The oppressive heat of summer is upon us.  And by us I mean those crazy kids that live in the valley, like Kim.  So in honor of those brave souls that bear the three digit temperatures, here’s a speedy weeknight dinner or side dish you can make ahead of time.  This is great for picnics or bringing to work as leftovers as no heating is required!

Cold Orzo Salad with Sun Dried Tomato Vinaigrette
Makes 6 servings

For the Salad:
4 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups orzo
1/4 cup oil-packed sun dried tomatoes, roughly diced
A handful of basil leaves, chiffonaded
8 oz of fresh mozarella, 1/2 inch dice
1/8 cup of toasted pine nuts (optional)

For the Vinaigrette:
1/4 cup oil-packed sun dried tomatoes, roughly chopped
1/2 shallot, roughly chopped
1 clove garlic, roughly chopped
Small handful of basil
Small handful of parsley
4 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup reserved orzo cooking broth, or water
2 tsp tomato paste (get the tube, rather than the cans and keep it in your fridge for occasions like this)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper

In a large saucepan, bring broth to a boil over high heat.  Add orzo and cook according to package directions until just al dente (usually 1-2 minutes shy of the recommended cooking time).  Strain the orzo, reserving 1/4 cup of the broth, rinse it under cold water, then spread out on a sheet pan to cool.  Give this a drizzle of olive oil to prevent the orzo from clumping.

While the orzo cools, make the dressing.  In a blender or food processor combine all the ingredients except the olive oil.  Blend until smooth and then drizzle in the olive oil as the blender is running to create a thick, bright orange, emulsified dressing.  Taste and adjust seasonings.  Depending on your tomatoes, you might be inclined to add a little sugar for balance.  Prep your other salad ingredients as the orzo finishes cooling.

In a large bowl, stir together the orzo, sun dried tomatoes, basil, mozzarella, and about 3/4 cup of dressing, reserving some mozzarella for topping.  Stir to combine and taste.  Now’s the time to adjust your seasoning and dress to your liking.  I ended up with a generous cup of dressing on mine.  Tuck this in the fridge to get nice an chilly, at least 30 minutes.  When ready to serve, top with reserved mozzarella and toasted pinenuts.

Enjoy!

If you’re an avid reader of our little blog (bless you), you may have noticed the array of mushroom soup pictures on the side that have gone without a recipe.  I figure its time to remedy this.  This is yet another perfect recipe from Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table.  Ok, near perfect, I made a couple tweaks to taste.  The thing that really sets this recipe apart from other mushroom soups is the beautiful raw salad that is served amid the warm, creamy soup.  The blend of textures, which subtly change as the salad spends time basking in the soup, is truly genius.  The ingredients are humble, yet they form a dish elegant enough to serve for company.  Ok, I’ve made you wait long enough as it is, on to the recipe!

Paris Mushroom Soup

Adapted from “Around My French Table”
Serves 4

For the Soup:
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 1/2 lb white and brown mushrooms, sliced  (buy 2 lbs, you’ll need a few for the salad as well)
1/2 cup white wine
2 parsley stems
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 small rosemary sprig
6 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup heavy cream

For the Optional Salad:
6-8 mushrooms, sliced paper thin
2 scallions, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
2 tbsps chives, snipped with kitchen shears into tiny rounds

1/4 cup crème fraiche or plain greek yogurt

In a large soup pot, melt the butter and olive oil over medium heat.  Saute the onions for about 5 minutes until softened, then add the garlic and cook 1 minute more.  Add the mushrooms and cook for 4-5 minutes until the mushrooms begin to soften and release their liquids.  Increase the heat to high and cook until the majority of the liquid has evaporated and the mushrooms being to brown slightly.  Pour in the wine, scraping the bottom of the pan to get all the lovely bits and cook until almost completely evaporated.    Season with salt and white pepper.

Add the herbs and stock and bring to a boil.   Lower the heat to medium-low and allow the soup to simmer 20 minutes.  Remove rosemary and thyme stems (the leaves will have fallen off at this point).

While the soup is simmering, let’s make the salad.  Slice your mushrooms wafer-thin.  Take your time and use a sharp knife.  In a small bowl mix together the herbs, scallions and mushrooms and season with a tiny bit of white pepper.  Don’t add salt until a moment before you’re ready to plate, otherwise it will begin to draw water from your veggies and soften their crisp texture.

