05.01.09
Posted in Dinner, Fish, Salads, Seafood, Sides, Veggies at 10:27 pm by julie
I sent Jeremy to the store for a few end-of-month pantry staples, and he came home with lamb shanks and halibut steaks. We usually get fillets because fish bones still sort of wig me out, but steaks are definitely more affordable. The recipe I chose, potato-crusted halibut steaks, came together without too much difficulty: I was able to flip them without losing the potato crust and only doing minor splash damage to my hand. The caper-anchovy mayo binder added some great flavor to the fish, but I could take or leave the wine-based sauce; it was difficult even to taste it, and I’ve left it off the recipe below.
To go along with the fish, I made an unusual salad of sauteed red cabbage and wilted spinach in a balsamic vinaigrette which hit the perfect note—heartier than your standard salad, more interesting than cole slaw, with a tang and slight sweetness that set off the savory fish, and a much-needed burst of color on the plate. The cabbage and pancetta got pretty dark on the bottom over the medium heat called for, so I’ve adjusted the recipe slightly to compensate for next time. In all, this was a pretty impressive meal, the sort that would be excellent served to company.
Potato-Crusted Halibut Steaks
1/4 C mayonnaise
1 T chopped drained capers
4 flat anchovies, rinsed, patted dry, and chopped fine
six 1-inch-thick boneless halibut steaks (each about 7 ounces)
3/4 lb russet (baking) potatoes (about 1 1/2)
2 T olive oil plus additional if necessary
Preheat oven to 400°F. and lightly oil a shallow baking pan. In a small bowl stir together mayonnaise, capers, anchovies, and salt and pepper to taste. Pat halibut steaks dry and season with salt and pepper. Spread mayonnaise mixture evenly on top of steaks.
Peel potatoes and quarter lengthwise. Grate potatoes coarsely, preferably using a food processor. Do not rinse or squeeze potatoes. Immediately pat a heaping 1/4 cup potato evenly on mayonnaise mixture on each steak. (By moving quickly, you avoid letting the potatoes brown, and the starch from shredding them will help adhere them to the fish. I also didn’t bother peeling my potatoes.)
In a 12-inch non-stick skillet heat 2 tablespoons oil over moderate heat until hot but not smoking. Carefully arrange 2 steaks, potato sides down, in oil and cook, pressing down occasionally with a slotted spatula, about 5 minutes, or until potato is golden brown and cooked through. Carefully invert steaks (potato sides should be up) and season with salt and pepper. Repeat procedure with remaining steaks, adding more oil to skillet if necessary. Bake steaks in pan in middle of oven 10 to 15 minutes, or until just cooked through.
Source: Epicurious.
Red Cabbage and Warm Spinach Salad
1 garlic clove, minced
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp honey
1 1/2 T balsamic vinegar
2 1/2 T extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 C pine nuts (I used sliced almonds)
2 oz sliced pancetta (Italian unsmoked cured bacon), chopped
1 lb red cabbage, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
1 (5-oz) bag baby spinach, any tough stems discarded
Make vinaigrette: Mash garlic with salt to a paste. Whisk together garlic paste, mustard, honey, and vinegar, then add oil in a stream, whisking until emulsified.
Make salad: Toast nuts in a dry large heavy skillet over moderate heat, stirring frequently, until beginning to turn golden, about 2 minutes. Remove nuts and add pancetta; cook until browned and crisp, about 2 minutes. Remove pancetta and add cabbage; cook, covered, over medium low heat until wilted and just tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Reduce heat to low and add spinach, stirring gently until it just begins to wilt. Remove pan from heat. Add vinaigrette, nuts, pancetta, and toss.
Source: Epicurious.
