Cucumbers and radishes will never co-exist in our garden. Radishes need the cooler temperatures of spring while cucumbers didn’t make an appearance in our garden last year until August. This salad, loosely adapted from one in Bon Appetit, also utilizes another spring offering, sweet mild Hakurei turnips. Hakurei turnips are harvested at about the same size as a radish. They are pure white and their flavor lends nicely to salads.
In this salad, small chunks of cucumber, radish and turnip are combined with toasted almond slivers and tossed with a vinaigrette.
I made a vinaigrette accented with spring’s most etherial and delicate herb, chervil. A cousin to parsley, it’s leaves look like delicate lacy ferns. Our chervil was originally planted in the garden but a new larger healthy patch has seeded itself in the back of the house, nowhere close to it’s orginal location. It is a plant that also prefers cooler temperatures and partial shade. The flavor is subtle, mildly anise with just a touch of parsley. Because of it’s delicate nature, it’s rare that you would find chervil in any market, farmers or otherwise. However it is easy to grow and fortunately often seeds itself.
Toasted almonds lend a nice crunch to this dish. Rather than the oven you could alternately toast these in a dry skillet on the stove top. Whatever choice you make, watch nuts carefully, one minute they’re a pale tan, the next they are too dark. Toss the nuts occasionally, and as soon as they turn uniformly golden in color, remove from the baking sheet because they will continue to cook and darken in the pan.
I cut all the vegetables into small uniform chunks, slicing all of them would make for a different texture and would make an interesting salad as well. I like a touch of sweetness in most of my vinaigrettes, I used honey from a new vendor at my local farmers market in Wrightstown. Truly Pure and Natural carries a whole line of natural products, including local honey. They have an entire line of delicious flavored honeys, everything from lavender, to coffee to one they call “hottie honey”. I availed myself to quite a few “tastings” and came home with a three pack. I added just a touch of the hibiscus honey to my vinaigrette. I’m sure I will be back for more!
As with many salads, this one needs to be assembled right before serving. If you don’t have chervil, flat leaved parsley can substitute.
This large patch of chervil surprised us at the back of the house.We use both the turnip greens and the sweet Hakurei turnips.The first cucumber flowers didn’t appear until later in the season last year.
Cucumber, Radish and Turnip Salad
Makes four servings
Ingredients
1/2c slivered almonds
1 or 2 spring onions, finely chopped
1/4c raspberry champagne vinegar or your vinegar of choice
1t honey (I used Hibiscus infused honey)
1/4c extra virgin olive oil (more to taste)
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1c English hothouse cucumber chunks, peeled, seeded and cut into ½inch chunks
1c radishes, trimmed and cut into ½inch chunks
1c Hakurei turnips, trimmed and cut into ½inch chunks
1c chervil leaves and more for garnishing the salad
Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F. Spread almonds out evenly on a rimmed baking sheet. Toast, tossing occasionally, until golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes; let cool.
Whisk onion, vinegar, honey and olive oil in a large bowl; season with salt and pepper. Add cucumbers, radishes and turnips, chervil and almonds; toss to coat.
Long before the term “Farm to Table” entered our vocabulary, chef, cookbook author and food and wine educator, John Ash authored the cookbook, From the Earth to the Table. His restaurant, John Ash and Company in the wine country of Santa Rosa, California, was one of the first to focus on local seasonal ingredients in his dishes. We have had the pleasure of dining in Mr. Ash’s restaurant on several occasions when visiting Sonoma County. It was for this reason I knew his recipe for Shaved Asparagus Salad with Aged Gouda and Hazelnuts in Fine Cooking magazine would be one worth trying.
Asparagus celebrates the arrival of spring and is one of the first local offerings of produce at our farmers market. The season is fleeting so I try to use it as often as possible. When you bring asparagus home it’s important to store it properly. I store it the same way I store fresh herbs. Stand the stalks upright in a wide mouth glass or jar with an inch or two of water in it. Be sure that all the cut ends are in the water. Cover loosely with a clear plastic gallon storage bag. The green in this salad is arugula and the timing couldn’t be more perfect. The temperatures here this past week have been far from spring like. The heat made it feel like it was mid July rather than May. That meant it was time to pick the arugula while it is still in it’s prime. Days of warmer temperatures make arugula’s peppery flavor even hotter and causes the plant to bolt or go to seed.
