Saturday, August 11, 2012

Canteloupe with Ham, and Borlotti with Tuna


Monday 23 July
We picked up a local canteloupe and some fresh borlotti (cranberry beans) at the Farmers' Market on Saturday.  We had the first with some shavings of Schad's ham (so still local) as an appetizer tonight.

Dora was fascinated by the borlotti, as she is by all vegetables.  The August issue of Bon Appetit had a recipe for them; their recipes are usually crap, but this was by the chef at the famous River Café, so we gave it a try.
We quartered it, and scanted the oil, but at the end it was another dud.  It used too much water, so we had to drain the beans, fish out and mash up the garlic and sage leaves, remove the tomato skins, and boil down the sauce to repour over the beans with rosemary oil.  It would have been easier to do all this in the course of preparing the dish (with water to barely cover). 
As a finishing touch we took a can of albacore tuna, drained it of water, re-anointed with oil from an anchovy can, flaked it, and mixed it into the beans.  The resulting dish was not bad, but our version is far easier; and we're glad the Bon Appetit subscription (which was forced on us in place of the late lamented Gourmet) has finally expired.

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