Mod Meals on Mendenhall

My father and I are believers that a meal is not complete without a salad. I grew up in the kitchen with my parents and most of the time I was in charge of preparing the evening salad. To this day, I still make the salad when I’m home.

Around this time of year we tend to get bored with salads. Seriously, you can only eat so many of them in this cold weather and they can get redundant if you only use tomatoes and cucumbers (especially since you can’t find any good ones). I went to the market this weekend looking for a few extra treats to add to our Saturday night salads. I found some small beets which I roasted in just a touch of olive oil (Put them whole into aluminum foil, drizzle with olive oil and bake at 375 for about an hour or until a knife goes through easily. Peal and cut!). The beets combined well with the grapefruit I’m still eating from my trip to Florida and an avocado from the Super G Mart. I dusted the entire salad with good Pecorino Romano cheese before serving. I loved this combination!

I made a quick lemon vinaigrette with salt, pepper, sugar, minced garlic, lemon juice and olive oil. I make this dressing to taste – less lemon depending on how tart the fruit is  and a touch more sugar to make the balance correct. If you have sweeter things on your salads – dried fruits or candied nuts – I add more lemon and less sugar. It’s all about experimenting. Whisk away – dip a leaf of lettuce to taste and adjust until it is right! Also, don’t drown your leaves – this is something I still work on. You only need a light amount of vinaigrette on lettuce leaves or they will become too heavy and wet.

Enjoy challenging yourself to get creative with salads this winter! I’ll try to post some new ideas as I test ideas too!

This is another simple salad from items around my kitchen. A fall apple, some leftover blue cheese in the fridge and pumpkin seeds left over from chocolate truffle making last month. I think it is fun to make salads this way and pair them with a vinaigrette that matches the salad’s style. I also think that whole unwashed heads of lettuce are underrated these days. I’ll admit, it’s great to get lettuce in a bag that is already washed and prepared – but whole head of red leaf lettuce torn into a bowl brings me back to my roots! Washing and drying lettuce was a childhood chore of mine and I’m happy to return to the duty from time to time. Red leaf lettuce is also more tender than romaine which pairs well with a light lemon & honey dressing. Mix a salad up from your kitchen sometime and get your creative juices flowing – or just try this recipe.

Fall Salad with Apples and Blue Cheese

• 1 head red leaf lettuce, washed, dried and torn
• 1 apple, cored and sliced
• blue cheese crumbles
• roasted and salted pumpkin seeds
• 1 lemon
• olive oil
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• salt & pepper

I found out this weekend that fennel is “finocchio” in Italian. I mostly like that because it sounds like Pinocchio although the Italian expert among the Yardbirds says that Pinocchio means “pine”. Wikipedia agrees. My finocchio salad had good reviews from all the Yardbirds on Thursday night. It was a crisp contrast to the rich Sausage and Lentil Soup. I like the salad because it far from predictable and highlights an under-utilized vegetable (finocchio that is). Fennel also is great friends with its other crunchy and green fruits and vegetables – the granny smith apple and celery. In the spirit of Pinocchio, perhaps one day I’ll be granted enough time to write a children’s book on them  (finocchio that is).

PS: Isn’t this salad pretty in my new Heath Ceramics Bowl?

Fresh Fennel, Celery and Apple Salad

• 1 head celery, thinly chopped against the grain
• 2 small heads of fennel, thinly sliced
• 1 granny smith apple, jullianned
• 1 handful parsley, roughly chopped

Lemon Vinaigrette

• 1 and a half lemon juiced
• a coating of olive oil
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• salt and pepper, to taste

Whisk together the dressing in the bottom of a large bowl. You’ll want th dressing to be tart and a bit salty to contract with the sweet and crisp (crisp is a nice way of saying that celery can be bland) vegetables. Chop the veggies by hand or use a mandolin – I was too lazy to get mine out of the cabinet. Add the celery, fennel, apple and parsley on top of the vinaigrette. Toss to coat. Taste for seasoning.

We had two guests for dinner that were not watermelon fans. One was my mother who tried to escape trying this salad of Grilled Watermelon and Feta Cheese. Luckily, I was next to her when arranging our plates in the dining room. When she skipped the watermelon and stole the cheese I asked her why she didn’t want to try it. She said she just couldn’t get around the idea of grilled watermelon. I told that wasn’t the manners my mom taught me! And, she agreed to try it. Later on she admitted that she loved the dish – and brought the watermelon out to the table to finish it. You never know until you try it!

Grilled Watermelon and Feta Salad

• thick slices of watermelon
• thick slices of feta cheese
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• fresh dill
• fresh mint

A couple of weeks ago I was treated to a great evening at Rue Cler in downtown Durham. The highlight of the meal was a salad course of fresh summer tomatoes, cucumbers and beets in a creamy chevre dressing.  The key to this salad was the freshness of the ingredients (their menu changes monthly to keep up with the seasons) and the fact that the tomatoes were seasoned really well with good quality salt. Beets have never been a favorite of mine, but I came home thinking about how beautiful and delicious that salad was. In an effort to expand my diet and take advantage of the beauty of summer vegetables, I recreated this salad over the weekend. This recipe is very close to the original. It is light and fresh and an incredible purple color. I ate it solo on Saturday night while I was home experienting. I served it the following night to a friend with a simple grilled steak, good cheese and bread.  

