Bon appetit: Verdant valleys

By Lisa Lutz

It’s already June, the blueberries are coming, and time for all of those potlucks! Plant a couple of herbs on your porch in pots, and you’ll have everything you need to get ready for summer cooking. (They cost as much as one packet of fresh at the store, and work for you all summer, some even winter over.) I keep mine on the deck, right outside the kitchen door.

Let’s remove the guessing here, and have a couple of wonderful things ready to make...Potlucks are always planned days ahead, and this first dish is better if you make it at least two days before serving. (If you have time, cook dried beans, they are a symphony to eat! If not, use canned organic, and rinse, they’ll turn out just fine. Nobody will know, you’ll just spend a bit more….)
This dish is perfect to bike to work, eat all week, and yum, it’s good for you too! If you can find them, use dry organic beans, you’ll save money, and they taste so good. Add in some garbanzos too, any bean you love, work wonderfully here.

Cold Bean Medley
1 bag dry white navy beans
1 bag dry kidney beans
½ head garlic, chopped (I mean whole head, not clove, this is a lot of beans to season.)
1 large red onion, chopped
2 cups chives, chopped
3/4 cup rice vinegar
½ cup olive oil or more
1 Tablespoon kosher salt
¼ cup fresh thyme

Rinse and pick over beans. Look for stones and remove. Soak beans overnight, covered in water. Cook each bean variety separately, (adding NO salt), until tender. Drain and while still warm, add all ingredients and cool until room temperature. (If you like your onion to stay red, add half, and the rest closer to serving time.)
Refrigerate for up to 4 days. Bring to room temperature before serving.
The melding of this salad is subtle and lovely. Like love, don’t rush it.

Baked Beans
1 pound small white navy beans
8 ounces thick cut bacon, sliced 1”
2 cups diced shallots/onions or chives
4 large cloves garlic minced
1/2 cup molasses
½ cup tomato paste
¼ cup Dijon mustard
2 Tablespoons minced fresh ginger
1 Bay leaf
1 teaspoon dried thyme, Italian mixed or Herbs de Provance
1 ½ teaspoons salt

Rinse and pick through beans. Cook unsalted in water, (about six cups of water), until almost soft. (You may soak them overnight, drain and cook. This cuts down on energy costs, by shortening cooking time.)
In large pot, cook bacon until soft. Remove bacon, and add onions to pot with bacon drippings. Cook until soft. Add the rest of the ingredients and fold in the beans and bacon. Use a wooden spoon to stir gently.
Place in a crock pot for eight hours or so, or bake covered in at 350 degrees until bubbling and turn down to 275 degrees for six to eight hours.
If the beans are dry and you need to add water, add warm water. Cold water will split the skins and make your beans mushy. Salt and pepper to taste.
To make vegetarian beans, use canola oil instead of the bacon and bacon drippings.

This pasta is easy and delightful, throw in some fresh peas, asparagus, herbs, or what have you from the garden, right at the end.

Potato Gnocchi with Browned Butter
6 russet potatoes
4 cups all purpose flour
2 eggs
¼ cup olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste
Boil potatoes in a four-quart sauce pot until fork tender. Remove potatoes from pot, cool for about 15 minutes, and rice them. Cool riced potatoes another ten minutes.

Meanwhile, mix eggs, oil, salt, and pepper together. Add potatoes and mix with hands until a smooth paste forms.

Incorporate flour about a cup at a time. Do not over-mix (like making biscuits). Note: may not need all of the flour—only enough to hold dough together.

Divide dough into six sections, and roll into ropes. Cut each into one-inch pieces. Place on floured sheet pan and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Put gnocchi in salted boiling water until they rise from the bottom of the pot, then cook another 1-2 minutes.
(Serves four)

To make browned butter:
½ cup butter
¼ cup chives
¼ cup shallots
1 cup mushrooms
1 tablespoon sage or thyme, freshly chopped
Prepare ice bath and have ice water bath in sink. Heat butter in heavy sauce pan until milk solids turn brown, stirring occasionally. This part goes fast, so stay close, watch, and listen. As the milk particles brown they crackle. Plunge the pot into the water to cool quickly. If you miss this step, the milk solids will burn.
To finish, while the gnocchi are chilling, in a larger sauce pan, swirl a tablespoon of butter. Add mushrooms and cook off all liquid, add shallots and soften and caramelize. Toss in cooked warm gnocchi, adding chives and sage or thyme. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour into warm bowls and enjoy.
If you’ve been lucky, and have some morel mushrooms stored away, they are wonderful here. If you have no fresh herbs, you may use a generous teaspoon of Herb de Provence.

Blueberry Lavender Pie
Filling
½ cup (or more) sugar
1/4 cup instant tapioca
7 cups fresh wild/regular blueberries (32 ounces) or frozen
2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 Tablespoon lavender dried, (or 2 T. fresh)

Topping
2/3 cup unbleached all purpose flour
7 ounces almond paste (about a cup)
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
½ cup rolled oats
1 cup sliced almonds

For filling: In a non-reactive bowl, place all filling ingredients, and allow to macerate for at least fifteen minutes. The tapioca must soften now, so if the fruit is frozen, leave it sit until it’s almost room temperature.

For the crumble topping: Place all ingredients, except almonds, in a bowl, and squish together with your fingers, (or use a pastry cutter), to make a crumble, (then add almonds). Throw in the refrigerator while you make the crust. If you’re an almond lover, you may add a dash of almond extract to the pie or crumble topping.

Use the oil pastry crust in the May issue of the paper, (find it online). Roll crust to 12-inch round. Flip into a 9” glass pie plate. Finish edges to you own liking, crimp, press with tines of fork, but raise them up a bit, to handle the filling and topping.
To bake: Position rack in bottom third of oven and preheat to 425 degrees. Pour filling over crust, and top with crumb mixture. Set on baking pan, (to collect overflow juices), and bake for 15 minutes. Turn oven down to 375 degrees and continue baking for about 30 minutes. Rotate every fifteen minutes, and cover loosely with foil, if browning too quickly. Cool on a rack, and do not refrigerate. Best eaten same day.

This month holds Father’s Day, and I love my Dad, Russell Ediger, more than the stars and the moon. If you’re lucky enough to have a father figure, make some time, enjoy a pie together, and take some pictures.