Archive for the 'salads' Category
Sorry, I’m a day late. How could it possibly be September tomorrow? how did that happen?
It was a very Calgary sort of a weekend, in a way that reminded me why I love to live here, and why I shouldn’t bother missing Vancouver as often as I do. (Until you get news that your CSA farm got its first frost on the night of August 27th. August! 27th! Bah.) Saturday morning saw an impromptu trip for coffee, cinnamon buns at Urban Baker and a trip to the park, and the sunny afternoon was spent checking out Central Memorial Park (Boxwood opens Sept 9!), the fountains and old sandstone library. Which was pretty idyllic if you ignore the fact that we were waiting for my sister to have xrays on what turned out to be a broken knee.
Saturday night I emceed the 2nd Annual Sugar Bowl to benefit the Amber Webb-Bowerman Memorial Foundation, and Sunday Pierre took a group of us to tea at Nectar before they closed their doors for good.
After tea, dinner. We tried to get the family together for Sunday dinner before September kicks in.
When there’s a roast pork loin, and fresh Taber corn, and a big fresh-from-the-garden chopped salad, and thin-skinned new potatoes still coated in dirt, and back yard (not mine)-laid eggs, and the recent discovery of how to make perfect mayo in just under two minutes, it would be a crime against the humanity of this household not to make potato salad. Especially with Rosanne Cash’s very own recipe.
I know – who needs a recipe, really? But I do like the idea that this came from Johnny Cash’s daughter’s kitchen, even though it looks just like a thousand other potato salad recipes, and that she likely at some point made it for her dad on a Sunday afternoon. My standard involves not boiling but roasting the potatoes, preferably in the drippings left from the crisply cooked bacon inevitably set aside to crumble in afterward. I love that Rosanne doesn’t bother to peel her potatoes, either. (That’s where many of the nutrients and much of the fiber are, anyway.) Hers called for plenty of chopped dill pickles; I had none, but it occurred to me that a good lob of asparagus relish from Edgar farms would do well. She uses celery; I saw her celery and raised it some roughly chopped peppery radishes. There was (refreshingly, and likely due to the abundance of pickles) no fresh dill on the list, so I used Brassica’s grainy mustard with dill.
Also? I don’t generally have mayo in the fridge. It always goes bad before I use it. But rather than run to the store for a jar, I whisked a batch up myself. Guaranteed it took less time, and I likely saved a few dineros as well. And really-is there much better than homemade mayo? Especially when you’re dressing such perfect potatoes?
The pork loin was pretty straightforward – I loosely followed this recipe, but really just made a paste out of garlic, finely chopped rosemary and a bit of oil, rubbed it all over the meat, salted and peppered the lot and roasted it at 400ºF for about an hour. Tasty.
Rosanne Cash’s Potato Salad
adapted from Rosanne, via Bon Appétit – June 2004
Apparently Ms. Cash sometimes added two-thirds cup chopped fresh cilantro (yes, a lot) and two teaspoons curry powder to the mix.
3 lb. medium red-skinned potatoes, unpeeled, scrubbed
8 dill pickle spears, coarsely chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
3 celery stalks, chopped (include the leaves!)
1 small bunch of green onions, chopped (or a small purple onion)
3 hard-boiled eggs, peeled, chopped
3/4 cup mayonnaise (or to taste
2 Tbsp. grainy Dijon mustard
Cut the potatoes in half or quarters if they need it and cook in a large pot of boiling salted water until tender. Drain and set aside to cool.
Toss everything together, seasoning to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour before serving.) Serves lots.
August 30 2010 | salads | 12 Comments »
Dilemma: what does one make when asked to attend a potluck picnic for two dozen or so local food bloggers, all of whom will presumably go home to their computers to document the eats of the day? Rather than debate what might be most easily transportable, crowd-pleasing, visually stunning or dinner-party impressive (baked Alaska? too melty. Crêpes Suzette? too French) I figured I’d use some of the dandy purple, pink and white thin-skinned spuds I’m starting to have more of than I can use, and the pale green and yellow beans that came in our CSA box this week. Of course I’m still hopelessly hooked on that garlic scape pesto. And I wanted everyone at said picnic to have garlic breath as distinct (emphasis on stinct) as I.
