I have the utmost admiration for our local farmers and their ability to be harvesting the most gorgeous vegetables by the second week in June! Loretta from Gill Farms came by today and brought us a bounty of delicious produce which was grown just down the road - kudos to John who runs the farm and to Cindy and Loretta who do such a beautiful job at their roadside store on Route 209!
One of our favorite vegetable preparations we just call "Chef's Seasonal Vegetable Medley" - when brides and grooms ask me in the dead of winter what's in it, I tell them "whatever we can get that comes fresh from our local farms". And hallelujah - here it is. The preparation is simple: cut each vegetable to maximize the beauty of it's shape. It's nice to make the size of the broccoli, for instance, about two bites for interest. You can experiment and see how the sizes and shapes of different vegetables interact and look together when they're cooked and presented.
Each type of vegetable will be steamed individually, tested with a knife for done-ness (they should have a bit of give and still have their color when you take them off the heat). Prepare a bath of ice water to plunge them into immediately to help retain the vibrancy of color - no one wants to look at or eat veggies that are overcooked. Once you have coo
ked your assorted vegetables, put them together in a big mixing bowl and add toss with olive oil in which you've sauteed some finely minced shallots. Add salt and pepper and toss. Pour out onto your favorite platter and garnish with some fresh herbs.
In this case, we went out to our garden and picked some thyme blossoms, chopped them lightly and dusted the top with the flowers. Beautiful, aromatic and delicious!
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