Today was HOT. I love hot here because we don't get much of it. At 7:00 this morning, when I ventured out to fetch some forgotten item out of the car, it was already seventy degrees. Seventy! Its a rare day when the temperature passes seventy even in the afternoon around here. So of course, the dinner menu needed a little work. I'm not about to eat comfort food soup when the temperature is close to ninety at dinnertime.
I was lucky enough to visit my friend Steph at her home in Oakland this morning, where she fed me a tasty potato salad with mint and peas - very refreshing on a sweaty day. She then gave me the recipe, which had been given to her by our mutual friend Meagan in Brooklyn, who years ago gave me a delicious fajita marinade I will post sometime this summer. We grilled some up a few weeks back while all the grandparents were in town with great success. Today, since we happened to have new potatoes (both from our garden and the CSA box), peas and mint in the garden I had the salad again for dinner. We also have favas, so many favas, so I added some of those as well. I figure anything you can do with peas you can do with favas too.
The potato salad was great, alongside some grilled swordfish with watermelon for dessert. I know...swordfish! Its full of mercury! And thus is something I shouldn't feed the kids. But they love it, and so do I, so we eat it a few times a year. I've tried calling other meaty fleshed fish swordfish, but my kids always know better. They do eat most fish, though, which is just great. I wouldn't voluntarily eat fish until I went away to college, so their love of it just blows me away. But then I didn't have a problem eating cooked green vegetables like they do, so I guess thats the trade off.
After hearing last week's NPR story on high levels of lead found in kids' juices, I feel a little of the hook for choosing poisonous dinner foods for my children. It seems I just can't escape toxins in foods, and the best way to avoid sick kids is to eat a very varied diet. Lots of different things, with the intent of avoiding a buildup of whatever nasty stuff is found in any one particular food item. So there, swordfish naysayers.
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Potato Salad with Mint, Peas and Favas (adapted from Epicurious.com):
2 lb small new potatoes (red, white, fingerlings, whatever)
2 Tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 Tablespoon minced shallot
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 cup podded (that means removed from the pod) peas (you can sub in frozen if you like)
1 cup podded fava beans
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh mint
For starters, put some generously salted water on the stove. While it is coming to a boil, scrub the potatoes, then cut them into one inch chunks (roughly). When the water boils, toss in the potatoes and let them boil gently for ten minutes or so, testing them occasionally by poking one with a sharp knife. When the knife easily pierces the potato, they are done. Drain them into a colander in the sink and let them cool. Then, put about two inches of water back into your pot and heat it to a boil again. When it is boiling, throw in the peas and favas and let them boil vigorously for four minutes. Drain them into another colander in the sink. If you are using just frozen peas you can omit this step and add them to the potatoes, thawed.
While the peas and potatoes cool, mix together the shallots, vinegar, oil, salt and pepper. When the favas are cool, you'll need to remove their skin. Many of them will have already split their skin, so you can just squeeze them out. If not, then pinch a little hole in the skin and squeeze the beans out that way.
Mix together everything except the mint and let it stand or put it in the fridge. Right before serving (you can serve it cold or room temperature) mix in the mint.
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Grilled Fish:
2 steaks (not the fillet with skin) of any white fish (about 1 pound)
1 lemon, sliced in half
olive oil
salt & pepper
Lay out your fish in a glass dish, then cut the lemon in half and squeeze half of it over the fish. Sprinkle a Tablespoon or so of olive oil over the fish, then salt and pepper it - about 1/8 teaspoon of each. Flip the fish over and do the same to the other side. Let the fish marinate while you prepare the grill and whatever else you have to make for dinner (I like rice and arugala salad with this). Cooking the fish should be the last step, aside from dressing the salad.
Heat up the grill to whatever temperature you use for fish - our grill is particularly wimpy, so I blast it up to high.
Lay your fish on the grill. Close the lid and leave it for five minutes or so, then check to see if there are nice grill marks on the fish. If so, flip it over onto the skin side. If not, let it cook longer and keep checking until the grill marks are there. After flipping, shut the lid again and come back in five minutes to check for doneness. I think the easiest way is to take a sharp knife and slice into the thickest part of the fish. When it is opaque inside, it is done. Serve the fish right away.
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