The potato salad was easy – I won’t complicate things by writing out a recipe. (Also? I’m lazy.) I boiled (I usually roast, but wanted the potatoes to suck up all that garlicky pesto) thin-skinned white and purple potatoes, tossing in a big handful of green beans (stems trimmed but not the curly ends – who would want to get rid of that?) for the last few minutes of cooking time. Drained the lot and tossed it with the last of the garlic scape pesto. (You could use any bottled pesto, but the garlickiness of this one was quite stellar here.) I made it on Saturday night (having plans Sunday morning immediately before the picnic) and put the bowl into the fridge, uncovered, to cool down. We sat on the front step and visited with neighbours. They grew in numbers and we wound up with a small party. Which meant waking up Sunday morning and realizing that my beautiful bowl of potato salad was a sort of pale grey shade. Which was a great excuse to mask it a little with mayo I made in approximately two minutes – I smell another post coming on – and the way the mayo made the oily pesto a little creamy was divine. I chopped in a few green onions, too. Eggs would have been good. I forgot.
It was a stunning potluck. (Have I expressed how enamored I am with the concept of potlucks? Love them. And who cares if you wind up with 20 potato salads? Guaranteed they’ll all be different.
In attendance on Sunday afternoon: Vincci (who organized the whole thing) from Ceci n’est Pas un Food Blog, Chelsey from The Crazy Kitchen, Pierre from Kitchenscraps, Lauren from Celiac Teen, Jennifer from Chocolate & Ginger and Wendy from Clearly the Place to Eat.
We had skewers of golden watermelon and cubes of feta wrapped in a strip of basil.
And gluten-free plum cake baked by a teenage genius (I would never have known it was gluten-free!)
And marinated chicken thighs cooked over an open fire!
Fresh peaches and berries marinated in champagne, honey and lemon zest. This was before they were topped with thick whipped cream. Peaches and berries and cream – oh my!
And there were phenomenal lemon squares that I seem to have missed because it’s quite difficult to photograph something whilst shoving it into your mouth.
It turned out to be perfect timing, as we were headed to Mike’s mom’s house for dinner afterward. She’s very sweet. But to sum up her culinary mind: she’s been cutting the fat off her pork chops and saving them in a plastic bag in the freezer for me. She knows I like to cook, and thought I might be able to do something with them. Any suggestions?
August 23 2010 | salads and veg | 21 Comments »
It was a long, hot day between the Stampede parade and hours on the grounds and midway today, and I’m just sitting down now to upload photos. I had another event tonight, arrived home after 9 and spent an hour of the remaining evening looking for the dog, whom I had forgotten I brought along for the ride on a coffee run (he was in the back of the car). A great use of time and energy, don’t you think? Even the neighbours came out and offered to help (likely in an attempt to get me and W to stop walking up and down the street shouting LOOOOOUIEEEEEE!)
And it’s about a thousand degrees outside, or perhaps I haven’t yet recovered from the +30 on the asphalt (which adds another 20, I’m sure) and so because this week of 5-5:30 am wake-ups has greatly reduced my brain function and made me prone to extreme run-on sentences, I’m going to put off the dozen or so photos of the day and tell you about a particularly spectacular salad we had a few days ago, that I completely forgot to report.
Which reminds me: my spinach is growing! It’s about a tenth of a centimetre across right now, but not bad when it began as seed – it’s an easy, cool-weather crop (it’s partly in the shade) that can be replanted as it’s harvested, providing a steady supply throughout the summer. Presuming of course one is on the ball about it. I predict mine will be at its peak around the time we arrive in Tofino.