Begin the recipe by making a simple vinaigrette. Rice vinegar, lemon juice, honey, extra virgin olive oil and shallot complement and allow the flavors of the salad to shine through. The only change to the original recipe I made here was to use a plain rice vinegar rather than a seasoned one. Seasoned rice vinegar contains sugar, corn syrup, salt and MSG. I knew the honey would bring enough sweetness to the dressing, and I prefer not to add the extra salt and MSG.
Remove the tips from the asparagus and set aside. The original recipe calls for thick asparagus but the vendor I buy asparagus from at the farmers market already has them bundled; purple, green, thick, thin, all in the same bunch. I found that medium stems are just as easy to peel as long as they are firm. A vegetable peeler does double duty in this recipe, use it to shave the asparagus stalks and the Gouda. Discard the first shaving of the asparagus, that will contain the more fibrous outer skin. The inner stalk is crisp and tender and is delicious raw. Marinade the tips and the shaved stalks for 15 minutes, long enough to blend the flavors and soften the asparagus a little.
How aged should your Gouda be for this salad? The complex caramel flavor of a five year Gouda is best on it’s own as a wine and cheese pairing. The Gouda at Wegmans that is aged for three months has a buttery flavor with a tangy finish and is just right for this recipe. You may want to pop the Gouda in the freezer for about 10 minutes for easier shaving. The cheese will quickly come up to temperature. The rich toasty flavor of hazelnuts is an excellent contrast to the Gouda. If you are not a fan of hazelnuts, walnuts or pine nuts would be a good substitute.
Shaved Asparagus Salad with Aged Gouda and Hazelnuts
Serves 6
Ingredients
For the vinaigrette
3T rice vinegar
2T lemon juice
2T extra virgin olive oil
1T fragrant honey such as wild flower or orange blossom
1T finely chopped shallot
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Our first crop of arugula this season.
For the asparagus
3/4 lb. medium to thick asparagus
3c baby arugula
½c toasted and chopped hazelnuts
2½oz. thinly shaved aged Gouda
Directions
Make the vinaigrette. Whisk all the ingredients together, cover. Can be refrigerated up to 3 days.
Make the salad. Remove the tips of the asparagus and put them in a large bowl. Using a vegetable peeler, shave a stalk, discarding the first shaving. If shaving the first side becomes awkward, turn stalk over and repeat. Add shavings to the tips. Repeat with the remaining stalks.
Toss the asparagus with 1/3 cup of the vinaigrette and let sit 10 to 5 minutes, this helps the asparagus to soften a bit and blends the flavors.
Add the arugula and hazelnuts and toss, adding more dressing as needed to lightly coat the arugula. Arrange on plates and top with the shaved cheese. Serve immediately.
Claytonia is not a small nation tucked away in the Alps, nor is it the latest addition to the periodic table of elements. Claytonia perfoliata, it’s full name, is a cold hardy salad green that grows wild up and down the west coast of the United States. The plant grows up from thin, succulent stems. The leaves are delicate and small, shaped almost like a spade. Eventually tiny white flowers will grow out from the center of the leaf. The entire plant is edible from stem to flower with a texture reminiscent of spinach with a very mild flavor that is slightly sweet when first picked.
During the California gold rush, miners learned about claytonia from local Indians. It became an important part of their diet because it was plentiful and it’s vitamin C content helped to ward off scurvy, hence it’s other name, miner’s lettuce. It was because of it’s nutritional value, British settlers brought claytonia from America to Europe, and later to settlements in Australia and Cuba.
Joe first learned about claytonia from his readings in the books of his gardening hero, Eliot Coleman. Joe planted claytonia in the greenhouse and under a cold frame late last fall. This time the plantings were successful but when the cold weather came on with a vengeance, the plants stopped growing. Since the plants can survive the freeze/thaw cycle, they were the first to start growing in the spring. Claytonia is supposedly an easy self-seeder but if not, Joe will plant it earlier in the fall to give it a better head start for winter salads.
I like to use it alone in a salad or with other similar greens with a delicate texture. In this salad I paired the claytonia with other spring vegetables, carrots, beets and radishes. Since it bruises easily, I prefer to toss the greens first with the vinaigrette, then layer the other ingredients on top. The sweet tartness of apricot vinaigrette pairs nicely with the greens.
