Baby Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing
Serves 2 for dinner, or 4 as a side-dish

4 slices of bacon, diced
1 shallot, fine mince (or an 1/8 cup finely minced red onion, if you must)
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar — no substitutes this time.  this is the real deal.
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp dried mustard
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 package baby spinach (about 6 cups)
1 cup white mushrooms, sliced paper thin (about half a small package)
1/4 cup red onion, sliced paper thin
2 hard-boiled eggs, cut into wedges

Go ahead and put your eggs on to boil.  Seriously, I know you don’t have any sitting around in your fridge.  For the record, I like to start mine in cold water, bring to a rapid boil over high heat, cover and switch the heat off.  20 minutes later the eggs are perfectly cooked.  Then drop the whole pan under the faucet and run cool water in until the eggs are chilled enough to handle.

While the eggs are cooking, drop the bacon into a large skillet over medium heat.  The closer the bacon gets to done, the lower I drop the heat.  It takes 7-10 minutes for the bacon to get beautifully golden and crispy.  Remove with slotted spoon and let the bacon drain on a paper towel while you finish the dressing.

You should have about 3 tbsps of drippings left in the pan. Add some olive oil if you’re short to round it out. Gently saute the shallot over medium heat until its lovely and golden.  Now add the vinegar, sugar, mustards, a healthy grind of pepper and a pinch of salt and whisk to combine, scraping up all the little bacony bits that stuck to the pan.  Allow to simmer for 1-2 minutes so the dressing can thicken up and for some of the bite of the vinegar to cook off. If you really feel the need to wilt your baby spinach, or if you’re using the adult spinach leaves, toss the greens into the skillet for the last 30-60 seconds of cooking, being sure to flip/stir the spinach to ensure even wilting.

In a large bowl, combine the spinach, mushrooms and red onions and toss gently. Pour the warm dressing straight from the skillet into the bowl and quickly toss to coat evenly.  Now sprinkle over those yummy bacony bits.  You forgot about them, didn’t you?  No you didn’t, you’ve been snacking on them the whole time you’ve been cooking.  Wait, that was me.

Season the egg wedges with a bit of salt.  Serve the salad in a big bowl with the wedges of egg adorning the outsides.  Look at that, what a pro.

Asparagus Soup
Serves 4

2 lbs asparagus
1 sweet onion, small dice
3 tbsp butter
6 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup creme fraiche (or an additional 1/4 cup heavy cream + 1 tbsp lemon juice)
2 tbsp lemon juice

Alright, first step is to prep the asparagus.  Start by trimming off the woodsy bottom.  The thicker the stalks are, the more you’ll have to trim.  Then cut off the spear tops about 1 1/2 inches down and halve lengthwise. If your asparagus are pencil-thin, you can skip the halving, but its a pretty touch on the larger stalks.  Set these aside in a microwave safe bowl.  Chop the remaining stalks into 1/2 inch pieces.

In a large pot over medium-high heat, saute onions in butter about 4 minutes.  Add the chopped asparagus (not the tips) and a good pinch of salt and saute an additional 4 minutes.  Add the stock and bring to a boil, then lower the heat to keep the pot at a busy simmer.  Start checking your asparagus for doneness after 15 minutes.  You want the pieces softer than you would normally cook asparagus for easy blending.  It took mine about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, add a little water to your asparagus tips, cover tightly and microwave for 2-3 minutes.  You’re looking for al dente on these guys, so go shy on the time.

Back to the stock pot!  Carefully blend the soup in batches until smooth.  If you’re looking for an extra-velvety texture, and who’s not really, take the time to strain the blended soup through a fine sieve.  It really is worth the effort. Then return the soup to the stock pot over medium heat.  Whisk in the cream, creme fraiche, and lemon juice.  Give it a taste and adjust your salt and pepper seasoning.

In a soup bowl, pile some of the steamed asparagus spears in the center, then gently ladle the soup around the outside and serve.  Et Voila!  Don’t you look like a fancy-shmancy pro?

Once again!  HORRIBLE picture!  I apologize internet food blogging posh world.

Nonetheless!   This is a quick and easy dinner option.   I personally love the taste of pork.  It has it’s own complex flavors that I enjoy more than chicken but is definitely not as intense as beef.  I’ve made versions of this recipe a few times and no matter what, it has always tasted amazing.  You can add more sugar to the sauce to make it a little more sweet, add red wine, slice up some crunchy Asian/Korean pears or a crisp apple in with the onions.  I love this recipe and so does Sean.  Whenever we are feeling like an Americanski-riceless-not-so-Asian dinner, grilled pork with a balsamic sauce is the awesome.