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11.19.08
Posted in Dinner, Fish, Lunch, Salads, Seafood at 11:53 am by julie
I’ve got a few tried and true salmon recipes that I make over and over, but they get boring after a while so I keep trying to mix it up. Here are a few I tried out on portions of a huge, beautiful fillet of salmon we cooked up a few weeks ago. Above is a simply baked piece of salmon over couscous with a lemon thyme beurre blanc sauce. It was very tasty, and a quick-fix meal for a night that I had very little available time. If I’d had my head on straight, I would have thrown some broccoli on to steam, because that would go beautifully with the beurre blanc as well.
This one was another simply cooked salmon, grilled this time, and topped with a balsamic glaze. I took my eye off the glaze for a bit too long thanks to the baby, so it was black and syrupy in the extreme. It tasted alright, but wasn’t particularly memorable; I’d make it again only if I was scrounging for a recipe to make from pantry ingredients, and even then I’d turn to that beurre blanc first. I served it with rice and some baby spinach sauteed with garlic and olive oil.
This salad, made with the fraction of the fillet I had left after two full meals, was the best recipe of the bunch. I just cut the salmon into strips, pan-roasted it skin-side first, and placed it over a salad of greens, roasted red pepper, and the mustard vinaigrette from the Macrina Bakery Cookbook
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Mustard Vinaigrette
1 T Dijon mustard
1 T sherry vinegar
1 T finely chopped shallots
1 tsp honey
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme
3/4 C extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshy ground pepper
In a small bowl, combine everything but olive oil and S/P. Whisk in the olive oil very slowly to form an emulsion, then season with S/P to taste.
Source: Leslie Mackie’s Macrina Bakery & Cafe Cookbook, p. 207.
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07.09.08
Posted in American, Cuisines, Dinner, Eggs, French, Lunch, Salads at 9:53 am by julie
We had a good 4th of July weekend. For me, that constitutes getting to leave the house a glorious three times, including trips to the grocery store and farmer’s market. Nolan had never been to either place, and he was quite a champ, looking around quietly from his sling while we shopped. At the grocery store, we picked up fixings for an all-American sort of dinner: New York strip steaks, baby spinach for a classic salad with hot bacon vinaigrette, and (at Jeremy’s request) Boston baked beans. The steaks were coated in a mixture of oil and clarified butter and seasoned aggressively with salt and pepper, then cooked to a perfect medium on our cast iron grill. The salad was a tasty complement, with crisp bacon, sweet shallot, and hard-boiled egg.
At the farmer’s market the next day, our score included white asparagus, three kinds of wild mushrooms, dinosaur kale, and a big head of frisee lettuce. I would have liked to get more, but I couldn’t carry much with the baby, and Jeremy had his hands full with Freyja, who was in rare form trying to keep our little herd together. (Every time I went into a booth to buy something, she whined something fierce. Everyone stared at her, and several people commented on how protective she was being of me. She just wouldn’t let me out of her sight.) Anyway, I decided to use the frisee to make us another classic salad with eggs and bacon for lunch that day: a bistro salad with poached eggs and a sherry vinaigrette. Its similarity to the spinach salad was not lost on me, but the overall effect was quite different, mostly due to the extreme bitterness of the frisee. Tasty as it was, I think I prefer this salad in its fried egg sandwich incarnation, which cuts down on the volume of frisee.
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11.09.07
Posted in Dinner, Salads at 11:41 pm by julie
An easy, elegant dinner tonight: pan-grilled New York strip steaks with roasted garlic bread and a salad.
Because the main course was so straightforward, I decided to have a bit of fun with the salad. I never seem to be able to find goat cheese in larger than a 4-oz log, so it is a good thing there are only two of us. I sliced off 4 medallions of cheese, squeezing the broken bits back together, and dipped them in a bit of egg white and then seasoned bread crumbs. They waited briefly in the fridge while I got the steaks going and some walnuts toasted. Then I quickly cooked them up in a non-stick skillet while tossing baby spinach with bits of toasted walnut, dried cherries and balsamic vinaigrette. It was delicious and felt well-balanced, and the goat cheese was easier to deal with than I had anticipated. No recipe needed!
