Before and After

Before: Sunday Morning's Harvest

After: Thai Eggplant and Long Bean Salad with Tomatoes and Peanuts

Suddenly we have beans everywhere -- beautiful red Chinese long long beans. For the longest time I was thinking we'd see a few measly beans and the vines would die out. But, after a slow start and losing a few pods to garden pests of various kinds we are getting a good handful of beans just about every other day.

The front garden is bursting with late summer eggplant. I love eggplant. Fried, roasted, baked, stewed-- eggplant also loves oil. I was looking for something a little lighter to combat California's warm September. And so, starting with a recipe I found on Epicurious I broiled the eggplant slices quickly and tossed them in a dressing of fish sauce, sugar and lime juice. The I added in the quickly boiled long beans, small quartered heirloom tomatoes (not ours -- alas -- we are between tomato harvests), fresh cilantro and plenty of chopped peanuts. A tangy summer salad served with brown rice. Just because we were in the Thai mode I whipped up some quick chicken satays with peanut dipping sauce. Another simple supper for LA's Indian summer.