Grilled Pork with an Onion Balsamic Reduction Sauce
Serves 4

4 Pork Chops
1 medium sweet onion, sliced
1/4th cup of balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon of sherry
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
1 tablespoon of honey
salt and pepper

Heat up a hot griddle/grill or skillet on medium.  While the grill is getting hot, lightly coat the pork chops with olive oil and salt and pepper.  Throw those chops on the grill for about 5 or 6 minutes on each side.  These chops are a medium thickness.

In a small pan, add a little olive oil to coat the bottom and add the sliced onions. Lower the intensity of the fore to low.  Once they start to get soft and brown, add the balsamic, sugar, honey, and sherry.   I let it cook/reduce for about 8 minutes.

Plop the grilled pork on a plate and spoon the onion and balsamic ontop.  Eat!

I love veggies.  My life/meal/body/face/soul feels incomplete unless I have them several times a day.  Here is a quick and healthy way to get your veg on.

2 medium red potatoes, cut to inch squares
2 medium purple potatoes, cut to inch squares
half a head of cauliflower, divided to bite size
1 zucchini, sliced 1/3rd inch thick
1 teaspoon of olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Put it all in a bowl, mix, put into a baking pan. I like the heavier glass/pyrex ones. Place into the oven for 45 minutes. Toss them half way inbetween. SO EASY!

Sweet Chili Glazed Salmon
Adapted from Bon Appetit’s much longer titled recipe, which you can find here.
Serves 2

1/4 cup Asian Sweet Chili Sauce, such as mae ploy
2 tablespoons soy sauce, divided
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar, divided
1 tablespoon mirin
2  8-oz center cut salmon filets with skin
1 tsp grapeseed oil, or any plain vegetable oil
1 tsp sesame oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
3-4  bunches bloomsdale spinach leaves, substitute with 2 handfuls of baby spinach
1 cup pea sprouts

Line a baking sheet with nonstick aluminum foil, or lightly oiled regular foil.  Place salmon fillets skin side down on the prepared sheet pan and season with salt and pepper.  In a small bowl, stir together the sweet chili sauce, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar and the mirin.  Spoon marinade over the salmon and let stand at room temperature for 20 minutes.

Preheat broiler.  Spoon any marinade remaining on the baking sheet over the salmon fillets.  Broil salmon without turning until browned at corners and the fish is almost opaque in the center, about 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the grapeseed and sesame oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat.  Toss in the garlic and stir fry for 30 seconds until aromatic.  Add spinach leaves and cook, stirring regularly for 2 minutes.  Add the pea sprouts and stir til just wilted, about 1 minute.  Add the remaining soy sauce and rice wine vinegar and fresh black pepper, then turn off heat and set aside.

Voila!

I rounded out our meal with a sort of deconstructed salad.  The greens are a beautiful head of red-tipped romaine, tossed with a light asian-flavored dressing and sesame seeds along with some avocado slices and some simple sunomono cucumbers.  It was the perfect crisp and bright companion to the buttery-textured, sweet and salty salmon.  Enjoy!

OMG March 14th is Pie Day!

The “pie” does not win points on looks (neither do pictures taken at night from the iPhone) but it tastes so yum!

I was already using the oven and decided to throw a dessert together. However, I am pretty lazy and decided not to make a dough. Therefore, I decided to mash up a load of graham crackers to make the crust.

Once again, I apologize for the way it looks. Not very pretty, but oh the yum….!

Apple Graham Cracker “Pie” Dessert

6 crisp apples, cut into half inch squares
1 box of graham crackers, crushed/blendered
1/2 stick of butter, melted
1/2 cup of brown suger
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
2 teaspoons of brandy
pinch of salt

Mash up a box of graham crackers. I mashed and blended around 20 of them to fill and top the 9 inch pie pan. Once it is blended, mix the half stick of melted butter into the graham cracker mash. Press the graham crackers into the pie pan. I used about a third of the crackers for the crust. The rest is used for the topping.

Put into the oven at 400 degrees F for 10-15 minutes till the crust gets a little more crisp.

Peel and cut the 6 apples to half inch squares. I use 3 braeburn and 3 granny smith apples. Mix the brown sugar, brandy, and cinnamon with the apples and throw in a pinch of salt. The crust should be ready and probably should be cooled but I was lazy and just poured the apple filling into it. Coat the apples with the rest of the graham crackers.