Claytonia or miner’s lettuce thriving in the spring garden.
Claytonia Salad
Serves two, the salad components are all approximations
Ingredients
Enough claytonia to fill the bowl of your choice
Shredded carrots
Finely julienned raw beets
Thinly sliced radishes
Chopped walnuts
Freshly ground black pepper
Apricot vinaigrette (recipe follows) or the vinaigrette of your choice
Directions
In a large bowl lightly dressing the claytonia with the vinaigrette. With tongs transfer the greens to salad plates. Top the dressed greens with the carrots, beets, radishes and walnuts. Add freshly ground pepper to taste.
Apricot Vinaigrette
Ingredients
¼c apricot balsamic vinegar
1t honey
1 small clove garlic, finely chopped
¼t Dijon mustard
1/3 to ½c extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
Directions
In a small bowl whisk all ingredients together. Season to taste with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper.
I enjoy all aspects of cooking, but if asked what I enjoy making the most, it would be salads. My first choice, of course, would be greens picked fresh from the garden. Right now, while the last of the snow is being washed away by the rain, like everyone else, I depend on the greens available in the supermarket. The selection of packaged greens has improved over the last several years and one local supermarket carries greens grown in nearby greenhouses.
When using clamshell or bagged greens, check the date and first be sure you will be able to use what you purchase well before the expiration date. It is better to buy a smaller container that you will use than end up with something that resembles lettuce soup! I examine the package from all angles before I purchase because the freshest container can have quite a few soggy leaves.
The first step is to wash your greens thoroughly, even the packaged lettuces that are “triple washed”. I find that washing revives packaged greens and allows you to remove any damaged leaves. I fill a very clean sink with cold water, add the greens and swish them around, after a minute or so, the dirt and sediment will sink to the bottom. For very delicate just-picked micro greens that might wind up in the drain, I put them in the bowl of the salad spinner filled with cold water. The dirt sinks to the bottom and you can scoop the leaves out with your hands. Transfer the greens to the colander part of the spinner. I give them a shake in the colander portion first over the sink to remove excess water then I will start spinning. I spin and dump the excess water several times. It is also important not to overfill the salad spinner, or the water has nowhere to go, three-quarters of the way is a good stopping point. If you are not using all the greens you have prepared, store them in a gallon storage bag. I like to put a flat paper towel in the bag first to absorb any excess water. Store in the crisper drawer of your refrigerator, and be sure not to store anything on top of it.
Thinly shredded romaine was a new twist on a green salad for me. In this recipe, again from Ana Sortum in the latest issue of Fine Cooking magazine, romaine lettuce is cut crosswise into quarter inch slices almost giving it a slaw-like quality. The shredded romaine is combined with spicy arugula and a trio of fresh herbs, dill, mint and parsley. Crispy grated cucumber and toasted walnuts are added to the salad. A creamy yogurt based dressing is the perfect compliment to the greens. A little Aleppo pepper sprinkled on at the end gives a little kick.
Spring starts this week and Joe is more than ready to go out and work the soil. He started the first crop of salad greens several weeks ago in the Aerogrow and transplanted them yesterday in the greenhouse. So it won’t be long before we will be enjoying our own home grown salads.
Shredded Romaine and Cucumber Salad
Serves 4
Ingredients
For the dressing
2T fresh lemon juice
1T Champagne or Chardonnay vinegar
1 1/2t granulated sugar
1t minced garlic
1/2c plain whole milk or low fat Greek-style yogurt
1/4c plus 1T extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
For the salad
1 large head of romaine lettuce
1 English cucumber
1c baby arugula
3/4c lightly toasted walnuts, halves or pieces, reserve 2-3T for garnish
2T chopped fresh dill
1T chopped fresh mint
1T chopped fresh flat leaved parsley
Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper
1/4t Aleppo pepper or a scant 1/4t red pepper flakes
Directions
For the dressing
In a small bowl, combine the lemon juice, vinegar, sugar and garlic. Let stand for about 10 minutes to mellow the garlic. Whisk in the yogurt. Slowly drizzle in the oil, whisking constantly to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Refrigerate until ready to use. Dressing can be made up to 3 days in advance.
