Highlights from my bumper crop of Little Gem and Red Speckled Romaine lettuce this year, in the ground and in meals. I grow to eat, and this is what we grow lettuce for. Recipes below.
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| red speckled romaine and arugula behind the cucumber babies |
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the last of the little gem being let go for seed
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| the earliest spring bed, mostly harvested and just seeded with buckwheat |
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| Lap Gai with |
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'taco salad' with garden lettuce, radishes and cilantro-lime dressing
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some day I will pause long enough to photograph Bun before I eat it,
but for now here is the deconstructed one we fed our kid
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Bun, or Vietnamese noodle salad, is the primary reason I grow thai basil, mint, and cilantro, though it turns out the mint and cilantro are also key to lap gai, or larb gai, lahb gai.... The brilliant Leela has a whole thing about the name on
She Simmers, which is also where you should go for the recipe. We made it with pork because we just picked up a half-hog raised by our friend and organizer Paul Sobocinski and we are not eating meat that isn't already in our freezer for a very long time. (We also have significant portions of two local lambs in same single upright freezer, how there came to be two is another story, but anyway, it's full.) It was delicious, and will be my new primary motivation for a beautiful lettuce crop.
Also good, but way less specific and less demonstrative of the gorgeousness of a perfectly cupped lettuce leaf, was a salad I threw together with a can of black beans and tostadas from Sam's, our neighborhood Iraqi-owned Mexican corner store, more of said half-hog, garden lettuce, garden red radishes, and loads of garden cilantro in a lime dressing. (The purple radish was from the store, as were the carrots. And the pepper and avocado, and lime, obvs, it's June in Minnesota.) Lime-cilantro dressing, loosely based on a million recipes online: put a lot of cilantro and a clove of garlic in the cup of a stick blender, or mash it with a mortar and pestle (stems and feathery leaves heading to flowers are also fine). Pour in oil and lime juice to cover, more oil than juice. Start with a big pinch of salt, I also added a little agave syrup. Sugar or orange juice or no sweetener would also work. Blend. Add more salt and juice or oil to taste.
For the Bun, I use whatever meat or tofu I have around to top it. This time it was fresh tofu from Little Saigon Market on University in St. Paul. I comes in a nice loaf and fries up really nicely. Rice stick noodles cooked according to package. If I plan ahead I quick pickle carrots and radishes (supposed to be Daikon but I use garden instead when I have them, this time I had none), but I did not plan ahead so I
really quick pickled them by bringing 1 cup of water, 1/2 cup rice wine vinegar, 1/4 cup sugar and a Tablespoon of salt to a boil, and actually simmering the carrot sticks in it for a few minutes. They were fine, but it's better if you can pour hot or cool brine over the veg and let them sit a few hours.
Serious Eats says to massage in the salt and sugar and then add the liquid, maybe I'll try that next time.
Chop copious amounts of fresh mint, cilantro, and thai basil (the best part about making bun at home is I can quadruple the herbs), lettuce, and top with cooked rice noodles, meat or tofu, and nuoc cham. I used
Serious Eats, but the internet abounds with nearly identical recipes. 2 parts hot water, 1 part lime juice, 1 part sugar, a little less than 1 part fish sauce, 1-2 cloves garlic, and optional thai chilis (we leave them out for our kid these days, sigh).
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