I wrapped the edge of the pan with some foil to keep the circumference of the crust from getting too burnt. Place into the oven at 400 degrees F for 45 minutes.

Slice that and take a bite with some vanilla icecream. Messy crunchy yum!

I’m a big summer roll fan.  No lie, I’ll take it over a deep fried spring or egg roll any day of the week.  They’re light and super refreshing, and I enjoyed how, once you get over the intimidation factor, how incredibly simple they are to make and customize to your liking.

This is a recipe I was addicted to the summer after graduation, but I hadn’t really made since.  That’s probably because I, along with my team of parental sous chefs, prepped over 100 of these alone for mine and V’s college grad party, and there definitely can be too much of a good thing.  It’s based off of Tyler Florence’s recipe, but I’ve changed it up over the years.  What I like most about Tyler’s spin on the summer roll is that it’s got the classic Thai elements, like cilantro and cellophane noodles and peanuts, and then some fresh Vietnamese ingredients, such as mint and mung bean sprouts, and also few delicious surprises, like the beets.  So anywho, Jared and Robin’s oscar party seemed like the perfect opportunity to dust off that old recipe and give it an update.  It’s a bit time consuming, prepping the veggies and rolling each individual roll, but man, it’s so worth the effort.

Thai Summer Rolls with Sweet Chili Peanut Dipping Sauce
Makes about a dozen rolls

2 carrots, julienned
1 large beet, julienned
2 handfuls fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped
1 bunch mint leaves, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 cups pea sprouts, cut in half (or bean sprouts if you can’t find the pea ones)
1 cup shredded napa cabbage
1 package baked tofu, cut into 24 long, skinny portions
1 package enoki mushrooms, roots trimmed and  mushrooms seperated
3 oz Vietnamese cellophane noodles, cooked according to package instructions
4 scallions, thinly sliced on the bias
1/2 cup roasted and unsalted peanuts, chopped
The juice of 2 limes
2 tsp sesame oil
1- 12oz package 8-inch round rice paper wrappers

Start by prepping your veggies and noodles and putting a kettle of water on to boil for the rice paper wrappers.  Here’s some glamour shots of the chopped veggies:  (ps arn’t these lightbox pictures pretty rad?)

Combine the carrots, beets, cilantro, mint, sprouts, enoki, cabbage, scallions and peanuts in a large bowl.  Add the sesame oil, lime juice, salt and pepper and toss to coat.  Keep the tofu and noodles to the side, so they keep their bright white color.

Pour 3 cups of hot water into a wide, shallow bowl (keep extra hot water around because this will inevitably cool off as you’re working).  Immerse the wrappers one at a time for about 15 seconds to soften.  To form the rolls, lay the rice paper on a flat surface.  Put a small amount of the filling (about 1/4 cup) on the top 1/3 of the wrapper.  Top with 2 sticks of tofu and a small portion of the noodles.  Be careful not to overstuff the wrapper or it will tear.  Fold down the top of the wrapper to cover the filling.  Fold in the right and left sides, then roll from the top down, being careful to keep the sides tucked in.  Cover the finished rolls with a damp towel to keep from drying out while you finish the other rolls.  Serve as soon as possible with the dipping sauce.

For a speedier alternative, serve the filling as a salad along with butter lettuce leaves and allow people to build their own lettuce wraps.

For the Dipping Sauce:

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/3 cup hot water
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp white sugar
The juice of 2 limes
1/4 cup thai sweet chili sauce, such as Mae Ploy
2 tsp red chili paste, such as sambal

Combine peanut butter, soy sauce, sugar, and lime juice into a bowl.  Slowly whisk in the hot water until the sauce reaches a smooth consistency.  You may not need all of it.  Add in the sweet chili sauce and sambal and whisk to combine.  Serve with Thai Summer Rolls.

If you’ve never heard of Columbia Restaurant, it means you haven’t spent much time in Florida.  It’s a chain of about a dozen restaurants that to my knowledge is restricted to the Sunshine State.  To be perfectly honest, it’s not a very spectacular restaurant overall.  It definitely caters to the tourists and the snow birds, and as a college student, I found it severely overpriced.

So why is it worth mentioning?  Because they have a spectacular salad on their menu, called the 1905 salad, named for the year their flagship restaurant opened in Ybor City, a district in Tampa.  The 1905 salad is Columbia’s big ta-dah, because all the servers know the recipe by heart and whip it up table-side.  This should clue you in to how simple and fast you can prepare this for a weeknight dinner.  The classic is with ham, which you can swap out for turkey or shrimp.  I like the combo of ham and turkey, but rock it out to your tastes.  Oh and did I mention it was really delicious?