Using an immersion blender (or working in small batches with your blender/food processor) puree the soup until its very smooth.  Time for the inevitable finicky portion of a french recipe: strain the soup through a fine-mesh sieve for an optimal, creamy texture.  Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.  Mine needed a good bit more white pepper and another pinch of salt.   Return soup to pan and stir in the cream, which I added just for the velvety mouthfeel only cream can provide and keep over very low heat until ready to serve.   Alternatively, you could stir in a few tablespoons of creme fraiche/ yogurt or just leave it out entirely.

To plate, pile up a bit of salad in the center of a low flat bowl.  Carefully pour the soup around the outside.  I’d recommend transferring some soup to a liquid measuring cup or gravy bowl and doing this right at the table for easy pouring and a lovely presentation.  Allow guests to top the soup with as much crème fraiche as they desire and an additional sprig of chive for good measure.  Très magnifique!

By far, my greatest discovery at Trader Joe’s has been their fresh pizza dough.   I know it’s not a super challenging task to make pizza dough, but when you’re teetering back and forth over whether to make your pizza at home or order out, that fresh, refrigerated dough from TJ’s is usually the straw that tips the scales in the favor of a homemade dinner.  And truly, I’m always so happy that it did.  Ok, obviously it requires more energy than dialing up pizza joint, but I get to control exactly the quality and quantity of ingredients on my pie.  And tonight, those toppings included a salad.

This isn’t really a recipe, more of a concept.  Build your pizza how you like.  Tonight ours was pretty straightforward.  After slowly shaping the dough, I started with some good ol’ TJ’s pizza sauce from a jar.  Topped it with a tasty layer of really good parm cheese for flavor.  Then some sauteed mushrooms (browning them up ahead of time prevents excess water from leaking out into your pie) and chopped marinated artichoke hearts.  These were followed by a serious layer of pepperoni and a generous sprinkle of low-fat mozzarella cheese (which I find makes the pizza less greasy).  Dust it all with some red pepper flakes and dried oregano and into the oven it goes!  Whoops, forgot to paint the crust edge with some olive oil.   Oh well, next time.

While the pizza is baking,  whisk together about 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice and an equal part of extra virgin olive oil.  Toss 3-4 cups of loosely packed baby arugula and then stare into the oven, waiting for the pizza to reach its golden brown and bubbly state of perfection.

When the pizza is ready to serve, quickly slice into portions and then top with the mound of zesty arugula.  Then finish it with a nice grating of good parm and some fresh cracked pepper for good measure.  Talk about some yum.

Seriously, why eat a salad on the side?   The crisp, bright and zippy greens are such a beautiful compliment to the rich, chewy pizza.  Also, forks on pizza night are for chumps.

Alas, the Oscar’s sadly turned out to be a huge bore, but the evening was redeemed by dinner!

Hurray!  A new cookbook!  I think Firat has figured out that if he buys me new cookbooks about the types of cuisine he likes, they end up on the table a little more often.  The cuisines.  Not the books.  So I can only assume he’s encouraging more French food with Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table.  I dived into it immediately, marking up more than two dozen recipes I wanted to try, but the one that stood out the most was a simple salad.  Dorie’s bacon and eggs and asparagus salad looked like the perfect place to start.  Of course, being without hazelnuts or hazelnut oil in the house, I had to make a few minor changes.

The biggest surprise was her method of preparing the eggs.  They’re supposed to go straight from the fridge into boiling water.  This seemed contradictory to every recipe for boiled eggs I’ve ever read!  But I went with it, preparing 4 eggs instead of 2 as a safety net, and not a single egg cracked.  (I learned afterward that the salted water though not able to prevent the eggs from cracking, would help the white congeal quickly and help keep the egg whole were there a crack).  The still-soft eggs are finished by being peeled whole, then gently sauteed in the bacon drippings just until they’re warmed through.  The result was as good an egg as I’ve ever encountered.  The white was set, yet tender and the yolk was luscious and velvety.  Truly, I see little reason to ever poach an egg again!