But my sister, being far more regimented and scheduled and prone to planning ahead than me, planted hers in a timely manner, and it’s good to go. Also, Emily brought a bucket of eggs back from her Dad’s parents’ house out of town, where the chickens (the only names I remember are à la King and Salad Sandwich) were sent to live when the city told my sister she couldn’t keep them in Lakeview anymore.
The combo of course smacks of a bacon and egg spinach salad. It would have been nice to sauté the spinach with some garlic and top it with an egg, or push it aside in the pan and crack the egg in to cook in the garlicky emerald oil (how Nigella did I just sound right there?) but when leaves are so baby-perfect I have a tough time wilting them.
So I cooked some bacon, and toasted some croutons, and made salads, and topped them this time with soft-boiled eggs instead of poached, which I love on a salad but can sometimes be watery. Regardless of how you cook them, there isn’t much better than runny yolk oozing out over greens, mingling with a balsamic vinaigrette.
Bacon & Egg Spinach Salad
This salad is also brilliant with a chopped tomato or ripe avocado.
1/2 baguette, cut into chunks, or about 3 cups of cubed or torn crusty bread
olive or canola oil
1 garlic clove, squished
1 big bunch fresh baby spinach (or 1 bag)
3-5 bacon slices, cooked and crumbled
4 eggs, poached or soft-boiled
Dressing:
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive or canola oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp. grainy mustard
1 tsp. sugar
salt & freshly ground pepper to taste
Spread the bread chunks out on a baking sheet. Pour some oil into a small dish and swish the garlic clove around in it; drizzle over the bread and toss to lightly coat, then toast in the oven until golden. To make the dressing, shake everything up in a jar or whisk together in a bowl. Store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Build your salad with greens, crumbled bacon and croutons, then top with an egg and drizzle with dressing.
One Year Ago: Coconut Macaroon Bark
July 10 2010 | salads | 11 Comments »
Feel free to hate me for what I’m about to tell you: we have too much crab. I did work for them, though; with late-night runs down to the dock in the cold rain to haul up the trap in the pitch dark, with a dead flashlight, chasing the spidery little beasts across the slippery dock and coaxing them out of the trap doors into the pink Easter bucket covered with butterflies that has become the Tofino crab bucket. All the while completely freaking myself out and trying not to get pinched. Have you heard the sound crabs make when piled on top of each other in a bucket and strapped to the passenger? Sort of half hissing, half clicking, claws creeping up over the edge in an attempt to pull themselves out. The sound I imagine giant bugs or aliens might make. But hey – for the price of a fishing license and package of hot dogs, I’m not complaining.
This week I’ve become an expert at determining the sex of a crab – a skill I never thought would come in handy. (You can only keep the males.) I also learned, with my friend K, that crabs love hot dogs, and that if you drop the trap off the dock (with aforementioned dogs dangling in an empty water bottle strung up with wire and jabbed with a pocketknife) when the tide is out, as it comes in the crab will come with it, and stop in for a delicious all-you-can-eat buffet.
Too much crab isn’t quite as dreamy as it might sound – the glut of shellfish brought back Mike’s gout, and the excessive melted butter that served as dip has not helped my pants fit any better. After two nights of steamed crab legs, it occurred to me that one could do more with fresh crab than make a mess of the kitchen table with crackers and pots of garlicky melted butter. What do I love that contains crab?
California rolls. I’ll be the first to stand up and admit I’m a wimp when it comes to sushi. I scrape off the roe (it reminds me of the time my uncle dangled the smelly, bright red giant fish egg bait at me on a fishing trip, making me throw up) and I don’t venture beyond at best a slab of raw tuna or salmon. You can forget the eel and abalone and urchin – I’m happy with a nice safe California roll. Or a dynamite roll, if there is the option of crispy tempura shrimp.
Of course I have no sushi mat, but when I stopped in at the teeny Beaches grocery store I bought a bag of jasmine rice and a perfectly ripe avocado; I had bought a bag of toasted sesame seeds at a wee Asian shop in Ucluelet, just because it seemed such an odd thing to be able to buy in a town with only one grocery store and (I think) no traffic lights. I thought I’d deconstruct the whole mess – which is what happens when I try to eat one anyway – and do a sort of layered salad of sorts.
