After a week where the Accidental Locavore’s farmer, Paul, was relaxing (well, sort of) at a Bluegrass Festival, the farm-basket is back and overflowing! Making their first appearance, so it must really be summer, tomatoes. Both big beefsteak, and mixed little yellow pear, and other cherry tomatoes. Patty pan squash, eggplants, peppers, yellow, green and lilac. Lovely arugula, basil, mesclun, radishes, and cucumbers, both regular and pickling size, and the best corn so far.
So what’s the plan? Since it was so hot Saturday night, on my way back from Connecticut behind the world’s slowest driver, I had plenty of time to think…eggplant parm was going to be too heavy (look for the recipe on Friday), but what would be good would be a little steak tartare, a nice ear of corn, and a cold glass of rose. While I was cutting onions, beautiful red ones from down the road, I realized that I had all the ingredients for tabouli, so I kept chopping. Here’s the recipe:
- Rinse 1 cup of couscous in a good sized bowl
- Add 1/4 cup of water and let stand for about 30 minutes until it’s light and fluffy (by the time you’re done with everything else it’s usually fine)
- Chop into a small dice 1-2 ripe tomatoes (I used one big guy)
- Chop into a small dice 1 small onion
- Chop a big handful of parsley (I used flat leaf from the garden)
- Chop a big handful of mint (also from my garden)
- Add all the chopped ingredients to the couscous
- Mix in the juice of 1-2 lemons (depending on size), about 1/2 cup good olive oil
- Add 1 TSP each salt, pepper, and allspice
- Taste and adjust to your liking. I personally like a lot of mint, allspice, and lemon. Other people like a lot more parsley.
You can serve at room temperature, or chilled. Toasted pita is a good accompaniment, but trust me, steak tartare, corn and a glass of rose, was pretty OK!