For the salad
Core and separate the romaine leaves, discarding any bruised or damaged outer leaves. Wash and thoroughly dry the romaine, this is important because the dressing won’t cling if the lettuce isn’t dry. Slice the leaves into 1/4 inch crosswise pieces and place into a large bowl.
Peel, halve and grate the cucumber on the large holes of a box grater. Squeeze out the excess water with your hands and add to the lettuce. Add the walnuts to the salad.
Coarsely chop the arugula and add to the bowl along with the herbs. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.
Toss the salad with dressing to coat generously. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with the Aleppo pepper and reserved walnuts and serve.
Poach (poch) verb, to take by illegal methods, in this case, as in taking all the flavor out of a chicken breast, leaving it tough, stringy and tasteless. Sound familiar? If you were offered a poached chicken breast you might be inclined to decline, and rightfully so. Cooks Illustrated has taken this classic techinque and perfected it for the home cook. It’s not that difficult or time consuming and will produce consistently good results.
Poaching is a gentle cooking method, best for delicately flavored foods, whether it be an egg, fish, or in this case, chicken. The chicken is cooked in a simmering liquid, just under the boiling point between 160°F and 180°F. Problems occur when the poaching liquid is either too cool or too hot or the cook minding the pot has left the poaching process go on too long. This method does require some watchfulness but is much easier than traditional approaches to poaching.
As with any recipe, start with the best product you can find. Just like you, your chicken shouldn’t be bloated so look for a brand that has not been injected with a saline solution. Trim away any excess fat or sinew before proceeding with the recipe. I have found that four 6-8 ounce chicken breasts are optimal. Wrap each chicken breast in plastic wrap and pound firmly on a stable surface. Your goal is to even out the thickness of the breast so you should be pounding the thicker top part to be more in line with the thinner “tail”. Whatever you do, don’t pound with the jagged side of a meat tenderizer. It will tear the meat and leave you with something unusable. I have a flat mallet expressly for this purpose but a heavy skillet or the flat side of the tenderizer will work as well.
Next step is the poaching liquid, classic French recipes usually include flavorings such as wine, lemon, stock or a bouquet garni. The chefs at Cooks Illustrated have done years of testing for various recipes to determine what flavorings will actually permeate into the cell wall of the meat. With the knowledge they have acquired over the years, they determined that salt, sugar, garlic and soy sauce would flavor the meat and still leave the chicken with a neutral flavor suitable to a wide range of recipes. Soy brings that desired “umami” or meaty, savory flavor. I chose to use a gluten-free low sodium soy sauce since salt was one of the ingredients in the poaching liquid.
You will need a very large pot to cook the breasts, enough to accomodate four quarts, a full gallon of water plus a little room at the top. A word to the wise, start with your pot on the burner and bring the water and the ingredients to it. In my case, a Le Creuset pot filled with a gallon of water is quite cumbersome and heavy to carry. Whisk the ingredients together in your pot until the salt and sugar are dissolved. Place a steamer basket, metal works best here, in the bottom of the pot. This is used to keep the breast from making contact with the bottom of the pot, allowing for the chicken to cook evenly on all sides. My steamer has a ten inch diameter when opened and comforably held the breasts without overlapping or crowding. Cover and let the pot sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. This allows the internal temperature of the breast you just recently took from the refrigerator to slowly rise. After the short brine, turn the heat on your stove to medium.
Stir the water occasionally to even out any hot spots. It should take about 15-20 minutes for the water to reach a temperature of 175°F. I used my thermapen to check every five minutes or so but clipping a thermometer to the inside of the pot works as long as you are diligent to check the temperature’s progress. When the water is at the right temperature, turn off the heat and cover the pan.
Now you have a little time to make a salad and a vinaigrette (the one that follows or your own) while the chicken cooks. Cooks Illustrated suggests that you remove the chicken at 160°F, the suggested internal temperature for poultry. I remove mine at a slighly lower temperature (155°F) knowing that the chicken will continue to rise in temperature even after it is removed from the cooking liquid. Place the chicken breasts on a piece of foil and wrap loosely.
Let chicken rest for 5 minutes. Slice the breast on a slight bias, running with the grain of the meat. I served it with a warm tomato ginger vinaigrette, an excellent accompaniment, inspired by chutney ingredients. Just remember if you are using grape tomatoes, they are meatier with a thicker skin and will not break down as easily as a cherry tomato. Serve the chicken on a bed of greens, stuff in a pita pocket or shred as a last minute addition to a soup recipe.