Bacon and Eggs and Asparagus Salad
Adapted and paraphrased from “Around My French Table”
Serves 2 as a main or 4 as a side

For the Dressing:
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp sherry vinegar
1 tbsp lemon juice (my addition, I like some bright acid to complement the deep, rich sherry vinegar)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (Dorie’s recipe is for 1 tbsp evoo, 1 tbsp hazelnut oil)
pinch of sugar

For the Salad:
4 extremely cold eggs
Half a bunch of asparagus, trimmed
4 large strips of bacon
3 handfuls baby salad greens
1/3 cup toasted hazelnuts or walnuts (optional)

In a medium bowl, whisk together the dijon, vinegar, sugar, and lemon juice.  Slowly whisk in the olive oil, salt and pepper to taste, then set aside.

Bring a medium saucepan of well salted water to a low boil.  One by one, gently lower the eggs down with a spoon.  Have your timer ready for 6 minutes, you don’t want them to boil for any longer.  Remove pan from heat and set directly under cold running water in your sink.  Continue running until the pan’s water is completely cold.  Leave them here in the cold water until you’re ready for them.

In a medium skillet, bring salted water to a simmer.  Drop in the asparagus and simmer for 3-4 minutes, depending on the thickness, until they’ve lost their crunch but arn’t mushy.  Remove and pat dry on paper towels.

Dump out the water, place the dry skillet over medium heat and lay in the bacon.  Cook the bacon over medium-low heat, flipping as needed until golden and crisp.  Remove the strips and let drain on paper towels.  Turn the heat off, but leave the skillet on the burner.

To assemble the salad, toss the lettuce in 3/4 of the dressing and place on a platter, topping it with some fresh cracked pepper and salt.  Roll the asparagus in the remaining dressing and layer over top the greens.  Chop the bacon into bits and sprinkle around platter.

When you’re ready to serve, very, very gently peel the eggs.  Take your time with it, as the eggs are soft and delicate.  Rinse off any bits of shell and pat them dry.  Gently spoon them into the bacon drippings skillet over medium heat and gingerly roll them around in the bacon fat until they’re covered and allow them to get just a hit of golden brown on each side.  You don’t want them in the pan for more than 2 minutes.  With a spoon, place them overtop the salad and serve immediately.  Make sure you have some nice flaky sea salt and additional black pepper for your guests to season their eggs as they like.

So there you have it.  We shared a wonderful small steak on the side, and though a lovely Parisian complement to the meal, it was outshined by this salad.  Apologies for not taking some in-progress pictures, but then I didn’t expect the eggs to be such a success on our first try!  That to me proves what an exceptional cookbook this is.  Dorie is precise and thorough with her writing.  Much like Julia Child’s recipes, you’re never left wondering if what you’re doing is right or not.  I really can’t wait to take on another recipe and that just might happen later tonight.

As I’m sure you’ve seen, we’ve been eating a lot of decadent food over the holiday break.  Yeah, common, I know you were too.  In fact, we were actually starting to, dare I say it, long for our lighter, healthier pre-holiday diet.  On the whole we’ve been cutting out a lot of processed foods and starchy carbs and looking for more ways to get the most nutrition into our diet, which can be a tricky thing on a busy schedule.  A few months ago I spotted a bag of broccoli slaw at Trader Joes, which consists of raw julienned broccoli stems and carrots, and I thought it would pair nicely with an asian-flavored vinaigrette.  Yet despite all the good ingredients I was putting into the dressing, I always felt like something was lacking.  The breakthrough for this recipe came when I realized what bugged me most about the dressing was that it wasn’t thick enough to cling to the broccoli, leaving a flavorful, neglected puddle on your plate.  So looking for a healthful solution I tossed in a handful of cashews and voila, problem solved!  This makes a super speedy weeknight side, which goes great with some grilled teriyaki chicken, salmon, or shrimp.  It’s light, crunchy and full of yum.

Raw Broccoli Slaw with Cashew Lime Vinaigrette
Serves 4 as a Side

1/8 cup lime juice (1/2 a big lime)
1/8 cup brown rice wine vinegar (i find this has a deeper, richer flavor than the regular kind)
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp sugar or honey
1 clove garlic, minced (or grated on a microplane)
2 tbsp mirin
1/2 tsp sriracha sauce (or a pinch of red chili flakes)
1/4 cup canola oil (substitute any mellow flavored oil)
1/4 cup toasted cashew pieces plus 3 tbsps for the dressing
Handful of cilantro, torn into pieces
2 scallions, thinly sliced on the bias
1 12-oz bag of broccoli slaw (or 1 1/2 cups grated broccoli stem and 1/2 cup grated carrot)
Handful of sesame sticks (optional)

In a food processor, or in a tall-sided bowl with an immersion blender, combine the lime juice, vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, garlic, mirin, and sriracha.  Blend briefly to combine.  With the blender running, slowly stream in the oil so the dressing emulsifies.  Then toss in the 3 tbsps of toasted cashew pieces and blend until smooth.  The dressing should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.  It’ll still be a liiittle gritty from the nuts, which I didn’t mind at all, but feel free to strain it through a fine mesh sieve if you’re looking for a silkier texture.

