Clare's Cooking Blog

Labor Day weekend was the first time that BOTH Miklos’s sons, Andrei and Alex, with BOTH their women, Deborah and Emily, along with cousin Noah, Deborah’s sister Candice, and assorted other family, were able to come together on Islesford. Put together a whole lot of people who love to eat, and to cook, one group who are coming from New York with access to all kinds of specialty items, a son who works as an organic farmer, and shares his bounty, and an ocean rich with lobsters, crabs, clams and mussels … and mealtimes become - well, something else.

So for last night’s dinner we started with crostini heaped with crab salad and topped with red pepper jelly.  The crabs had come ashore with the remnants of Hurricane Irene.  For an earlier dinner we’d steamed the claws and knuckles, eaten the claws (there’s a whole art to using the hammer on them that I’m not competent to share), and painstakingly removed the meat from the knuckles to make the salad with.  Add a little mayonnaise, some lemon and lime juice and zest, a few drops of hot sauce, chopped chive, salt and pepper (Deborah coached me through this) … and the result is light, clean and tastes of the sea.  The red pepper jelly was courtesy of Stonewall Kitchen.

Moving on, the centerpiece was lobster tails grilled over applewood by Andrei and Alex.  Not that we wasted the claws - those were steamed, and arranged around the edges of the platter.  We made different salads, and then the Fried Red Thai Rice mixture I’ve already posted.

Everyone had brought wild Maine blueberries, so one of our desserts was a blueberry crisp.  I definitely have the template of an ideal crisp in my memory, and my own efforts haven’t lived up to that ideal - until now.  I’ve followed faithfully recipes that call for thickening the fruit - and then I don’t like the stickiness of the syrup that results.  And I’ve tried a few crumble mixtures - with just a few basic ingredients you wouldn’t think you could go wrong - but I’ve never been completely happy with the results.  Until now.  Details to follow.

The second dessert was an open apple pie, with apples that had fallen in the same storm that brought the crabs ashore.  They were a little less than ripe, tart, crunchy and delicious.  This was Deborah’s pie, so I don’t have the whole recipe - but one thing I did take away was adding chilled vodka to the dough, instead of iced water. Somehow it gave an extra crispness to the crust - Deborah’s theory is that the vodka evaporates more quickly.

Tomorrow will be Labor Day. We’re taking a morning boat, evening will see us in Boston, and even though we’re coming back for Robin Fernald’s wedding to Stephanie next weekend, this feels like the end of summer, with that slight heart ache that marks the transition back to an urban life.

BLUEBERRY CRISP (Serves 9 - except that it will disappear no matter how few you are serving)

• 6 cups wild blueberries
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• juice of one lemon

Arrange the blueberries in a large shallow baking dish.  Sprinkle the sugar and squeeze the lemon juice over them.

• 3/4 cup unbleached white flour
• 3/4 cup rolled oats
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 3/4 cup mayonnaise

Mix all the dry ingredients, and then add the mayonnaise.  No kidding.  I know you’re going to think that’s a really bad idea, but when I found the recipe online there were endless rave reviews from people who had the same skepticism going in ….  Why does it work?  I guess because the major ingredients are oil and egg yolk - which would anyway be in a lot of pastry recipes.  Otherwise it’s just a little lemon juice or vinegar and salt, which just cut the fat in a way that helps rather than hurts.  

Crumble the topping mixture over the blueberries, and bake in a 375 degree oven for 40 minutes or so.  Serve warm.  We just had a jug of cream to pour for anyone who wanted, but whipped cream or vanilla icecream would be just as good.

The only sad reality is that this dish would not be the same with cultivated blueberries.  But you could mix cultivated blueberries with fresh peaches and have something well worth eating.  Or wait for the first apples and make an apple crisp instead.

I came back from England determined to make the absolutely delicious ‘Alpine baguette’ that has become one of my sister’s signature loaves.  While we were visiting she used it to make little thin toast rounds, on which to serve a soft goat brie with just a touch of honey, all gently grilled.  Quite an hors d’oeuvre.  

The irony was that the recipe was from a book I had given my brother in law - LOCAL BREADS, by Daniel Leader.  It’s in my kitchen too, but I had never read far enough to find that recipe.

