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Early Summer Vegetables (Mid-June through Early July)
Green Beans
Recipes
- These legumes are just as well known by the name string beans, although the eponymous "string" was pretty much bred out of the plant by the turn of the century. The other popular alternative name is snap beans, from the sound made when the tips
of the bean are removed in order to peel away that fibrous string. In addition to green green beans, there are translucent pale yellow ones (wax beans) and purple varieties.
- French beans, or haricots verts, are very small, thin green beans, usually less than three inches long and not much wider than a matchstick. There are varieties of bean that are especially intended for this and do not grow very large. Or,
regular green beans can be picked and cooked when extremely young. Mature, larger green beans are called "Frenched" when they have been julienned into strips about the size of actual French beans.
- Native to Central America, green beans arrived in the northern part of the continent by a rather circuitous route. In the 16th century, the Spaniards brought them home to Europe not as a food source but as a flowering plant. There, the beans
caught on and European settlers carried seeds with them back across the ocean to plant in their North American gardens.
- The freshest green beans are usually best steamed and tossed with butter and salt as a side dish. As a salad -- either by themselves or composed -- they might be blanched and dressed with vinaigrette. Green beans are perfect for sautees and
are one of the key ingredients in hearty vegetable soups like minestrone. Their flavor goes well with bacon or ham, nuts, and blue cheeses, as well as in vegetable combinations such as chickpeas, kidney beans, potatoes, tomatoes, or spinach.
Summer Squash
Recipes
- The most common summer squashes are zucchini, yellow squash (both crookneck and straight), and patty pan. Botanically, pumpkins are also summer squashes, but in the kitchen they are treated like the winter varieties, to which they bear a
greater resemblance.
- This native American vegetable (or, technically, fruit) is best when eaten as young and tender as possible. The older the squash gets, the larger the proportion of seeds to flesh and the more bitter the flavor. Also, the seeds become quite
tough -- more like pumpkin seeds -- as the squash ages. Often baby squashes are available at the market; they look just like miniature versions of the full grown squash.
- The bright yellow, trumpet-shaped flowers of the squash plant are also edible, and they are a summer delicacy. They can be added raw to salads, or dipped in batter and fried. Often, before frying, the blossoms are stuffed with cheese and herb
mixtures.
- Shredded summer squash makes a good addition to baked goods such as muffins, sweet breads, and cakes, because it makes them moist. It's a good way to use the extra squash that these prolific plants almost invariably produce.
- Look for zucchini and yellow squash served raw in salads and on crudite platters as well as steamed and sauteed. All summer squashes are popular stuffed, and the patty pan, with its UFO-like shape, is particularly suited to it. The mild flavor
of squash makes it appropriate for a wide variety of vegetarian and meat-filled stuffings. Popular flavors include goat cheese, Italian sausage, onions, and aromatic herbs like thyme or sage. Zucchini is nearly as important to ratatouille as eggplant and
will rarely be omitted from a recipe for it.
Sweet Onions:
Recipes
- Early summer is the season for northern hemisphere sweet onions, most famously Walla Walla Sweets and Vidalia onions. Texas SpringSweets and 1015 SuperSweets are also increasingly available on the market.
- Sweet onions, with their bruisable, thin skins, don't store as well as their hotter relatives and are best used in season.
- The reason these onions are so mild is twofold. First, they do have a higher sugar content. Second, and more to the point, they contain a particularly small amount of the sulphur-based volatile compounds that disperse as gas when the onion is
cut. This is the reason stronger, hotter onions make cooks cry.
- A Georgia farmer names Mose Coleman stumbled upon the now-famous Vidalia variety onions in 1931. He had planted a whole field of onions and they turned out to be unusually sweet and mild, which allowed him to sell them for a higher price.
- Walla Walla Sweets were brought to the town of Walla Walla in Washington State at the turn of the century by a Frenchman named Peter Pieri. He had picked up the seeds for his onions in Corsica when he was stationed as a soldier there.
- Sweet onions can be used the same way regular ones are, but they contribute less when cooked into highly flavored melanges. They are perfect for use raw in salads or on sandwiches. When cooked, it is best if they are a major flavor component,
as in grilled whole onions seasoned with herbs and drizzled with olive oil; for shish kebab; or deep-fried into onion rings (most sweet onions are suitably large and spherical).
Fresh Summer Herbs:
- basil, chervil, cilantro, dill, marjoram, mint, oregano, parsley, rosemary, sage, tarragon, thyme.
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