsley, chopped

Good quality extra virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Prepare the cantaloupe. My favourite way to cut a cantaloupe is to remove both ends first and place it on a cutting board sliced side down. Then I peel the skin using a fruit knife, slicing downward from the top (the other cut side) all around the fruit till finished. Next, quarter and discard the seeds trying to save as much juice as possible. Slice the quartered wedges into ½ inch slices.

Place the cantaloupe and its juice, prosciutto and bocconcini on a large platter. Scatter with the parsley, drizzle with the generous amount of oil and adjust with salt and pepper.

Serve immediately.

French Pole Bean Salad

The secret to making fabulous French pole bean salad is to only use the very youngest, tenderest beans!

Serves 4

2 ears of corn, cooked and kernels stripped

2 lb young French pole beans, ends trimmed off

6 slices bacon, fried and sliced into ½ inch pieces

½ red onion, chopped finely

½ cup olives, sliced

1/3 cup white wine vinegar

1/3 cup red wine vinegar

2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Cook the beans in a pot of boiling salted water until soft but firm for about 3 to 5 minutes. Don’t over cook them. Using a colander, discard the hot water, and then plunge the beans in a bowl of cold running water to stop further discolouring. When cool, drain well and pat dry.

Place the onion, olives, vinegars and oil in a large bowl and whisk well to combine. Adjust with salt and pepper.

Toss the beans, corns and bacon in the vinegar mixture and marinate for about 10 minutes.

Transfer to a large platter and serve immediately.

Rosemary Garlic Roast Chicken

A gloomy sky recently took the edge off the previous days of scorching heat. An unexpected sudden shower even washed away the neighbouring streets. I love the smell of asphalt when rain hits. There’s something liberating and something unchanged about it. Loud thunder reminds me of the humid Japanese typhoon seasons of my childhood. Only our summer here in Vancouver is much drier.

One of things I like about the Vancouver region is that we can cook pretty much anything in any season. We can have fresh tomato salsa one afternoon and stew the next day. There are no set rules, per se. It’s because summer can take a sudden turn, and I consider we’ve been lucky this year to have had two extra weeks of sun that we didn’t have last year. Today, it felt right to do a roast chicken, something cozy and homey in contrast to the stormy evening. I roasted just harvested carrots and French pole beans to accompany the poultry. While listening to the thunder, we served some red wine and warm garlicky whole chicken. It’s still pouring outside, providing much needed rain drops for every food grower.

Rosemary Garlic Roast Chicken

Serves 2 plus leftover for next day’s sandwich

1 Free range organic chicken

A few sprigs rosemary, cut into 1 inch lengths

A few sprigs thyme

2 garlic cloves, cut into sticks

2 tablespoons butter, room temperature

1/3 cup olive oil

Salt and pepper

15 baby carrots, leaves removed

A big handful of pole beans and/or bush beans

Take out the chicken from a refrigerator about half an hour before cooking. In the meantime, prepare the vegetables.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Wash the chicken inside out and pat dry. Lay the bird chest up in a roasting pan and rub it with butter and olive oil before giving a gentle massage to the bird. Cut ten or so slits in the chest and insert a piece of rosemary and garlic in each slit. Fill the cavity with the rest of the garlic and rosemary.

Roast the chicken in the oven for about one hour and twenty minutes, basting often (spoon the grease from the bottom of the pan and pour over the chicken) about every 25 minutes. Then add the vegetables and thyme around the chicken, and baste the grease over them. Continue roasting until thoroughly cooked for about another 40 minutes or longer depending on the size of a chicken.

Take the pan out of the oven and transfer the chicken and the vegetables to a serving plate. Cover the bird with a piece of aluminum foil and rest for 15 minutes. Reserve the grease from the pan for making gravy sauce (recipe below).

Gravy Sauce

The grease from the bottom of the roasting pan

1 cup chicken broth

2 tablespoons white wine

Flour

Salt and pepper

Combine the grease, chicken broth and wine in a medium pan over medium heat. Reduce to half. Add flour in a small amount and stir well till your favourite consistency is achieved. Adjust with salt and pepper.

Serve immediately with the rosemary garlic roast chicken.