Listen you weirdos, ‘Dragon Lingerie’ is a type of bean okay? It’s not lacy sleepwear for winged fire-breathing vixens….
Dragon Lingerie Succotash: Jay Jackson Photography
I wanted a colorful chunky pig roast side that would showcase all the late season summer veg still goin’ strong at Potrero Nuevo Farm including: dry farmed tomatoes, corn, padron peppers, and pole beans.
Although this is not a traditional succotash (tomatoes are rarely included, I’ve subbed padrons for bells, and there’s no cream/mayo sauce but a hot bacon vinaigrette instead) it’s my updated rendition of a normally terrible tasteless dish. Sorry – not tryin’ to offend here – I’m just not a Lima bean fan because they often taste mealy to me. And I hate canned corn.
My Husband showing me how to shuck corn. Ha! Jay Jackson Photography
A little history lesson: succotash (a mixture of lima beans, corn, and shell beans with bell peppers or tomatoes) was popular during the Great Depression and sometimes cooked with a pie crust on top. Obviously this would make a hearty comfort dish and provide protein and other beneficial nutrients on an extremely tight budget. I wonder if the cream base that is normally served with this dish as a cold picnic salad would taste rather rich if served hot with a flaky topping…
That being said, I prefer my version.
Dragon Lingerie beans lose their cool color when they are cooked but they are still intriguing in the flesh with a lacy purple appeal. When farmers Suzie & Jay Trexler (co-farm managers of Potrero Nuevo Farm) asked me if I wanted to include these in our Pig Roast menu I was afraid they would be tasteless. Quite the opposite – fat and sweet!
Dragon Lingerie Bean
Hope you join us next year for our 2014 pig roast….
More Pig Roast Sides:
Smoked Potato Salad with Hard Cooked Egg & Tarragon
For more pictures see Jay Jackson’s amazing collection: http://found-images.smugmug.com/Tanitas-Creek-Half-Moon-Bay
Ingredients
- 5 dry farmed tomatoes (Molina or Early Girl), sliced thick
- 2 hand-fulls Dragon Lingerie bean, blanched tender-crisp
- 1 basket padron peppers, seared on high heat & lightly blackened
- 5 late harvest white corn ears, shucked and kernels cut off the cob
- 1 pound bacon (generous – but I know you'll eat half), cut into strips and rendered over low heat, fat reserved
- 1/2 bunch basil, leafed & hand torn
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 3/4 cup canola oil
- Sea salt
- Smoked paprika to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper
To make the vinaigrette: whisk the oil into the red wine vinaigrette. Season with sea salt and black pepper.
Mix the vegetables together minus the basil.
Heat the bacon and the reserved bacon fat on medium-high heat. Holding the pan off the heat add the vinaigrette and swirl to incorporate. Immediately pour the hot dressing over the veg. Toss quickly and serve. Throw basil over top. Season again if necessary. Dig in.
« It’s not lacy sleepwear for winged fire-breathing vixens… »
Dressing up as such a bean would have made a really interesting Hallowe’en costume to say the least.
I was picking these things in early October but they were called something different though I have to look up that farmer’s grow list to confirm the name. Yours are obviously more hale than what I was rummaging around for because apart from being less vibrant, what I wound up eating was pretty tough.
Ha! Maybe next year! Although I think a sweet pea costume suits my character better 😉
There’s a whole slew of pole varieties and some are tough and flavorless and some are sweet. Same goes for wax beans – some are sweet and some are, well, waxy.
The farmer’s picked these young and if they are left too long on the pole they grow super long and turn tough and flavorless.