Sufferin’ succotash!

Does anyone else remember poor Sylvester?

Actually, there’s no suffering to this at all.  It’s EASY, don’t let anyone tell you anything different.

From 2010-07-10 – 2010-07-15

simple summer succotash

1 red, 1 yellow bell pepper diced

1 medium yellow onion diced

about one cup of corn kernels, preferably silver queen if available

1/2 to 1 cup of edamame or fava beans quickly blanched (microwave in a little water for 1-1.5 min, while your doing other stuff)

Big double pinch of thyme

1/2 cup of cherry tomatoes cut into quarters

salt

fat of choice, either butter, olive oil, or some other oil

Putting it together

Quick sautee the onions and peppers, blanch the green beans, and pile them and the corn into a large sautee pan that will hold everything.

Continue the sautee process and check the veggies for softness.  This is the only trick to this dish, is making sure that the veggies soften but don’t get too soft.  When they’re just al dente, check your seasoning, and add a tablespoon or two of butter or olive oil and the thyme.  Give it a quick toss in your pan and serve.

**Warning**  If for some reason, your veggies aren’t as soft as you want them to be, resist the temptation to add too much liquid as it will suck the color out of the dish.  Just cook them more slowly, and you’ll be fine.

No joke.  It’s that easy, it just depends on having fresh ingredients that you could eat raw.  All you need are large green beans of some kind and corn kernels to officially be succotash.  The rest just depends on what else you want with it, and what else is in your fridge.  What else is great about this veggie preparation is that with some grilled bread and a glass of wine or beer, you’ve got an easy dinner.  You can also use this as a base for pasta sauce.

pasta with “verano” veggies, basil mint pesto, and pulled chicken

From 2010-07-10 – 2010-07-15

Remember the pesto recipe?  It stores in the fridge and freezer if you need it to.  With leftover succotash and basil, we just threw it together, boiled some pasta, and tossed it in.  Added some roasted chicken because we seem to always have that around in the summer, also.  Multi-tasking your side dishes gets easier when you think seasonally because they all go together.  Although my kids believe that pasta can 0nly be served with butter and cheese, somehow we got them to eat it.  Bribery, perhaps?