It’s Lima Time

It may not seem like it when you’re lying sweaty in bed, trying to make ceiling fan to turn faster by force of sheer concentration, but the infernal heat that has been summer’s potent last gasp for the last couple of weeks has a bright side.

The good news is that it has extended the late summer harvest. In fact, in many cases we’re getting better summer produce in October than we did in July and August. At the farmers market the other day, I found great yellow squash, tiny Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes that were almost bursting with roasted flavor, good sweet corn and--the ultimate prize--fresh lima beans.

For those of us who ate canned vegetables when we were kids, that last item might seem like more of a penalty than a reward. Hey, grow up! Fresh lima beans bear no more resemblance to their canned counterparts than asparagus does. Fresh limas are sweet in that peculiarly beany way. They’re tender and they turn a beautiful celadon green when cooked. Think of them as favas without the peels.

In fact, a pretty famous chef recently confessed she’d been buying pounds of fresh limas at her farmers market and feeding her family Sunday feasts of big bowls of them cooked with bacon and cream. She wasn’t surprised when I told her about a Richard Olney recipe for fava beans cooked exactly that way.

When you get right down to it, yellow squash isn’t terribly popular either. That’s one I really can’t understand, considering that zucchini seems to be practically inescapable. Yellow squash is not just a squash of a different color: Zucchini has a kind of green, herbal quality to the flavor, but yellow squash is downright buttery.

My neighbor, a great old guy, had some in his garden, and all summer long my phone would ring bright and early: “You want some squash?” he’d ask, never identifying himself. He didn’t have to. I never said no.

Although the fashion in cooking seems to be for vegetables that are, as some recipe writers put it, “tender-crisp,” I like my squash cooked, thank you, and pretty thoroughly, too.

When you cook squash right, it has a soft mousse-like, almost buttery texture. Cooking it right involves adding just enough water to cover the bottom of the pan. The water helps soften the squash (it speeds the dissolving of the cellulose cell walls and of the pectins that cement those cells together). Depending on the squash, for flavor add a bit of butter (yellow squash) or olive oil (zucchini).

I like to quarter zucchini lengthwise into fat sticks. That way it begins to brown on the outside by the time the center is cooked through. The water mingles with the juices and the butter or oil, and it all reduces, forming a glaze that coats the squash and anything cooked with it in an intensely flavored vegetable syrup.

When you’re picking out yellow squash, choose carefully. Because it is one of the less popular vegetables, it sometimes stays on shelves longer than it should. Pick squash that are heavy for their size, with tight, smooth skins. When they’ve been around too long and they’re wrinkled and soft, the squash turns bitter (as any of us might).

In this recipe, the vegetable proportions are guidelines. If you’re using fresh limas rather than frozen, double or triple the amount (frozen are OK, but they’re much starchier than the fresh). On the other hand, if the squash is fresher. . . .

I’ve also made this with bacon--pretty close to a traditional succotash. I crumbled three or four crisp slices into the stew at the end in place of the basil. It would be good with little red potatoes, too, and maybe some jalapeno or serrano chiles chopped up in it. If you’re not too worried about calories, a half cup of cream would be luxe.

The timing is the main thing. Add the corn and tomatoes at the very end. You want to just heat them through. Whether you add the limas with the corn or the squash depends on whether you are using fresh or frozen beans. The fresh take longer to cook--in the freezing process, vegetables are cooked briefly to deactivate enzymes that could cause softening. Fresh will also absorb more water for the same reason.

What you wind up with is a kind of stew, albeit one of vegetables, not meat. There’ll be plenty of time for the other kind when the weather finally cools down.

Fall Vegetable Stew

Active Work Time: 10 minutes * Total Preparation Time: 25 minutes * Vegetarian

3 tablespoons butter

1 bunch green onions, white parts only, chopped

1 pound yellow crookneck squash, sliced

Salt

1 sprig fresh thyme

1/2 cup water if using frozen beans, 1 1/2 cups if using fresh

1 (10-ounce) package frozen baby lima beans, rinsed, or 3/4 pound fresh lima beans

2 ears corn

1/2 pound cherry tomatoes

1/4 cup torn fresh basil

* Heat butter and green onions in large skillet over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onions begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Add squash, 1 teaspoon salt, thyme, water and fresh lima beans, if using. Cover skillet and increase heat to medium-high. Cook, stirring occasionally, until squash and beans soften, about 15 minutes.

* While squash is cooking, cut kernels from ears of corn. When squash has softened, add frozen beans, if using, cherry tomatoes and corn kernels. Scrape cobs with back of knife, adding corn “milk” to skillet. There should be just enough liquid in pan to barely coat vegetables when stirred. Cook 5 minutes and season to taste with salt. Add basil and serve.

6 main-dish servings. Each serving: 124 calories; 107 mg sodium; 12 mg cholesterol; 5 grams fat; 18 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams protein; 1.53 grams fiber.