Wrap each chicken breast in plastic wrap and pound with the flat edge of a mallet to an even thickness.
The ingredients that flavor the chicken breast, soy, salt, sugar and garlic.
4 (6 to 8 ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed
½c soy sauce (I used gluten-free, low sodium)
¼c salt (I used kosher)
2T granulated sugar
6 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
Directions
Individually wrap each breast in plastic and pound thick ends to an even thickness with tail end, about 3/4 inch thick.
Whisk 4 quarts water, soy sauce, salt, sugar and garlic in a Dutch oven until the sugar and salt are dissolved. Arrange breasts, skinned side up in a steamer basket, making sure the breast don’t overlap. Submerge the steamer basket in the brine. Let sit at room temperature to brine for 30 minutes.
Heat the pot over medium heat, stirring occasionally to even out any hot spots. In 15-20 minutes the water should reach a temperature of 175°F. Turn off the heat, take it off the burner and cover. Let stand until meat reaches desired temperature, 155°F to 160°F, start checking temperature of the meat in the thickest part of the breast at the 15 minute mark.
Transfer breasts to a cutting board, cover with aluminum foil and let rest for 5 minutes. Slice the breast on the diagonal into 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick slices and serve.
Warm Tomato-Ginger Vinaigrette
Ingredients
¼c extra virgin olive oil
1 minced shallot
1 ½t freshly grated ginger
¼t ground cumin
1/8t ground fennel
12 ounces of cherry or grape tomatoes (halved if cherry tomatoes, quartered if grape)
Salt and pepper
1T red wine vinegar
1t packed brown sugar
2T chopped fresh cilantro or parsley
Directions
Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a 10-inch skillet until shimmering. Add shallot, garlic, cumin and fennel and cook until fragrant, about 15 seconds.
Stir in the tomatoes and a pinch of salt and cook, stirring frequently until the tomatoes have softened, 3 to 5 minutes.
Off heat stir in the vinegar and sugar and season with salt and pepper to taste, cover or put under a heat lamp to keep warm. Stir in cilantro or parsley and remaining oil just before serving.
A pile of several months worth of food magazines were accumulating so one afternoon I sat down with a stack and some sticky notes to mark the pages of the recipes that intrigued me. October’s Salad of the Month in Food and Wine demanded a second look, grilled fig salad with spiced cashews. This recipe was contributed by Ratha Chaupoly and Ben Daitz, chef-owners of the Cambodian sandwich shop, Num Pang with six locations in New York City.
The first step in making this recipe and one of the things that makes this salad quite different is cashew brittle. A good brittle should be hard, but not hard to make. They just require a bit of patience and your undivided attention. Combine sugar and a few tablespoons of water in a heavy bottomed pan over medium high heat and bring to a boil. Continue to boil over low heat undisturbed until you see a light amber caramel start to form. Immediately take the pan off the heat and whisk in butter and the ingredient that makes this brittle unique, five spice powder.
Five spice powder actually gets it name from the five elements in Chinese culture and can contain as many as ten different spices. Traditionally it is a blend of star anise, cloves, cassia or Chinese cinnamon, Szechuan peppercorns and fennel. Since it was banned in this country for many years, some premade blends swap out ginger or black pepper for Szechuan peppercorns. It adds a spicy fragrance and flavor to both sweet and savory recipes.
Since it is the middle of December I was not going to fire up the grill for the figs. A grill pan did the job quite nicely. Fresh figs this time of year come from California but nothing beats a fresh fig right off the tree. Joe is growing six varieties of fruit bearing fig trees. Our season for fresh figs is late summer through early fall. We keep a close eye on the ripening process. Too green and the figs are tasteless and watery. If left too long to ripen the figs burst open and all their sweet deliciousness becomes a treat for the bees. In our horticultural zone fig trees need to be protected in the winter. Last year’s harsh winter gave Joe concern that some of the trees might have died off. They didn’t and in addition he made new cuttings this spring to add to our tree collection.
