CAPE COD LIVING

A glorious but too short week of vacation in Cape Cod has come to an end. Besides the usual hikes, pond swims, beach days, fireside sing-a-longs, and afternoon naps, we enjoyed epic cooking sessions. Below is the recipe from the first night's dinner, bahn mi. I will be posting more recipes from the trip in the coming days.

But first, a word about the farm's garden. Despite a wash out of a spring, there was a bounty of delicious produce that we used for our meals. Usually we get amazing tomatoes, but the rain early in the season had delayed their ripening, so we had to settle for store bought in that department. The lettuce, zucchini, chard, summer squash and herbs were, however, amazing.

The swiss chard was particularly gigantic and beautiful.

I mean look at this! It looked like a huge candy cane, and tasted better!

The rain also meant the flowers were spectacular. These 'dinner plate' Dahlia were more platter sized, and put my 'tea saucer' dahlias to shame. Until next summer, we have the memories... and the recipes:

Grilled Pork and Shrimp Bahn Mi with Asian Slaw

(recipes and photo by Sarah Brown)

serves 10-12

Pork:

6-9 boned/trimmed pork chops

1 cup soy sauce

2-3 crushed garlic cloves

1/4 cup fish sauce

1/4 cup honey (add more to taste)

Combine ingredients and marinade pork overnight

Shrimp:

1-1/2 pounds shrimp

2 crushed garlic cloves

handful minced cilantro

1/4 cup fish sauce

1 lime, squeezed and a bit of lime zest

2 tablespoons honey to taste

Combine ingredients and marinade, while heating up the grill and prepping the following...

Asian Slaw:

1 bunch carrots

1 large daikon radish

1/4 cup fish sauce

2-3 limes, squeezed

1/2 cup rice wine vinegar

1/4 cup honey to taste

salt to taste

Grate raddish and carrots, stir remaining ingredients

Toppings:

2-3 English cucumbers, sliced thin

1 bunch cilantro

1 bunch mint

1 bunch purple thai basil

3 jalapenos sliced thin

3 crusty french baguettes, warmed in oven

1 jar organic mayonnaise

Skewer shrimp (on wooden skewers soaked in water for 15 minutes) and grill 5-10 minutes on a hot grill. Grill pork until nicely browned/ blackened (about 20 minutes, depending on heat of the grill). Slice pork thinly, slice baguettes into thirds, spread with mayonnaise, top with shrimp or pork and selected toppings, including the slaw.

We served these with a tasty Vietnamese beer, Bia Saigon.