The Onion---Nature's occasionally tasty red-headed stepchild

Greetings from New England! As you may know, especially if you are local, late spring is a strange time for the natives. One day it's chilly, the sky is gray, and the words "traffic jam" might sound at first, to many of us, like something we would spread on toast. Then, on the last full weekend of May, as of out of nowhere, interstate 95 becomes a parking lot from DC to Boston, the temperature jumps ten degrees overnight, and you can't order a coffee at your local Starbucks without someone being rude to you, and I might add, it is never the person behind the counter.

My point is, after memorial day weekend, we transition instantly from being the kind of place where you can hear a seagull sneeze half a mile away, to the The kind of place where all you can hear is the constant verbal diarrhea of Rich New Yorkers with an overblown sense of entitlement flapping their tongues, complaining about the noise. Anyway, we can overcharge them for everything, so I guess it works out in the end. Life has been busy.

The Premier CSA pickup of the season included some fantastic fresh veggies, namely strawberries, spinach, lettuce, sugar snap peas, and an entire basil plant. This weeks pickup is tonight, and I still have the lettuce to get through from last week. So, all in all, it's proving thus far to be a good investment, although it can be a challenge to fit copious amounts of leafy greens into the fridge.

So, aside from the obvious conclusion that strawberry and spinach salads have figured quite prominently on my dinner menu for the last several nights, I have cooked up a few things I want to share! The first of which being grilled Cipollini Onions, which I served spooned over Fingerling potatoes and Haricots Verts with Lemon Dill Dressing. Both recipes come from what I sometimes mistake for my right hand, Terry Walters "Clean Food." Conveniently enough they are on adjacent pages of the book, so two seagulls with one stone. Or depending on your mood, New Yorkers.

For the Onions:
Cipollini Onions, as many as you like
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (if you don't have an extra virgin just use the one you have)
Lemon Zest and Juice
Coarse sea salt

Grill the onions with their outer skins on until they are soft and charred on the outside. I used skewers to keep them together but I suppose you could just thrown them on the grill higgledy-piggledy (a real mess!) if you want to work much harder for no reason. Many people do, you know you just thought of someone specific as soon as I said it.

When they are cool enough to touch, discard the outer layer of skin, and dress them with the other ingredients.

I spooned these over the fingerling potatoes and Haricots Verts, here's the biz:
2 pounds fingerling potatoes
2 pounds Haricots Verts (aka green beans. If there is a real difference, I welcome someone to explain it to me)

For the dressing:
1 clove minced garlic
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (at this point of course, if you didn't have an extra Virgin on hand, you're out of luck now)
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice (at least, I like it a bit tart to contrast with the virgin.)
3 tbsp chopped fresh dill
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
Salt and pepper

If I need to explain how to make the dressing, this may not be the blog for you.
To prepare the rest, steam the potatoes until they are just a hair from lovely, add the green beans and steam an additional few moments until the beans are thoroughly embarrassed. Put them in a large bowl, add the dressing, toss around a bit to coat and serve. Once again, the onions made a nice complement to this dish and I simply spooned them over top of it, lemon zest and all.







- Posted using BlogPress

Location:Madison, CT