In a large bowl, combine the raw broccoli slaw, cilantro, scallions, and cashew pieces.  Gently toss with the dressing and top with crunchy sesame sticks and additional scallions and cilantro leaves for color.

Yet another post on my crusade to rid the world of bottled salad dressings.  Mixing up a fresh dressing barely takes 3 minutes out of your day and maximizes the flavor of your salad.  Plus, dressings can be made from the most basic items of your pantry – vinegars, oils, garlic, spices, and are further heightened by whatever fresh produce you have on hand — like citrus and fresh herbs.    The best thing about a simple weeknight salad with a homemade dressing is you really only require two tools: a medium-sized, comfortable whisk and a large mixing bowl that’s big enough to mix your entire salad.  This keeps dishes to a minimum which is more often than not how I measure the success of a weeknight dinner.

Creamy Southwestern Dressing
makes enough dressing for 5oz of salad or about 2 dinner portions

Juice of half a large lime (about 2-3 tbsps)
1 clove garlic, grated into a paste
1/2 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp cumin
Pinch of chili powder
Pinch of cayenne to taste
2 tbsp grapeseed oil, or any plain vegetable oil
2 tbsp sour cream
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine the lime juice, garlic, sugar, cumin, chili powder, and cayenne in a large bowl and whisk to combine.  Continue whisking vigorously and slowly drizzle in the grapeseed oil.    Now whisk in the sour cream (I prefer to counter the acidity of the lime juice with some oil before adding the sour cream to help prevent the dairy from breaking).  Finally, whisk in the olive oil and season with salt/pepper to taste.  Drop in your salad ingredients and toss to coat.

Tonight we used the dressing on a simple salad of 1 cup halved grape tomatoes, 1/2 cup defrosted frozen corn, and a sliced avocado served next to some grilled fajita-style chicken and onions.  Feel free to elaborate on the salad by adding black beans, jicama, cilantro, tortilla strips, scallions, crumbled queso fresco, or whatever you fancy.  Truly a perfect weeknight dinner.  Enjoy!

Hello friends, remember me?  It’s that old blog you’ve forgotten about. Today I thought I’d post some old-school deliciousness: spinach salad with warm bacon dressing. Here’s my spin on the 100-year-old classic.  Traditionally its a wilted salad, but that’s because the recipe was concocted when there was only one type of spinach readily available: the giant, gritty full grown leaves.  I prefer to keep some of the fresh crispness in the baby spinach to counter the rich, tangy dressing.  BTW, this makes a great, speedy weeknight dinner for two.

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.

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.

I’m a big advocate for whisking up a super simple salad dressing rather than relying on the fatty, chemically bottled alternatives from the super market. I mean, seriously, it takes all of 3 minutes.   Typically I just rock a vinaigrette on some baby greens.  Tonight, however, I spotted a mixed container of mache and butter lettuce on the refrigerated shelf at Trader Joes, which made me a very happy lady.  If you’ve never tried mache, do it.  Do it now.  It’s tiny, sweet, tender and slightly nutty.  And for a lettuce as mild and gentle as mache, this called for a special dressing.

Yogurt Chive Dressing
yields about 1/2 cup of dressing

1/4 cup greek yogurt (I use Fage 0% greek yogurt)
1 small clove garlic, very finely minced
Zest of 1/2 lemon
2 tbsp lemon juice (about half a lemon)
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp chopped chives (I use my kitchen scissors for easy cutting)
1/4 tsp sugar or honey
large pinch of salt and fresh ground pepper

Whisk together all of the above ingredients in a large bowl.  Season and sweeten to taste, depending on how tart your yogurt and lemon juice are.  Add  4 cups loosely packed greens and gently toss to coat.  Serve as a delightfully light and simple side dish for chicken or fish, such as the breaded pan-fried chicken tenders pictured above.