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09.01.07
Posted in Dinner, Leftovers, Meats, Pork and Ham, Salads, Sides at 1:11 pm by julie
For dinner last weekend, I decided to be adventurous and make a spice-rubbed pork tenderloin with pomegranate reduction and some vanilla-sweet potato puree (the latter of which we first tried last Thanksgiving). We already had the pork and the pomegranate juice at home, so we stopped by the store for some sweet potatoes and cream. I let Jeremy choose the sweet potatoes (they were labeled “yams,” but we know the difference, right?), and he picked out 4 big ones that turned out to weigh 3.5 lbs, which was 2 lbs more than I needed for the recipe. So we doubled it and then some. We also got some romaine hearts for a salad.
I cooked both pork tenderloins in my package, but turned out not to actually like the taste of the pork much, either with the spice rub, or the pomegranate reduction, which was incredibly sour (“slightly tart,” my eye!). I ate more sweet potatoes than I ever have before, which amounted to 4 or 5 forkfuls. Then I filled my stomach with salad, which was the best part of the meal, to my mind. I made some quick Caesar salad dressing from Cooking Light and tossed that with the romaine and some Parmesan curls. We forgot to get some appropriate bread for making croutons, so I had to leave them out, and frankly, to my taste, they’re the best part of a salad. Can you tell I’m still a barely reformed salad-hater? Anyway, this Caesar salad was very quick and easy to make, and all the ingredients are pantry items, at least in my house.
I won’t post the recipe for the pork or sweet potatoes, because I just followed the recipes. I will note, however, that any leftover sweet potatoes (and we had a vast amount left) can be made into delicious sweet potato-pecan pancakes. I’ve also been considering sweet potato biscuits, cinnamon rolls, and/or ice cream, because using 3/4 C on pancakes made little to no dent in our remaining stash.
Creamy Caesar Salad
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 C nonfat mayonnaise (we use SmartBalance)
2 T red wine vinegar
2 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 anchovy fillets
1/4 tsp pepper
Drop ingredients into a mini-prep food processor or blender, and process until well-blended. Cover and chill at least 1 hour. Toss with torn romaine leaves, grated or shaved Parmesan cheese, and fresh garlic croutons, and serve.
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07.06.07
Posted in Fish, Lunch, Salads, Seafood at 3:19 pm by julie
A few weeks back, I posted my standard tuna pasta salad recipe with peas and dill. Well, summer is just the time for pasta salads, I guess, because on the 4th I made another one for lunch, but it wasn’t the same old salad.
You see, I have a precious stockpile of oil-packed Italian tuna in the pantry that I refuse to use on your typical mayo-based tuna salad. It just seems wrong; I keep water-packed albacore on hand for that sort of thing, but we had run out after a lunch of tuna melts a week or two ago. So although Jeremy was requesting more tuna melts, I started rummaging through the kitchen for some alternate ideas. Let’s see: besides the good tuna, I had whole wheat rotini, a container of crumbled feta, some already-chopped sweet onion, a handful of baby spinach with a looming expiration date, and a big mug of asparagus ever so slowly shriveling away from neglect (caused by asparagus overload). My brain wandered to a salad recipe I had seen in this month’s Cooking Light, asparagus ribbons with goat cheese and tomato in a lemony dressing. Although my asparagus was in no condition for being ribbonized, I could slice it and blanch it, tossing it together with the pasta, feta, veggies and tuna for a lightly dressed lemony pasta salad. So that’s what I did. And it was darn good, too. Tuna melts…pah!
Tuna Pasta Salad with Asparagus and Feta
All the amounts in this recipe are estimated, because I just made it up on the fly, tasting as I went and making adjustments. If anything, I would have liked more lemony flavor, and if I’d had a fresh lemon to juice, I would also have added some fresh zest to the dressing.