The recipe uses a rye sourdough starter - cultivated in the usual way over 3-5 days, unless you already have a dormant one in the fridge just waiting to be called into service. After that the flour is all unbleached white bread flour, but the secret of the bread lies in the rest of the ingredients: sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, sesame seeds, all soaked overnight with rolled oats, before being incorporated into the dough.

The danger of adding seeds and nuts to a bread dough is that they will dry it out in the baking - absorbing the available moisture.  The genius of this recipe is that soaking the seeds, and also adding soaked oatmeal, ensures that the final product will still be moist, while chock full of all the flavor and texture the seeds add.  

The first time I baked the baguettes I borrowed a baguette pan from Barb Fernald, island almost-neighbor and fellow bread enthusiast.  It had three perforated ‘valleys,’ and one recipe produced three petite and crunchy loaves.  I’d made a double recipe, so the others had to sit on a flat baking sheet.  That was OK, but they were a bit flatter, and the bottoms not as crunchy.  Then I ordered a pan, but the one I found had only two bigger valleys, and although they accommodated the dough just fine, the bigger loaves just aren’t quite as pleasing, at least to this baker.  

So yesterday we were ‘off island’ with a long list of errands, and found time to hit Ellsworth’s premium cookware and specialty food store - Rooster Brothers.  Sure enough, they had Barb’s three-baguette pan, so now I’m the proud (if somewhat guilty) owner of not one but two professional pans.  A tangent - the day was wicked hot, and by the time we got to Rooster Brothers we badly needed a cold drink.  I had my first cucumber soda - utterly fantastic.

Two final things to say before getting to the recipe.  The first is that I’ve discovered you can add a half cup of the soaked oatmeal/seed mixture to the New York Times no-knead recipe, without adjusting any of the other measures, and come up with one more tasty variation on your basic loaf.  I used one cup of white, one cup of spelt and one cup of pumpernickel rye for the flours - but I think any flour combination would be just as successful.

The second thing to say is that I’m discovering that my Achilles heel with these recipes that require multiple stages for proving and resting and kneading and so on is that there comes a point in the day when my schedule deviates from the dough’s schedule - and if I take liberties with the timing, I sometimes get away with it, but not always!  A few days back it was so hot in the middle of the day that I went for a swim, just to lower my body temperature, and when I got back my doughs had over-proved and collapsed.  If the day had been less hot it probably wouldn’t have happened - but equally I wasn’t in the kitchen when I should have been.

I’m thinking about how to rewrite the recipes for myself so that the time line is more front and central - and I can judge more easily whether the day is going to accommodate both my needs, and the dough’s. 

ALPINE BAGUETTES

Prepare Sourdough and Soak Seeds: 20 minutes (night before)

12-24 hours before you bake (a generous ‘overnight’ is usually my answer to this), refresh your rye sourdough:

Ingredients for sourdough:

• 1/4 cup rye sourdough starter
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1/2 cup fine rye flour

• measure 1/4 cup of your culture (this assumes you’re keeping it in the fridge, having already gone through the 3-5 day starter process - see earlier post!) into a clean container and discard the rest.  It seems wasteful, but honestly the discarded starter would get progressively more acidic and distasteful, and your new batch will give you the extra to put back in the fridge for the next time.
• Stir in 1/2 cup warm water and 1/2 cup finely ground rye flour.  Stir vigorously until the mixture is fairly smooth (it doesn’t have to be perfectly smooth).
• Scrape down the sides and cover with plastic wrap.  Let it stand at a warmish room temperature (75 degrees is about right, 5 degrees in either direction is still good).
• It’s ready when it has about doubled in bulk, and tastes tangy.

Also 12-24 four hours before you bake, prepare your seeds.

Ingredients for seeds:

• 1/3 cup rolled oats
• 1/3 cup sunflower seeds
• 1/3 cup pumpkin seeds
• 1/3 cup flax seeds
• 1/4 cup sesame seeds
• 3/4 cup warm water

Pour the rolled oats and seeds into a small bowl and cover them with 3/4 cup warm water.  Soak them overnight, uncovered, so they plump and soften.

