LOCAL 202 SALAD
FL038: MANDALAY
Cranuary 24, 2021
On this day in Limo history: we set out to make a version of the Long Bean Salad with Roasted Peanuts we learned from Naomi Duguid’s Burma, but long beans were nowhere to be found in the city, even at the most reliable markets of Chinatown. Meanwhile, Teamsters at NY Terminal Market in the Bronx – the source of a huge amount of NYC’s fresh food, during the Covid pandemic and otherwise – had just ended a weeklong strike for a well-deserved wage increase. During the week a 21-car vegetable train had turned around and rolled home to Ohio after refusing to unload its cargo in solidarity with the striking workers. Was the city’s entire supply of long beans on that train? We’ll never know.
Goal: honest pay for an honest salad
Serves: 4 as part of a meal
3/4 pound long beans
FOR THE TOPPING
fried shallot, for which you’ll need:
1 cup peanut oil
1 large shallot, peeled and cut crosswise into thin rings
kosher salt to taste
a handful of lime leaf peanuts
FOR THE DRESSING
4 teaspoons lime juice
2 teaspoons fish sauce or Viet mushroom powder
2 teaspoons shallot oil (from frying the topping)
Cook the long beans in salted boiling water until crisp-tender, about 2-3 minutes. You don’t need a whole pot of water for this: a small amount of water (maybe 1/2”) in a covered skillet will be enough to half-steam/half-boil the beans. Rinse them in cool water to stop the cooking, then cut into 2” pieces. (If it’s summer, perhaps grill the whole beans on a hot fire until charred and tender instead.)
To make the fried shallot topping, heat the peanut oil in a pot until a shallot ring dropped into it sizzles, then add the rest of the shallots and fry until thoroughly golden. Remove with a slotted spoon or strainer and let the oil cool. Toss the fried shallots with salt.
Mix together the lime juice, fish sauce and 2 teaspoons of the shallot oil to make the dressing. Toss it with the beans, taste for salt, then serve topped with fried shallot and lime leaf peanuts.