1/2 box whole wheat rotini
1/2 lb or a large handful of asparagus, woody stems removed
1/2 C sweet onion, finely chopped
2 cans Italian oil-packed tuna
Double handful baby spinach leaves
1/2 feta cheese, crumbled
1/3 C lemon juice
2 T coarse-grained mustard
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp dried lemon peel
Pinch sugar
1/2 C extra virgin olive oil, or enough to emulsify dressing
Fresh ground pepper to taste
Boil a large pot full of salted water and add pasta; cook according to package directions, about 13 minutes. Meanwhile, slice asparagus into 1″ pieces and make vinaigrette: Whisk together lemon juice, mustard, salt, lemon peel and sugar, and whisk in olive oil in a slow stream until emulsified. When pasta is 2-3 minutes from being done, add asparagus to pasta water. Drain when pasta is al dente and asparagus is tender-crisp, and run under cold water to bring down to about room temperature.
Transfer to a large salad or mixing bowl, and immediately stir in spinach and onion. Add tuna, feta, and dressing; taste, and adjust seasoning. Serve at room temperature or chilled.
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06.03.07
Posted in Dinner, Fish, Lunch, Pastas, Salads, Seafood at 8:10 am by julie
I went to the grocery store Tuesday night and came back loaded down (quite literally) with good things to eat, with visions of wonderful meals dancing in my mind’s eye: lamb keftedes, wild sockeye salmon fillets in red pepper sauce with fresh snow peas, pork tenderloins cooked wild-boar style with shiitakes, asparagus-goat cheese pizza with caramelized onions. Plopped down on the sofa with a glass of iced tea, and asked Jeremy if anything in particular sounded good for dinner. “Something cold,” was the answer. “How about tuna pasta salad?”
As soon as the weather warms up, this is what I get. I’ve been making this very basic pasta salad for Jeremy since we first got married—or maybe even before—long before I had any cooking skills to speak of. He still requests it all the time, though, so out of respect for that staying power, I’ll post a how-to for this summer stand-by.
Dilled Tuna Pasta Salad
This isn’t a recipe, because I don’t use one or even measure. Make it to your own preferences, tasting frequently along the way to make sure you’re on the right track.
Pasta: I always make this salad with farfalle. I think there may have once been an actual recipe, and if so, it called for farfalle. They are certainly suited to this type of salad, but you could always make it with rotini or wagon wheels or really anything you have on hand. Probably ribbon noodles wouldn’t work as well as shapes. Orecchiette would be good for nestling peas and chunks of tuna, but then, it’s just the best. 
Jeremy always wants lots of salad for leftovers, so I have started making a whole box of pasta at once (should be about a pound); just do it according to the package directions… I think my farfalle called for 11 minutes of cook time. Drain it and give it a little while to cool, then dump it in a big bowl.
Tuna: Don’t use your expensive oil-packed Italian-imported tuna for this. It’s an extremely American salad, so I used good old water-packed albacore, as high quality as possible. Dump your tuna onto the pasta and break it up into bite-sized chunks. For a full box of pasta, I use 2 6-oz cans of tuna.
Veggies: The primary veggie in this salad is peas. I use frozen ones, and I just run them under hot water in a colander long enough to thaw them out. I use a few handfuls; I have small hands, so it’s probably still less than a cup altogether. If you want more peas, chuck them in. I find that too many more just sink to the bottom instead of clinging to the farfalle, and your last bowl is mostly pea salad with garnishes of tuna and pasta. If I am not feeling too wilted with heat, I finely chop some sweet onion—about half an onion, I guess—and throw that in as well. This is all I add, but you could certainly throw in a variety of other chopped veggies, whatever you have in the crisper that sounds appealing.
Dressing: Yup, this is your basic mayo dressing. I always used to use light Miracle Whip, because that’s what I grew up with. Now we use SmartBalance mayo, which we like a lot. Actually everything we’ve tried from SmartBalance is great: margarine, peanut butter, microwave popcorn. I just dollop it on the pile of pasta, tuna and veggies, and stir it through, adding a bit more as needed, just to get everything lightly coated—not drowned in white goo. For a full box of pasta, I probably had to use at least a cup of mayo, maybe 1.5 cups.