The Real Start: Mix the dough: 10 minutes max

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 1 tsp instant yeast
• 3 1/4 cups unbleached bread flour
• 1 1/2 tsps sea salt
• 1/2 cup sourdough starter

Pour the water into a large mixing bowl.  Stir in the yeast, bread flour, soaked oats and seeds, and salt, using your dough whisk or a rubber spatula.  Stir down the rye sourdough, which will have bubbled up, to invigorate and deflate it.  Measure 1/2 cup of the mixture, pour it over the dough, and mix it in - just enough to bind it. (The rest of the new sourdough starter goes back into the fridge for next time.)

Knead the dough: 30 minutes total

Dust the counter with bread flour.  Scrape the dough on to the counter and knead, with smooth steady strokes, flouring hands as necessary, for 10 minutes.  (Good to have a scraper on hand for those moments when the dough sticks to the counter!) Cover dough with plastic wrap and let it rest on the counter for 10 minutes.  Then knead for another 5-8 minutes, until the dough is soft but not excessively sticky, smooth, silky and elastic (how’s that for a description!).

Ferment the Dough: 2 to 2 1/2 hours

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled container.  If you have a two quart container with a lid, use that.  Otherwise, a mixing bowl will do fine - just cover it with a plate or with plastic wrap.  Think about what the dough will look like when it has doubled - that’s what you want, and it should happen if you give it 2 to 2 1/2 hours at a warm room temperature - 70 to 75 degrees.  When you press your finger into the dough, your fingerprint should spring back slowly.

Prepare the Oven

You want to light the oven about an hour before the bread goes in.  So if you light it once the dough has done its doubling, you’ll be about right. Put a baking stone on the middle rack, and a cast iron skillet, or the closest thing you have to that, on the lower rack.  Heat the oven to 450 degrees.

Divide and Preshape the Baguettes: 15 minutes 

Lightly flour the counter.  Scrape the dough out.  With a bench scraper or chef’s knife, cut the dough into three equal pieces.  Flatten each piece of the dough into a rough rectangle, fold it in thirds as if you were folding a business letter, and turn it smooth side up.  Drape the pieces with plastic wrap and let rest on the counter for 10 minutes.

Shaping and proving the baguettes: about 50 minutes

Shape each piece of dough into a baguette about 12 inches long and 3 inches wide with rounded ends.  Basically you’re stretching the dough log - and the easiest way to do it is to put your hands together, palms down, over the middle of the log, and then use light even pressure as you roll it back and forth, gradually spreading your hands apart.

If you are using a baguette pan, lift the baguettes into their channels.  If you are using a baking sheet, dust it liberally with cornmeal, or bread flour, and line the baguettes up on the sheet, leaving room between them.

Let the loaves rise at 70 to 75 degrees until they look puffy and light, which will take between 30 and 40 minutes.  Use the fingertip test again.

Baking the Loaves: 25-35 minutes

Slide the loaves, in or on their pan, on to the baking stone.  Toss roughly 3/4 of a cup of ice cubes into the cast iron skillet or equivalent to produce heavy steam.  Bake until the baguettes are reddish brown.

When you take them out, leave them in or on their pan for about five minutes, and then transfer them on to a rack for further cooling.  You can eat them warm, or store them, once properly cooled, in a brown paper bag, for up to a couple of days.  You can reheat them in a 350 degree oven for 7 minutes or so to recrisp the crust.  For longer storage, freeze in heavy duty plastic bags - for not more than a month, if you want them to still taste really good!

TIMELINE

Here’s my first effort at an organized timeline.  For these purposes I assumed I wanted the loaves still to be fresh out of the oven for dinner, with guests invited for 6:30.  So … the loaves needed to be done by the latest at 6:00.  Here’s how the day then looked:

Red rice is a relatively new discovery for me - and SUCH a welcome one!  It’s nutty, colorful, flavorful, nutritious … what more could one ask for?  Sometimes it’s just called red rice, sometimes red jasmine rice, and sometimes Red Thai Jasmine Rice.  I’ve found that in our area it’s not so readily available - even Whole Foods doesn’t reliably stock it. I can get it down in Truro at Atlantic Spice Company, and they also do mail order, but rice is heavy, and shipping therefore a bit expensive.  Probably best just to keep a look out, and snap up a couple of bags whenever you find it!

If you do decide to mail order, it might be worth getting some purple sticky rice at the same time (Atlantic Spice stocks this one), along with Red Bhutanese Rice (shorter grain), and Black Forbidden Rice, often from China. Lotus Foods is one company that stocks both of the latter.  All of them really expand the vegetarian repertoire in interesting ways!  