The dressing for the salad combines traditional Chinese ingredients, rice wine vinegar, ginger, scallions and sesame oil. Be sure your sesame oil is toasted, not cold pressed, it has an amazing fragrance and a warm toasted flavor. Black sesame seeds are worth searching out, they have a richer flavor than their white counterparts. All this being said I found the dressing on it’s own to be a litttle lackluster so I added a quarter teaspoon both of oyster sauce and a spicy ginger syrup. To bring an element of salty crunch to the salad, I added some speck, a salted and cured ham that I browned in a pan.
The original recipe called for Bibb or oak leaf lettuce but I feel a mesclun mix that includes a more assertive green such as spinach or baby chard would make a better salad. I should mention too that the brittle is delicious on its own for snacking and it would be easy enough to swap out another nut or spice to make it different.
Grilled Fig Salad with Spiced Cashews
Serves 4
Adapted from Food and Wine Magazine October 2014
Ingredients
1/2c sugar
1/2T unsalted butter
1/4t Chinese five-spice powder
1 cup roasted unsalted cashews
Kosher salt
1/4c canola oil plus more for brushing
2T toasted sesame oil
2T unseasoned rice wine vinegar
3T peeled and finely grated fresh ginger
1/4t ginger juice with honey
1/4t hoisin sauce
1/3c scallions, green parts only, finely chopped
1T toasted black sesame seeds
12 fresh figs, halved
Freshly ground pepper
4c plus spring mix salad greens
Directions
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a medium saucepan, bring the sugar and 2 tablespoons of water to a boil. Boil over moderately low high, undisturbed, until a light amber caramel forms, about 5 minutes.
Using a wet pastry brush, wash down any sugar crystals on the sides of the pan. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the butter and the five spice powder. Stir in the cashews until evenly coated. Scrape the cashews onto the prepared baking sheet and spread in an even layer; season with salt to taste and cool. Break the glazed cashews into individual pieces.
In a small bowl, whisk 1/4c canola oil with the sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, ginger, ginger juice, oyster sauce, scallions and sesame seeds.
Sauté several slices of prosciutto or speck until brown. Drain on paper towels and when cool, crumble for salad.
Heat a grill pan over high heat and brush lightly with oil. Brush the cut sides of the figs with oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill over moderate heat just until lightly charred and barely juicy, about 2 minutes per side, transfer to a plate.
In a large bowl, toss the lettuce with 2/3 dressing and season with salt and pepper. Arrange the lettuce on plates and top with the ham and figs. Drizzle more dressing over the figs, sprinkle with the candied cashews and serve.
This easy brittle is worth making on its own.One of our fig trees in late August. Figs were not ripe yet.
A flavorful salad that’s a healthier alternative to mayonnaise based slaws. Crispy cabbage, celery and radishes are combined with sweet Sungold tomatoes in this very easy to make dish. Why is it considered Puerto Rican? Couldn’t find a definitive answer for that, but the addition of some sliced hearts of palm would give it a real Caribbean flair. Serve with a grilled steak or roast chicken, the leftovers keep for several days, that is, if you can keep it that long.
Puerto Rican Coleslaw
Makes about six servings
Ingredients
6-8 c finely chopped green cabbage
1 c diced small tomatoes
½ c chopped celery, if the stalks are large, cut in half lengthwise first
1/2c chopped celery leaves
6-7 radishes, cut root and stem off first, then cut into half moon slices
¼ c sliced green onion
2 T apple cider vinegar
1 t fresh lime juice
½ t kosher salt, or more to taste
¼ to 1/2t hot pepper sauce, I used sriracha sauce
3T grapeseed or canola oil
Directions
Chop up the cabbage, tomatoes and celery leaves, and slice celery, radishes and green onions, and toss into a large bowl. You can make this part ahead, place it in a container with a lid and pop it in the fridge until you’re ready to make the salad.
In a small bowl, whisk together apple cider vinegar, lime juice, salt, hot sauce and oil. Taste to see if you want to add more hot sauce.
Toss salad with the dressing. You can make this salad ahead and store it in the fridge for a few hours before you’re ready to serve.
“Gifted” with another box of Brassicas this week, I was looking for a way to use cauliflower in a fall salad. A new cookbook, Bar Tartine : Techniques and Recipes, gave me the salad I was looking for.
Opened in 2005, Bar Tartine, located in the Mission District of San Francisco is an offshoot of the highly praised San Francisco bakery, Tartine. In addition to doing their own curing, preserving and in-house fermenting, the food draws influences from countries as diverse as Norway, Japan and Hungary.
