Summer Garden Kasha Salad & Blackened String Beans Whatever-Style

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IMG_1375The garden is kicking it thanks to the soaker hose-timer one-two, and we ended up with a bunch of monster-mature string beans.  The things double in heft overnight.  So, what to do?  These guys weren’t up to a gentle steaming.

Blacken.

And pair them with all the tomatoes bulking up in the garden, too.

First, the ‘maters, starring in an ensemble cast in Summer Garden Kasha Salad.

Combine in a big bowl:

Purty

Purty

  • One cup cold kasha (Kasha is buckwheat; barley would work as well.  Cook it with apat of butter in the pot, then chill in the fridge.)
  • One cucumber cut into small chunks
  • One bunch of parsley, chopped, with heaviest stems removed (We used broad leaf and, uhh, traditional? parsley.  I completely forgot that the former existed until the CSA dropped a potter version on us.)
  • One sweet red pepper, diced
  • Two monster or four medium tomatoes, chopped (We had Black Krim and Woodle Orange varieties.)
  • As much feta cheese as you can get your hands on (Bulgarian Sheep Feta is the Holy Grail.)

For the dressing, squeeze, shake, grind, etc into the bowl:

  • The juice of two fresh lemons
  • Approximately three three tbs olive oil
  • Sea salt
  • Fresh-ground pepper
  • A dash of chili powder

Chill it all in the fridge while you get the beans under control.

The following is, I guess, a mix of probably three different recipes I’ve used in the past and me just making it up while listening to All Things Considered.  For the Blackened String Beans Whatever-Style…

Combine:

  • Three tbs smoked paprika
  • One tbs cumin
  • One tbs garlic powder

    I snagged this photo from the Etsy store of someone named ArtVine. Thanks, ArtVine.

    I snagged this photo from the Etsy store of someone named ArtVine. Thanks, ArtVine.

  • Sea salt
  • A boatload of fresh-ground pepper
  • 1.5 tbs chili powder
  • Two tbs tyme (I actually used four leaves of broad-leafed time, a variety I’d never heard of until a friend from Barbados gave me a clipping to root.  The leaves arethick and furry.  Check it out…)

Then:

  • Boil the string beans until they have just started turning to a darker green.  If you don’t have the monsters that we have, boil them for just a minute or two.  If you’ve got lil’ babies, steam ‘em.
  • While they’re in the pot, heat up a skillet with one tbs of olive oil and a big pat of butter.
  • When the beans are done, drain and immediately roll in the spices.
  • Drop four crushed cloves of garlic in the skillet, and turn the heat as high as it will go.
  • Set the spiced beans into the skillet and sauté until the spice is no longer entirely red but about half black.
  • Chow.