Seasonings: You could stir this into your mayo beforehand if you have a pretty good idea how much you’ll need, but I just do it on the fly. The main seasoning is dill, which, for me, is the smell of summer. I use dried dill because I always have it around, but I would happily use fresh dill if I had some. Maybe I can still find a place to squeeze a dill plant in my herb garden… Anyway, for a salad this size, I think I ended up using at least a tablespoon of dried dill. Then a generous sprinkle of kosher salt and a grind or two of pepper. If I was lazy and didn’t feel like chopping onions, I might add some (foodies, avert your eyes) onion and/or garlic powder for zing. A splash of fresh lemon juice or some zest would likely be a nice addition, but it’s not part of my usual recipe, so I’ve never tried it.
And there you have it: a simple tuna pasta salad to appease your husband in hot weather. Jeremy doesn’t mind eating this at room temperature, just after I finish mixing it up. I need it to be cold or I won’t eat it at all. It keeps in the fridge for a few days of lunches, though it never lasts long at our house.
Update 8/5/08: I finally got over my mental block against using Italian tuna in my pasta salad, partly because we didn’t have anything else, and it was darned hot today. I made a slight adjustment to my usual mix also, using steamed green beans cut into 1″ segment in place of peas, and adding some Dijon to the dressing. I also went a bit light on the mayo and added some of the tuna oil as a lubricant. It was delicious, even at room temperature, at which I usually turn up my nose.
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02.26.07
Posted in Cuisines, French, Lunch, Salads, Sides at 10:46 am by julie
I made this for lunch yesterday, and it came out beautifully. My adaptations are reflected in the recipe; I only had frozen shallot, so I left it out of the vinaigrette, and we didn’t miss it. The bacon was a perfect foil for the lentils, and was cut into small enough pieces (sliced lengthwise once, then across) that it didn’t overpower the lentils themselves. I also used frozen onion, and it worked fine. I added a bit of extra salt and vinegar just before serving, and Jeremy commented that it was perfectly seasoned. Definitely a recipe to make again (and again).
Salad of Lentilles de Puy
This lentil salad best when the sautéed carrots and onions are just-tender, then mixed into the warm lentils along with the vinaigrette.
3/4 C French green lentilles de Puy
1 bay leaf
a few springs of fresh thyme
salt and freshly-ground pepper
1 carrot, peeled and finely diced
1/2 a onion, peeled and finely diced
1 slice thick applewood-smoked bacon, finely diced
1 T red wine or sherry vinegar
3 T high quality extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 tsp Dijon mustard
Rinse the lentils and remove any foreign matter. Transfer the lentils to a large saucepan, about 6 quarts, then cover with a copious amount of water, which should cover the lentils by at least 3-4 inches. Add the bay leaf and thyme. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, add a bit of salt, and simmer for 20-25 minutes, until the lentils are just tender, adding more water if necessary. Be sure not to overcook them. While the lentils are cooking, mix together the ingredients for the vinaigrette in a bowl large enough to hold everything. When the lentils are done, drain them well, then toss them in the vinaigrette with the cooked vegetables; remove bay leaf and thyme sprigs. Stir a few times to release the steam, and add some fresh thyme leaves, if desired.
Now cook the bacon in a skillet; when crisp, add it to the lentils along with a bit of bacon fat. Remove remaining excess fat, leaving a teaspoon or so, and add the carrots and onions. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring frequently until tender. Add to the lentils and bacon, taste, and season with more vinegar, salt and pepper, if desired. Serve warm or at room temperature. About 3 servings. Cooked lentils will keep in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. They can be reheated in a pan on the stovetop or in a microwave. Some other ideas:
*Dress the lentils with less vinaigrette and omit the mustard. When the lentils are cool, dress them right before serving with a very good-quality walnut or hazelnut oil and a handful of toasted nuts.
