Out of the Box, Take 6

The evenings, once a week, when our CSA box arrives, are kind of thrilling for me.  Simple pleasures are where it's at, people.  And good, fresh food...well, that's my bag.  Despite the lovely, and helpful, fact that the farm sends out an email early in the day, telling us what's in the box, I usually wait, all aglow as if it's Christmas morning, until the Mister brings it up the steps.  Veggie-Santa.  Peek inside at all the gorgeous, vibrant colors, and the wheels start to turn:  "What's for dinner tonight?"

And it's not difficult, especially as we are in the peak of summer's bounty right now.  How much fun is it to prepare food in the summer?!  I can't even stand it, seriously, kids.  Each meal is a veritable rainbow, each bite almost too beautiful to pop in my mouth.

But I do.  Of course.

Last night's meal was so simple, so fresh and delicious, and so very quick to make.  I did a little twist on succotash, with what I had from the box, and a few bits in my fridge.  Generally, succotash is a dish of corn and sweet bell peppers, or corn and fresh shelling beans.  It must, must, must be cooked in butter.  And that's wholly justifiable, seeing as the rest of the dish is so very good for you.

I do hope you enjoy!

Green Bean and Sweet Corn Succotash
-serves 4 as a main, or 6 - 8 as a side

Ingredients
1 pound green beans, trimmed and blanched (for 1 or 2 minutes only)
2 - 3 ears sweet corn, kernels sliced off
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium or 1/2 a large red bell pepper, chopped*
2 small sweet yellow peppers, chopped*
1/2 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
1 tsp minced fresh sage
fresh parsley, for garnish
3 - 4 Tbs unsalted butter
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

*Note*  You can use any variety of sweet peppers, this is just what I had available.

Add 2 Tbs butter to a large saute pan, or cast iron pan, and let it melt over medium low heat.  Add the onions, and gently cook them until translucent, about 6 - 8 minutes.  Turn the heat to medium, add the garlic, sage, corn kernels, and peppers, season generously with salt and pepper, and saute another five minutes.  Add the green beans, and continue cooking for another 5 minutes.  If your pan begins to look dry, add a few Tbs of water.  (You can use the blanching water from the green beans for this.)  You are not browning any vegetables, just mingling their flavors, releasing the starch from the corn, and brightening everything up.  If your pan gets too hot and starts to brown the veg, turn it down a bit.

Add the remaining butter to the vegetables in the pan, then turn the veg out into a large bowl.  Add the halved tomatoes, and the parsley, and check for seasoning.

That's it!  How simply delicious could dinner get?

The Mister and I ate this as a main course, with some bread alongside.  And it was, to bastardize the immortal words of Sylvester the Cat:  most definitely not "thufferin' thuccotash."

Ah, well.  Couldn't really offer up a succotash recipe without referring to him, could I?  Apologies.

Have a great day!