Often you cook the rice first, and then stir fry it up - as in this recipe - with the other ingredients.  Variations on risotto, in some ways, although usually a less creamy final product.  An advantage to cooking this way is that you can cook the rice ahead of time, and then the final preparation takes less than half an hour.

This recipe, as I borrowed it from the New York Times, calls for shrimp.  But it’s not shrimp season up here in Maine, whereas lobsters are plentiful, and relatively inexpensive.  So we’ve been cooking up a couple of shedders, extracting the meat, cutting it up, and using that in lieu of the shrimp.  The lobster holds its own, in texture and flavor.  I wondered about scallops as another alternative - but their more subtle flavor might get a bit lost.

SERVES FOUR AS ONE-DISH MEAL:

• 2 tablespoons canola, peanut or olive oil
• 8 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 large carrot, peeled and cut in 1” julienne
• 8 medium or large shrimp (about 6 ounces), peeled, deveined and chopped
• 1 bunch scallions, trimmed, cut in half lengthwise and then into 1” lengths
• 2 tablespoons Thai or Vietnamese fish sauce (NB: high sodium content!)
• 2-4 tablespoons chopped cilantro (or more - how can you ever overdo?)

FOR GARNISH- OPTIONAL:

• cilantro leaves
• thinly sliced cucumber (use the long skinny English kind, or if you have to use the other, cut it in half lengthwise and de-seed it before slicing)
• lime wedges
• scallions

PREPARATION:

Heat wok or large heavy non-stick skillet over medium high heat until drop of water evaporates on contact.  Add the oil, tilt to spread across the pan, and add the carrot and shrimp.*  Stir fry until the shrimp is pink and opaque, about two minutes.  Add the garlic, and stir fry until just golden, 15-30 seconds.  Add the rice.  Stir fry for about two minutes by scooping the rice up, then pressing it into the pan and scooping it up again.  The rice should have a seared taste.  Add the scallions and fish sauce, stir together for half a minute to a minute and transfer to a large bowl. Sprinkle the cilantro over the top, and serve, passing the garnishes of your choice. Each person should squeeze lime juice on to their rice as they eat.

* If using cooked seafood instead of raw shrimp, add it after the garlic rather than before, and fry, stirring, for just about a minute before adding the rice.

If you want to add a salad, one that uses mango, papaya or melon, with cilantro or even mint, and lemon or lime juice in the dressing, would be a good accompaniment.

Islesford doesn’t have a grocery store.  In the summer the post office offers some emergency rations: eggs, milk and beer being chief among them.  So when you come, you come laden with food, giving thanks for the new reusable bags, sturdy enough to be filled to the brim, tied closed, hurled on to the top of the mail boat/ferry, and tossed down to the dock when you arrive.  Note of warning - take the eggs on board with you, along with your laptop and anything else that might not withstand the hurling and tossing.

It’s tricky to gauge just how much food you will need.  On the one hand, you know you’ll share your table and provisions with friends, because that’s the joy of easy summertime socializing.  On the other, there will be nights when you’re sharing someone else’s table and provisions, or when the Islesford Dock Restaurant (the only one on the island) beckons.  House guests will come, bringing their own offerings. Potlucks will get put together, depending on who’s got what left in the refrigerator. You may have brought enough flour to make a summer’s worth of bread, but gradually you find yourself calling around to see if someone can spare a sprig or a tablespoon or even a cup of that missing final ingredient. 

And then, eventually, you’ll wake up one morning and realize that a trip to the mainland can no longer be postponed.  If you take the eight o’clock boat to Northeast Harbor you might be able to make it to the Hannaford’s in Ellsworth and back in time to catch the return boat at noon - if your list is well organized, and if there aren’t other pressing errands to fit into the morning.  So you gather up the reusable bags, remind yourself of what you’ve ‘borrowed’ and need to replace, call around to see if anyone else needs just one or two things you could pick up for them, and head off, hoping that the mist that has been cooling the island won’t give way to sweltering heat on the mainland.  Hoping too that the crowded parking lot that houses the abandoned vehicles of the island summer dwellers will still have a more-or-less legal spot left when you come back to it.