The cauliflower is broken down into tiny florets, save the rest to make cauliflower “mashed potatoes”. In a bowl with the yogurt dressing, combine the florets with cucumbers, chickpeas and mushrooms. Our garden provided me with the radishes and serrano peppers needed for this salad. I was hesitant to use the two serranos as suggested, ours get quite hot so I went with just one. The yogurt dressing tamed the chiles heat quite a bit.
Resist the urge to roast or blanch the cauliflower before adding it to the salad, if you normally dislike it raw. Marinating small florets in the dressing softens them up considerably without making them mushy. The yogurt dressing is especially good and would work well with other salad combinations.
Assembled ingredients for the yogurt dressing.
Bar Tartine Cauliflower Salad
Serves 6
Ingredients
For the dressing
1 c Greek style yogurt, regular or low fat
5T sunflower oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2T freshly squeezed lemon juice
1T red wine vinegar
1T honey
1 1/2t fine grain sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Directions for the dressing
In a bowl large enough to hold all the salad components, whisk together the yogurt, sunflower oil, garlic, lemon juice, vinegar, honey, salt and pepper to taste. If not using immediately, store dressing in an airtight container. Dressing can be made several days ahead.
Ingredients for the salad
6-8 c cauliflower, trimmed into tiny florets
2 medium cucumbers, peeled, seeded if necessary, cut into small dice
4-5 scallions, cut into 1/4″ rounds
1c cooked chickpeas, fresh is best but rinsed well and drained thoroughy if canned.
8oz mushrooms, button or shiitake, quartered
6-8 radishes, ends trimmed and thinly sliced
1 or 2 green serrano chiles, stemmed, seeded and thinly sliced
1/4c sunflower seeds, lightly toasted
1/4c each chopped fresh flat leafed parsley, dill and tarragon
Directions for the salad
Add the cauliflower, cucumbers, scallions, chickpeas, mushrooms, radishes, chilies, sunflower seeds and herbs to the bowl toss lightly and let stand for 15 minutes.
During this time the vegetables will begin to exude some liquid the cauliflower will soften. Toss again and transfer salad to a bowl. Leftovers should keep for several days, if you can keep them around that long!
Cauliflower is a master of disguises. Toss cauliflower with olive oil, salt, freshly ground pepper and herbs of your choice and roast it. The florets carmelize and develop a nutty quality, reminiscent of popcorn. Because that’s how you will consume it, like popcorn. Or simmer it until very tender, mash it up with milk and butter (or your reasonable substitute of choice) and you have a side as flavorful as any bowl of mashed potatoes.
This time cauliflower takes the place of coarsely ground bulgur in a mock tabbouleh. Taboulleh is a Lebanese herb salad with bulgur, as food historian Clifford A. Wright points out in his book, Little Foods of the Mediterranean, not a bulgur salad with herbs. The advantage of using cauliflower is that, unlike bulgur, it will not continue to expand as the dish sits. By the nature of the vegetables in it, the mock tabbouleh will exude more liquid, so be judicious in the amount of dressing you use. If you have any leftover the next day, drain any excess liquid off before serving.
This was an opportunity for me to use a new acquision in my battery of herbs and spices, sumac. Not related to the poisonous variety, it is extracted from the berries of a bush that grows wild in Mediteranean regions. The berries or drupes are ground into a reddish powder that adds an astringent lemony taste to salads or meat dishes. Combined with dried thyme and sesame seeds, it’s also part of a seasoning blend from the Middle East called z’atar.
Other additions to the salad could include chickpeas or some finely chopped bell pepper. For an “authentic” presentation, serve with romaine lettuce leaves to scoop up the tabbouleh. This is a recipe that got a big thumbs up from my hubby, who thought it tasted even better the second day.
Use quick on and off pulses to chop the cauliflower florets finely to resemble medium grain bulgur.