*Once cool, add a big handful of chopped flat-leaf parsley and more fresh thyme or savory.
*Add other root vegetables, like celery root or parsnips. Oven roast cubes of them in olive oil with salt and pepper until browned, then add them with the vinaigrette.
*Stir a spoonful of duck fat into the warm lentils.
*Crumble coarse chunks of fresh goat cheese into the room temperature lightly-dressed lentils. This is particularly good drizzled with walnut or hazelnut oil.
Source: Adapted from David Lebovitz.
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02.05.07
Posted in Salads, Veggies at 3:31 pm by julie
Now that I don’t flat-out reject salads, I have begun looking around for interesting salad dressings that fit in with my salad principles. This is one I found that I have been quite pleased with, and it makes a decent amount of dressing. I can safely say it makes enough for two large dinner salads (well, large for the two of us, anyhow) and a few individual lunch salads to boot. It only really thickened up after some time in the fridge, but kept nicely.
Green Salad with Pear Vinaigrette
1 very ripe pear
1/2 C white wine
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tsp dijon mustard
1/4 C white wine vinegar
2 tsp fresh thyme
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp sugar, or to taste
1/2 C olive oil
To make the vinaigrette, peel the pear, cut it into quarters and remove the core. Place the pear pieces in a small pot with the wine. Cook over medium heat, turning the pear pieces to ensure even cooking, until the wine has mostly evaporated and the pear is quite soft. Transfer to a food processor.
Add the garlic, mustard, vinegar, thyme, sugar, salt, and pepper and blend thoroughly. While blending, drizzle in the olive oil slowly until you achieve a thick, emulsified dressing. Taste and adjust seasoning before dressing salad.
Salad variants I’ve made with this dressing:
1. Mix of romaine and baby spinach, toasted walnuts, red onion, gorgonzola, and pomegranate arils.
2. Romaine hearts, pom arils, and sugared walnuts.
3. Mixed baby greens, almond praline, pom arils, goat cheese.
4. Baby romaine/herb salad mix, slivers of Granny Smith apple, goat cheese, and candied pecans.
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01.06.07
Posted in Salads at 11:38 am by julie
I finally ventured away from our house salad, and have started looking around for other potential salad dressings. I hit on this one because I was planning on making a chicken dish for dinner with cherry-marsala sauce, and wanted something to complement that. As it turned out, the salad had so much more flavor than the chicken that I wished I had eaten the latter first. I won’t be making the chicken dish again, but the salad will be going into our rotation for sure.
We made this salad with spring mix greens. I left out the onion and used some candied pecans we had made previously. The cheese was a fantastic Ciresa Mountain blue gorgonzola from Whole Foods. For the dried cherry vinaigrette, I used about 1/4 C minced shallots, and pureed the finished vinaigrette in the Cuisinart before making the salad. It made enough for at least 2 days of salad for the two of us.
Gorgonzola and Dried Cherry Salad
1 head of leafy green lettuce, washed, dried, and torn into bite-sized pieces
(or prepackaged spring mix greens)
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1 Granny Smith apple, thinly sliced
1/2 C sugared pecans
dried cherry vinaigrette* or raspberry vinaigrette
1/2 C crumbled gorgonzola cheese
Toss the lettuce, onion, apple, pecans and cherries in a large salad bowl. Pour on enough dressing to coat and toss the salad. Garnish with gorgonzola before serving.
Dried Cherry Vinaigrette
1/2 C olive oil
2 shallots, finely chopped
1/3 C sherry or red wine vinegar
1/4 C pitted unsweetened dried cherries, chopped
2 tsp sugar
salt and freshly ground pepper
To make the vinaigrette, heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the shallots and saute for about 2 minutes, or until softened. Add the vinegar and boil for 1 minute. Add the dried cherries, salt and pepper, and heat through for 1 minute longer. Taste for seasoning and allow to cool. Puree in the food processor.
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