All of which is a prelude to saying two things about island cooking: first, that it is a very good idea to have recipes based on the kind of staples that will happily live in an inert state for a whole summer: lentils, beans, grains, etc., and second that it is essential to rise to the challenge of adapting your recipes according to what’s available. For some people I know this just comes naturally, for me, it’s been a good learning experience!

We were introduced to these Thai Crab Cakes in England.  My sister made them, hors d’oeuvre size, for my mom’s garden party, with their Chili Lime Mayo dip.  Delicious!

On Islesford there’s always freshly frozen crabmeat available in David Thomas’s freezer. He ships seafood all over the country, but if you’re local you just call ahead, and then leave your $16.00 in the freezer when you take your pint container.

We made them lunch size, and ate them with a green salad made interesting with fresh herbs - cilantro, basil and dill - and sliced (local) strawberries, and an olive oil dressing that also used a dash of chili sauce and lime.  Such a good summer lunch, or dinner, come to that ….

THAI CRAB CAKES - Manda’s version

• 1 cup cooked white crabmeat
• 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 2 scallions, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon chopped flat leaf parsley
• 1 egg beaten
• 2 handfuls fresh breadcrumbs
• butter
• cilantro leaves to decorate (optional)

Mix crab, mayo, onion and parsley.  Divide into 16, shape into balls, then dip in egg and coat in breadcrumbs.  Firm up in fridge for 30 minutes.

Heat a knob of butter in a non-stick frying pan.  Fry the cakes in batches until golden.

CHILI LIME MAYO - Manda’s version

• 4 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 1 lime, juiced and zested
• 2 tablespoons sweet chili sauce

Mix the mayo and lime juice and swirl in the sweet chili sauce.

Top the cakes with a cilantro leaf, and use the chili lime mayo for dipping.

OUR VARIATIONS

• First of all, our crabmeat was raw, not cooked.  The frying until golden cooked it up just fine.
• Second, we went for 8 larger, and flattened them a little so they would cook all the way through.
• Third, the mixture with the raw crabmeat was a little wet, so we added a handful of bread crumbs - fresh - to help the cakes hold together, and then used panko for the coating before frying them.
• Fourth, we were too hungry to wait 30 minutes for them to firm up in the fridge, so 15 minutes in the freezer gave them enough solidity to get them coated and into the pan in one piece, and they held together well.
• Finally, we didn’t have sweet chili sauce, so we used a few drops of hot sauce, and some strawberry balsamic relish that someone had given us.  It tasted great, which leads me to think that any sweet something - red currant jelly, strawberry jam - would add the necessary counterpart to the zap of the chili.  Probably somewhere between a teaspoon and a tablespoon - but taste will tell.

May was my month to host the Ladies’ Literary Guild.  Our book was ‘As Always, Julia’ - the letters that passed between Julia Child and Avis DeVoto, and the history of their friendship.  

I briefly considered pulling out ‘Mastering the Art of French Cooking’ and preparing a classic Julia feast, before recognizing that although I love what that masterpiece represents, I don’t actually cook or eat quite that way.  But having rejected that idea, I found myself oddly without inspiration … until my British sister unwittingly came to the rescue.

She has been planning an al fresco summer lunch party, to allow my mother to return the hospitality of all her neighbors in Cambridge, England.  I am tasked with approving the menu, and arriving a couple of days before the event to assist with the shopping and preparation.  We’d been talking through different alternatives, and had shaped a fine repast.  What I realized, just two days before the Guild arrived at my door, was that I could borrow almost exactly that menu, and give it a test run.

So the recipes that follow (see the next few posts) were served to the Guild on May 25, and most will be served in the garden at 18 Bowers Croft in Cambridge, England, on June 11.  Weather permitting.

The poached salmon I strongly recommend - the poaching liquid is more flavorful than any I’ve ever used before.  The Camargue rice salad is basically delicious because of the rice, and you can tweak it any number of ways.  In England we’re serving two salads - one with basic greens, and one with watercress, rocket (yes, that’s arugula) and mango.  I went for the green beans as our Guild vegetable (I happen to love the combination of orange and pistachio with beans), and the watercress etc. salad as well.  And for the Guild I added, as extra protein for anyone who wasn’t going to eat fish (although I think we all ended up eating everything), a lentil, roasted pepper, mint and feta salad that I’ve already posted, some months if not years back.