Cauliflower Tabboulleh
Serves 6-8
Ingredients for the Dressing
1T finely grated lemon zest
3T fresh lemon juice
1T red wine vinegar
1/3-1/2c safflower or avocado oil
1/2t ground cumin
1/2t ground sumac
1t kosher salt
1/4t freshly ground black pepper
Directions for the dressing
In a small bowl, whisk together lemon zest, lemon juice,vinegar, oil, cumin, sumac, salt and pepper. Set aside
Ingredients for the tabboulleh
6-8 c cauliflower florets, use the stem part to make cauliflower “mashed potatoes”
1c chopped cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped into 1/2″ dice
1c chopped tomato
1 1/2c fresh flat leaf parsley leaves, chopped
1/2c dill leaves, chopped
1/4-1/2c mint leaves, chopped
3-4 green onions, thinly sliced
2 cloves finely minced garlic
Directions for the tabboulleh
Chop cauliflower florets in a very fine dice, either with a box grater, by hand or in a food processor with short, quick pulses. Do not overcrowd the processor, you may have to do this in batches. The final product should resemble medium bulgur grains. Transfer the chopped cauliflower to a large bowl. Add the chopped cucumber and tomato.
Add chopped parsley, dill, mint, green onion and garlic to workbowl to chop more finely. Transfer to the bowl with the cauliflower. Gently mix to combine, add dressing and mix again. Taste for seasoning and serve.
Cool, crisp, quick and delicious, what higher praise could I bestow on a summertime salad? This best-of-summer salad brings together sweet cherry tomatoes, crunchy cucumbers, succulent watermelon and creamy salty feta.
Joe has grown more tomatoes than ever and the varieties are amazing. Indigo Blue Berries, Black Cherry, Pink Bumble Bee, Sungold, to name a few, as beautiful to behold as they are sweet and juicy to devour.
Indigo Blue Berries are a new variety this year. Like the blueberry, Indigo Blue Berry tomatoes contain high levels of anthocyanin, a naturally occuring antioxidant. Pink Bumble Bee tomatoes are a round pink cherry tomato striped with yellow and orange. The Black Cherry tomato is a deep red with a blackish hue. Sungolds are an apricot orange in color with a sweet tropical flavor.
It’s best to cut the tomatoes in half for easier eating. My serrated edge Cutco knife always gives me a neat cut through the tomato skin. I peel most of the skin from the cucumber and leave a strip of skin on for color. Scoop out the seeds if they are too large.
Another member of the cucurbit family, watermelon, brings a refreshing sweetness to the salad. The watermelon you will most likely find anywhere these days will be seedless. Over the past several years it has become increasingly difficult to find seeded watermelons. Only 10% of watermelons grown on farms in 2011 were of the seeded variety, in 2003, almost 37% were.
Seedless watermelons are not genetically modified but are “the watermelon version of the mule.” They are a sterile hybrid achieved by crossing the pollen of the normal diploid (2 sets of chromosomes) watermelon with a female flower that is a tetraploid (4 sets of chromosomes). The genetic change occurs from the use of colchicine, a chemical derived from the fall blooming crocus that impacts chromosomes and has been used for years to treat and cure gout. The resulting seeds from these two plants are triploids (3 sets of chromosomes) and will produce sterile seedless watermelons. The white seeds, also known as “pips” you may find in your seedless watermelons are hollow seed coats that didn’t mature.
Seedless or seeded, which type tastes better? Is it just nostalgia, do we fear the end of the days of watermelon seed spitting contests? If you still want seeds in your watermelon you may find those varieties at your farmers market or you may just need to grow your own.
As someone who always likes to sprinkle a little salt on her watermelon, feta just seems like a natural addition to this flavor combination. Feta brings both a creamy texture and a contrasting saltiness that brings out the flavors of the other elements of this salad. The simplest of dressings and a scattering of fresh basil and you have a great summer salad, colorful and easy to put together, a refreshing addition to any barbecue or cookout.
Pink Bumble Bee is a new addition to our tomato selection this year.The Indigo Blue Berry is definitely blue, when ripe it develops a reddish hue.
Tomato Cucumber and Watermelon Salad
Serves four
Ingredients
2c assorted cherry tomatoes, halved
1 1/2c medium diced seedless watermelon
1 large cucumber, peeled, quartered, seeded if necessary, cut into 3/4″ pieces
3/4c feta cheese, cut into half inch cubes
1/4c fresh mini basil leaves or large leaves torn into small pieces
1T extra virgin olive oil
1T lemon juice
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
Directions
Put the cherry tomatoes, watermelon, cucumber, feta and basil in a large bowl.
In a small bowl whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, 1/4t salt and a 1/4t fresh ground pepper. Drizzle the dressing over the salad and toss gently to coat.
