“A white steamer stuck in the afternoon” — that phrase from the poet Philip Larkin perfectly captures the sunstruck indolence of lazy summer days at the beach, with their illusion of stasis, of a day, or a season, that seems like it might happily go on forever.
As you might have guessed, I am just back from my summer vacation, spent at my parents’ place on the coast of southern Maine. Southern coastal Maine has a unique bounty of natural products: great potatoes, the best wild blueberries in the world, wild mushrooms and unmatched seafood.
It has something else, too — a preponderance of independent artisans who embody a modern version of that legendary laconic, New England individualism. For my wife and me, this was brought home when we locked our keys in our car in front of a deserted bed and breakfast in the middle of nowhere. We called AAA, and not 20 minutes later, a mechanic showed up in a tow truck. He opened our car in a matter of seconds, said no more than five words, and refused a tip as he got back into his cab.
Maine has thousands of proud artisans like this man, chicken farmers who raise their birds the hard way, without mechanized tools, bread bakers, cheesemakers, Fair Trade Kombucha makers, seaweed harvesters and scores of berry pickers who sell their fruit out of their hatchbacks perched on the shoulder of the highway.
The following recipe, a summer salad that needs minimal skill and effort, but demands pristine local ingredients, is a kind of remembrance of a great vacation.
Summer Salad of Cherry Tomatoes, Corn, Green Beans and Basil
Serves 6
Ingredients
1 pint cherry tomatoes (preferably Sungolds or Sweet 100s), rinsed and halved
1 cup raw sweet corn kernels, preferably Olathe corn (see note)
6 ounces green beans, stemmed, blanched and cut into 2 inch pieces
1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
12 leaves basil, washed and dried
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Pinch celery salt
Few shots hot sauce
Salt and pepper
Directions
Place the cherry tomatoes, corn, green beans, and red onion in a bowl. Tear the basil over it. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Taste for seasoning.
Note: To cut corn cobs into kernels, you must shuck the corn and then carefully remove all the silk from the cob (this is a tedious task best delegated to unskilled kitchen help, i.e., children). To cut the kernels off the cob, stand the cob up in a shallow dish or bowl (you might want to remove the stem so the kernel is stable) and cut along the cob, but not into it.