Columbia Restaurant’s 1905 Salad
Makes 2 giant entree portions, or 4 appetizer/side dish portions

For the Salad:
1 small head of iceberg lettuce, chopped
2 vine ripe tomatoes, diced
1/4 lb swiss cheese, sliced extra thick and julienned
1/4 lb deli ham, sliced extra thick and julienned
1/4 lb deli turkey, sliced extra thick and julienned
1/4 cup green spanish olives, sliced
2 tbsp fresh grated romano or parmesan cheese

For the Dressing:
1/8 cup white wine vinegar
1/8 cup lemon juice
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 tsp Worchestershire sauce
1 tsp dried oregano
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, preferably Spanish

In a large bowl, whisk together all the dressing ingredients except the olive oil, along with salt and a fair bit of fresh ground black pepper.  Pour in the olive oil in a slow stream, whisking vigorously until fully incorporated.  (Alternatively, you can also drop all the ingredients into the blender, or mix them quickly with an immersion blender as I did here.  The bowl-whisked dressing is traditional.)

You know the drill.  Drop all of the salad ingredients into the large bowl, coating everything in the dressing.  Portion out into serving bowls, and top with more ground pepper and romano cheese as desired.

Pre-dressing…

And yum…

This really makes for a filling, yet light dinner.  The flavors are very balanced and the dressing is super yum.  And I seriously cannot stress enough how quickly you can whip this up on a weeknight.  Enjoy everybody!  Oh, and thanks to that magazine that published this recipe which I found in that snobby coffee shop in Sarasota that I never patronized again.

You see, I’ve had a batch of homemade chicken stock sitting in the freezer, just waiting to be used.  And since I spent so much time on it, I wanted to showcase it in a recipe that would be all about the broth.  Hence the obvious choice, soup.  All it took was Kim talking about soup today and I knew it was time.

This is my take on Italian wedding soup, partly inspired by a Tuscan soup called ribollita, sortof a minestrone thickened with bread with tons of local, cheap vegetables.  And since we’re still getting our CSA veggie delivery we had a plethora of local, cheap veggies on hand.  It basically came down to luscious chicken stock base with delicious, basily chicken meatballs, cannellini beans and lots of healthy, vibrant kale.

Tuscan Wedding Soup
Makes 4 generous portions

For the Meatballs:
1 lb ground chicken
1 shallot, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup fresh basil, finely chopped
1 egg, lightly whisked
3/4 cup fresh breadcrumbs

For the Soup:
1/2 sweet onion, small dice
1 rib of celery, small dice
1 carrot, small dice
1/2 cup dry white wine
8 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade
2 – 12oz cans cannellini beans, drained
3/4 lb kale, washed and roughly chopped (i like a mix of dinosaur kale and curly kale for this)
Parmesan for serving

For the meatballs, preheat the oven to 400°F.  Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix well to combine.  Season with salt and pepper.   The mixture will be looser than ground beef/pork, but it should still hold together when formed into a ball.  Place meatballs on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 20 minutes until they begin to brown.  Alternatively, you can cook the meatballs in the soup, if you like them softer and don’t mind their lack of color.  I’ll point out where in the next step.

For the soup, put a large stock pot over medium-high heat.  Saute the onion, celery, and carrot in a few turns of olive oil until softened, about 7 minutes.  Add the wine and cook until its reduced by half or almost fully evaporated.  Add the stock (its a good idea to have this heating up in another saucepan on your stove, so you don’t have to wait to bring this to a boil) as well as the cannellini beans and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Go ahead and check the seasonings on the soup at this point and add some salt and pepper.  Now’s a good time to prep your kale and allow your meatballs to finish browning.  If you’re cooking the meatballs in the soup, go ahead and add them now and bring the heat up closer to a low boil.  They should take about 10 minutes to cook through, then proceed with the next step.

Add the meatballs and kale to the pot.  You might have to add the kale in two batches if your pot is not large enough, but don’t worry, it wilts down quickly.  Bring the soup back to a simmer and allow to cook for at least 10 minutes for the kale to soften.  If you prefer your kale softer, go ahead and simmer an additional 10-15 minutes until its cooked to your liking. Ladle the soup into large bowls.  Top with freshly grated parm cheese and a tiny drizzle of good extra virgin olive oil.  Serve with toasty garlic bread on the side.