The Durham restaurant scene is fantastic and seems to be gaining a lot of press these days. Check it out next time you are looking for something new and different. In the meantime, make this salad while the season is so tasty.

Goat Cheese Buttermilk Dressing:

• 1 handful fresh basil
• 2 scallions
• 4 ounces goat cheese
• 4 tablespoons buttermilk
• 3 or 4 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• white pepper
• salt

In a food processor, mince basil and scallions. Add goat cheese buttermilk, vinegar to taste and consistancy. Season with salt and pepper.

Summer Tomato, Cucumber and Beet Salad, serves 2 or 3 people

• 1 good summer tomato, heirloom if you are looking to splurg
• 3 fresh beats
• 1 garden cucumber
• fleur de sel, or other good salt
• olive oil
• Goat Cheese and Buttermilk Dressing

Drizzle the beets with olive oil and wrap the beets in aluminum foil. Roast the beets at 425 degrees for an hour (or until tender) in the oven. Allow the beets to cool and then remove the skin (you should be able to rub it off with your fingers). Chop into medium sized chunks. Peel the cucumber and remove the seeds with a spoon. Chop the cucumber in similar sized chunks as the beets. Dress the cucumbers and beets with the Goat Cheese and Buttermilk Dressing.

Slice the tomatoes very thin, layer them on a plate and season liberally with fleur de sel. Drizzle with olive oil (optional). Top tomatoes with big scoops of purple beet and cucumber mixture. Season with fresh basil – if you’d like.

This month I was inspired to put a twist on boring broccoli by Food & Wine magazine. Who would ever think to grill broccoli? They did – and it was a fabulous idea. I put my own twist on the recipe by adding some of my pickled onions and a bit of raw sugar to the dressing. With the addition of sugar, I skipped the golden onions in F&W’s recipes – although they would have been a fun addition.

This salad is really different and an extremely fun way to wake up the salads in your life. I suggest you try it. It would be good for an entrée lunch or aside a nice piece of grilled meat or fish.

Grilled Broccoli and Bread Salad with Pickled Onions and Pine Nuts inspired by Food & Wine Magazine

Ingredients:

Dressing:

• Zest and Juice of 1 large lemon
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
• 1 teaspoon minced rosemary
• 1 large pinch raw sugar
• 1 small pinch salt
• freshly ground pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 large head of broccoli
• french bread
• pine nuts
• pickled onions

Assembly: Cut the broccoli into medium-sized wedges (bulky enough to grill but not too large that it will take forever). Slice a portion of a baguette in half. Drizzle bread and broccoli with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Put on a hot grill for about 4 minutes on eat side. Close the grill to allow the broccoli to cook through – you’ll notice this happening if the broccoli starts to get bright green.

Meanwhile, whisk together all the ingredients for the dressing. Taste for seasoning. Add the hot broccoli into a bowl with the dressing and cover with plastic. The steam will help cook the broccoli through. Chop bread into croutons. Once cooked to your liking, toss with bread, pickled onions and pine nuts. Enjoy!

With Spring upon us and winter hibernation concluding, the days are brighter longer but time seems to be stretched more and more. Most of my time at home seems to be consumed with Spring cleaning and backyard upkeep. Although getting out my weed wacker and sinus medication didnt come with much whining as I was pleased to enjoy sometime outside (my pale pale legs were grateful too).

With all the time spent in the garden, I’ve been looking for really easy, simple and fresh recipes for weeknight meals. I was particularly inspired by a post on What Katie Ate for a Poached Salmon Salad with Chick Peas and Fried Capers – but wanted to make the recipe easier by skipping the poaching and frying. Red radishes are in season and were irresistible at the store so I through them in for crunch and color. This salad was refreshing and a good healthy and hearty mid-week dinner. I enjoyed it with a glass of white wine while I caught up on all my favorite cooking and design blogs. The leftovers kept up well overnight too.

Salmon Salad with Capers, Chick Peas, Radishes and Arugula adapted from What Katie Ate

• 1 small piece of wild salmon
• 4 radishes, sliced thin
• 1 can chick peas, drained and rinsed
• 3 teaspoons capers
• several handfuls arugula
• feta cheese, crumbled
• lemon
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

Season the salmon with salt and pepper. In a hot pan, with a small drizzle of olive oil, sear the salmon on both sides until cooked through. Allow to cool off. While salmon is cooling, whisk together the juice of one lemon, a pinch of salt and pepper to taste (sometimes I add a pinch of natural sugar too). Whisk in olive oil until desired consistancy. Toss radishes, check peas, arugula and capers together. Plate and top with salmon and feta.