Here's something I don't take pictures of: cooked food.

I take many, many photos of our raw produce (haha, funny joke, everyone knows I only take baby and flowers photos now), but I don't ever photograph prepared meals. I feel that without professional lighting and staging it is basically impossible to make cooked food look appetizing in photographs, and ain't nobody got time for that in high summer. But, if I were ever going to photograph cooked food, it might have been this rice bowl. I guess you'll have to trust me that it was gorgeous and instead enjoy this photo of our carrots, which were featured prominently in said bowl.

This recipe meets one of my main criteria for summer eating in that in can be described by the following three steps. Step one: make some kind of spicy sauce and some kind of rice. Step two: cut up whatever veggies were harvested that day. Step three: mix together in an obscenely large bowl and eat.

Adapted from this recipe on Food 52 for two people, but you should probably double it - it makes great leftovers!

For the Thai coconut-lime dressing:
Juice of 1 lime (about 1/4 cup)
2 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce
1/3 cup full-fat coconut milk
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
Zest of 1 lime (about 1 to 2 tablespoons)
2 tablespoons fresh lemongrass, finely chopped
1/2 serrano pepper, seeded and minced (I used a japapeno!)
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh mint

For the salad bowl and toppings:
1 1/2 cups cooked black or red rice
10 ounces poached chicken breast, shredded, if you want. Or tofu. Or nothing.
2 cucumbers
4 large radishes, thinly sliced
1 - 2 medium carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
4 hakurei turnips, thinly sliced
1 cup onion scapes or scallions, cut thinly on the bias
1/4 cup roughly chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup roughly chopped fresh mint

Care & Storage

For Eating Fresh (Spring Green Garlic): Just peel and chop when you're ready - heads of garlic will be fine on the counter for weeks or months, as long as they're kept dry.

To Freeze (Spring Green Garlic): Peel cloves and put them through a food processor. (When you want to use some of the frozen garlic, scrape what you need straight from the big hunk into your cooking.)

For Eating Fresh (Cured Bulbs): Store the cured bulbs in a cool, dry, dark place.

To Freeze (Cured Bulbs): Separate and peel cloves. (Tip: If you lay the cloves on a tray in the freezer before putting them in a container, it will be much easier to take out one or two cloves at a time.)

Availability

July - November

Recipes