For dessert we had a Pavlova (vanilla meringue), heaped with berries in a light syrup, with whipped cream for those who dared.

We drank good wine, enjoyed one another’s company, and toasted Julia, Avis, and friendship among women.

6-8 servings

The Poached Salmon

• 3 cups Chardonnay
• 3 cups water
• 1 lemon, sliced
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 12 juniper berries, crushed (the hardest ingredient to find, but I DID find them at Whole Foods, in the spice section)
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 stem fresh basil
• 3 fronds fennel
• 1 (2 1/2 to 3 pound) salmon fillet, skin on
• olive oil
• 2 lemons, sliced, for garnish
• 1 bunch dill, for garnish, and/or
• thin slices of cucumber, for garnish

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Put the Chardonnay, water, lemon, peppercorns, juniper berries, bay leaves, basil and 2 of the fennel fronds into a large saucepan.  Put the pan over high heat and bring the liquid to a boil.  Reduce the heat to low and simmer for ten minutes.  Remove from heat, discard fennel and basil, and let the liquid cool.

Line a large pan (a roasting pan, or even a foil pan) with a double layer of foil.  Lay the salmon in, top it with the remaining fennel frond, and pour the poaching liquid over it.  Cover the pan with foil and seal it as tightly as you can.  Place the pan in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.  At 10 minutes, remove the foil and baste the salmon, reseal, and finish poaching (I confess I didn’t do this - the liquid level was high enough that it didn’t seem necessary, and nothing bad happened!).  Remove the pan for the oven, remove the foil and brush the top of the salmon with the poaching liquid to remove any white bits.

When the pan is cool enough, carefully lift the salmon out on the lining foil, and drain off any remaining liquid.  Drain the pan as well, then put the salmon back, brush it with olive oil, cover it with foil again, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours - or even overnight.

To serve, slide the salmon from its foil onto a platter (yes, easier said than done, but possible), fan the lemon slices out along the top and garnish the sides with fronds of dill, thin cucumber slices, or both.  Serve with Dill Dijon whipped cream on the side:

Dill Dijon Whipped Cream:

• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 3 teaspoons chopped dill (or more, to taste)
• salt and pepper

Pour the cream into a large bowl and, using an electric mixer on high, beat until soft peaks form.  Add the mustard and continue to beat until it is just blended in (don’t let it get too hard).  Fold in the dill and season with salt and pepper, to taste.

This recipe serves 6 to 8, as one dish in a meal that also includes another protein source and a salad or vegetable, or both.

• 2 cups Camargue or wahani red rice
• 6 ounces feta cheese
• 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
• 3 carrots, peeled and shredded, or coarsely grated
• 1 small red onion, sliced really fine
• generous handful of flat leaf parsley (or cilantro/coriander), finely chopped

And for the dressing:

• 5-6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons good vinegar - red wine, or balsamic, or toasted rice
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice.

Boil the rice until al dente, drain and rinse in cold water.  Drain really thoroughly.  Tip into a bowl and toss with the dressing.  Add the remaining ingredients, toss again, and add ground salt and pepper to taste.

[The heart of this dish is the red rice, deliciously nutty and satisfying.  You can obviously vary the other ingredients, and the dressing, any number of ways.  I think I’m remembering right that my sister prepares a version with bell peppers, scallions and mango ….]

• 1 1/2 pounds small slender green beans, ends trimmed
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
• 1 tablespoon grated lemon peel (or more, to taste!)
• 2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary
• 1/4 cup chopped natural pistachios
• 1/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• fresh rosemary sprigs

Cook green beans in a large pot of boiling salted water until just crisp-tender, about 4 minutes.  Drain well, and tip into bowl of cold water and ice cubes, to stop the cooking and cool them quickly.  This helps the beans keep their intense green color.  Then drain them again, and let them stand at room temperature (for up to three hours).

Heat oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add garlic, lemon peel and rosemary and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute.  Add pistachios, orange juice and green beans.  Toss until the juice reduces and the sauce clings to the beans - about three minutes.  Sprinkle with lemon juice.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Transfer beans to large shallow bowl.  Garnish with rosemary sprigs and serve.