Poking around to make sure I wasn’t forgetting what went into a California roll, I discovered I wasn’t quite as originally brilliant as I had thought for the previous five minutes. I found a couple sushi roll salad recipes, which was fortuitous as I took their advice to season the rice with a mixture of rice vinegar and sugar, which made all the difference. Beyond that I added grated carrot, chopped cucumber, sliced avocado and a mound of crabmeat, moistened with a little mayo. Feel free to add some sliced nori, if you’re into that sort of thing. I’ve been crawling around on far too many seaweed-covered rocks lately.
Deconstructed California Rolls
If you’re starting with fresh crab legs, steam them for 7-8 minutes in a covered pot with an inch or two of water. (Make sure your husband gets rid of all the bits of shell when he picks out the meat.)
1 cup long grain white or sushi rice
1/4 cup rice vinegar
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 carrot, grated
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1/4-1/2 English cucumber, diced
1 ripe avocado, peeled and sliced
1/2 lb. (or as much as you want) lump crabmeat (cooked)
1 Tbsp. mayo
salt to taste
toasted sesame seeds, for sprinkling (optional)
chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
Cook the rice however you would normally cook it, then spread it out while still hot on a rimmed baking sheet. Bring the vinegar and sugar to a simmer in a small saucepan, then pour it over the rice, tossing it about to coat.
When the rice is cool, put it into a bowl and add the carrot, green onions and cucumber. Divide among 4 wide, shallow bowls. Top with avocado. In a small bowl, stir together the crab, mayo and salt; divide between the bowls, and sprinkle with sesame seeds and cilantro.
Serves 4.
One Year Ago: Green Pea Hummus and Pink Popcorn
April 12 2010 | salads and seafood | 20 Comments »
OK, this is a good one. I have little mental capacity left, and am holding on to my reserves in order to get necessary work done before bed, never mind packing for Tofino (we leave tomorrow – I hope), but I can offer up this. (I’ve been up before 5:30 for almost two weeks, and not compensating at bedtime – I feel like I’m 90, with far fewer IQ points. How do people function on no sleep?)
The good news – Ataulfo mangoes are here, which means there’s a case of them ripening on my kitchen counter, and I’m cutting one for W approximately every five minutes. (Ataulfos are the slightly smaller, slimmer, yellow-green mangoes you might start seeing in the produce section – they’re creamier, smoother and lack the sinewy fibers you may associate with the big green-red Haden or Tommy Atkins varieties that are hardier and thus available year-round.) There are a ton of things I’d love to do with them, but I suspect most are destined for a spoon, or W’s Empire Strikes Back bowl. But one did make it into a batch of quinoa salad:
Curried Quinoa Salad with Black Beans and Mango
1 cup quinoa
1-2 ripe mangoes, peeled and chopped
1/2 red or yellow pepper, chopped
1/4 English cucumber, chopped
2-3 green onions or a chunk of purple onion, chopped
2 cups (packed) baby spinach, torn or sliced (optional)
half a 19 oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
handful of torn cilantro (optional)
Dressing:
1/4 cup canola oil
2-4 Tbsp. white wine or white balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp. mango chutney, chopped if chunky (optional)
1 tsp. honey
1 tsp. curry powder or mild paste
1/4 tsp. cumin
Rinse quinoa well under cool water in a fine sieve, then cook in a pot of boiling salted water over medium heat until tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes. (Just like you’d cook pasta.) Drain well, return to the pot, put the lid back on and let it steam – this will produce fluffy quinoa – until cooled.
Combine the oil, vinegar, chutney, honey, curry and cumin in a jar or small bowl and shake or whisk to blend. If you like, season the dressing with salt and pepper.
Put the quinoa, mango, vegetables and beans in a large bowl, drizzle with dressing and toss until well coated. Serves 4-6.
March 29 2010 | grains and salads | 21 Comments »
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