Chinese long beans and squash casserole....oh and Melons!

Today's organic produce delivery (I subscribed to an organic weekly delivery, see last week's post for details about Scott Arbor Farms www.scottarbor.com) came to me with a big bag of 2 Honeydew melons...and the yard long beans with which I have fallen in love.  Also 2 nice butternut squash, another burpless cuke and some various colored peppers and more shallots. Oh and a large Tatume and a small yellow squash. I plan to make the yard long beans using a Chinese stir fry recipe and a squash casserole, using the yellow and tatume squash and onions (maybe some cheese, too?)  See recipes below the pictures...

I cut up all the rest of the squash, peppers and onions along with a couple of potatoes and I have them marinating in the fridge in my favorite roasted vegetable marinade (see my post a few weeks ago for that recipe). Tomorrow I'll have baby back ribs and roasted veggies. Right now, hubby and I are typing away on the laptops and munching from a shared bowl of melon...Yum!

Squash saute with onions, sweet peppers and cheese:
2 to 3 pounds summer squash (yellow, tatume, zucchini)
1 to 2 Tbls olive oil (if you aren't afraid of the fat, and like the flavor, use bacon fat, my favorite for taste!)
2 small shallots, chopped
1 small red or yellow sweet pepper, seeds and membrane removed, diced.
1 clove garlic, peeled and smashed
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 to 1/2 cup shredded cheese (swiss, cheddar, parmesan, whatever you have!)

1) Rinse squash. Scrape or cut rind off of squash if using squash with a heavy rind (tatume: I used a carrot peeler), and cut zucchini and yellow squash into 50 cent size pieces, tatume into 3/8 inch thick (or thinner) squares or rounds. Try to make the pieces uniformly thick/thin so that you don't have overcooked and undercooked pieces once they are done. Since zucchini and yellow squash cook faster, I cut them into slices with a knife, not too thin.  I used a mandoline to slice the tatume squash very thin.

2) Measure fat or oil into pan, heat, and stir fry the onions and sweet pepper until limp, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add smashed garlic piece.

3) Add squash to pan and stir fry until fat is uniformly spread out over squash.  Sprinkle salt and grind fresh pepper over squash, cover and reduce heat to low.  Cook, stirring occasionally 8 to 15 minutes until done. (Cook more if you made your squash pieces thick, cook less if you cut them very thin.)

4) Uncover pan, stir squash and sprinkle cheese over squash. Cover and cook for a minute or 2 more just to melt the cheese.

Chinese Long Beans:
1 to 2 pounds Yard Long Beans, rinsed and cut into2 to 3 inch pieces
1 Tbls peanut oil

1Tbls garlic, chopped
1 Tbls ginger root, chopped
2 scallions (green onions) white and light green parts only, chopped
1 Tbls soy sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt; pepper to taste
1/2 tsp chili paste (or a few sprinkles of ground chili powder)
1 Tbls peanut oil

1) Heat 1 Tbls oil and stir fry beans (keep them moving with 2 spoons) until shriveled/puckered, anywhere fro 5 to 15 minutes, depending on their thickness and your "done" preference.  Remove beans from pan to serving dish.

2) Heat 1 Tbls oil and add garlic, ginger and scallions. Stir fry less than a minute, then add chili. Return beans to pan, add the rest of the ingredients and stir fry until most of liquid has been absorbed and beans are heated through.

Enjoy!