Summer Salads

These two salads are not novel, in that I have prepared them for many members of this blog's audience. Nevertheless, they are quickly becoming summer favorites - and we enjoy them so much, we thought they merited repeating with my parents in town this weekend, as well as sharing on this blog.

The first is a twist on the classic Caprese. It is an avocado, tomato and mozzarella pasta salad. Fresh, farmers market tomatoes are key to making this dish. And as for what I would do differently... next time I would amp the whole grain mustard in the dressing as I think that element adds a lot. The recipe is as follows:

6 oz farfalle (bowtie pasta)

6 ripe red tomatoes

8 oz fresh mozzarella

1 large, ripe avocado

2 TB chopped fresh basil

2 TB toasted pine nuts

Dressing:

6 TB olive oil

2 TB wine vinegar

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

1 tsp whole grain mustard.

pinch of sugar

S&P

Pretty straightforward instructions. Slice and arrange the tomato, mozz, and avocado. Cook the pasta. Whisk the dressing. Toss the pasta with half the dressing. Drizzle the rest over the tomato, mozz and avocado. Sprinkle with pine nuts and basil. Serve.

The next salad is originally a Kaky Grant recommendation from the Lee Brothers Southern Cookbook. In fact, I copied it down at the Grant's lovely abode in Greensboro on a scrap of Catherine McGinness FONZ paper. Wow :)

Sauteed Corn and Snow Peas. The fresh ginger really makes this dish pop, as does the lime juice. My only change to the recipe directions below is to cook the corn and snow peas a little less. Especially if you have quality, fresh ingredients, you don't want to mess them up by overcooking them. We find that keeping a nice bite/crunch to the veggies really makes this salad delish.

4 ears of corn, shucked and cut from the cob

2 TB unsalted butter

2 TB minced fresh ginger

2 large shallots, chopped

1/2 lb snow peas, trimmed and cut crosswise into 1/4" strips

S&P

1 TB fresh lime juice

Melt butter in medium sautee pan over medium heat. Add the ginger and shallots and cook until almost soft, 2-3 minutes. Add corn and snowpeas, S&P and cook until just tender, 5-6 minutes, stirring often. Stir in lime juice, more S&P an serve.

Garlic Shrimp Pasta

This dish ended up great although it took longer than anticipated. I used frozen shrimp, which added some time. Begin by peeling the shrimp and simmering the shells in water for about ten minutes to make a shrimp stock. Shrimp stock is the quickest stock you can make and really tastes great. You can even freeze shrimp shells until you are ready to make a batch. Since it is so easy to make, I never bother to freeze the actual stock though.

As the stock is simmering, cut broccoli into florets, slice one large shallot and slice two large cloves of garlic. Peel two additional garlic cloves. Once the stock is done, strain and trash shrimp shells. Bring the stock back to a simmer and cook broccoli. As the broccoli is cooking, heat 1.5 T of butter and 2 T of olive oil in a pan with the 2 garlic cloves. Remove cooked broccoli and bring stock back to a boil, adding more water if necessary. Add pasta to the boiling water/stock and cook. Meanwhile, add the shallot and garlic clove slices once the oil is hot. Remove the whole cloves, cook the garlic and shallot slices until slightly browned and then add the shrimp. Cook shrimp until nearly done and then add the broccoli. Stir in the pasta and add 1-2 T of the cooking stock/water to thicken up the sauce a bit. Add salt and pepper as needed.

Jerk Roasted Pork Tacos

There was a sale on pork tenderloin so I have quite a few in the freezer. I usually pan sear and then roast the tenderloin so this is a variation of that basic dish.

Rub the tenderloin with jerk seasoning. I use store bought seasoning which I think tastes fine. Add a little oil to a pan and sear the tenderloin on all sides. Roast in a 400 degree oven until almost done. Since I never am able to eat a whole tenderloin in one sitting, I usually slightly under cook it. Then, I slice/chop what I need and finish in the pan. When I use the rest of the loin the next day, it won't dry out when I reheat it.

While the loin is resting add sliced peppers and onions to the pan and brown. Chop the pork while the peppers and onions are cooking. Remove the peppers and onions and cook chopped pork until crispy. As the pork is cooking, heat tortillas in the microwave. Once the pork is done, squeeze some lime juice on it.



While I didn't do it this time, I think sour cream would really add something to the dish. Other than that it was quite delicious.

Italian Sausage White Pizza

Hey all, a week ago my friend John suggested making pizza but we all kind of wanted something non-traditional but still good. He suggested making a raw mozzarella spicy Italian sausage pizza. It's basically exactly how it sounds, very simple, but really really good. The whole was definitely better than the sum of its parts.


We got a good quality store-bought pizza dough. Then placed chunks of raw mozzarella on top. We got a nice spicy Italian pork sausage which we took out of the casing and crumbled it over the cheese.Then into the oven for about 25-4o minutes at 400. This was definitely eyeballed. It came out great. Went perfect with wine/beer whatever people were drinking. We had salad. A great casual food. Definitely recommend.

Chinese Take-Out (cont'd)

Using the leftover beef and rice from the night before, along with some random items in the fridge, I made beef fried rice. This is a very easy and versatile recipe. Whenever I make rice, I usually double the recipe and make fried rice later in the week. Use cold rice because it soaks up the flavor better.

For this recipe, cook frozen corn and peas in the microwave. Meanwhile scramble two eggs and saute half an onion. When the onion is just about done, add the rice. Then add vegetable oil and soy sauce. Break up the rice and add the beef. Cook until rice and beef are hot and then add the cooked vegetables and eggs. At this point, the dish is basically done. Adding rice wine vinegar, or any other mild vinegar, helps to punch up the rice a bit.

Chinese Take-Out

Well I finally found an opportunity to cook and decided to do beef and vegetables in a spicy black bean sauce. I began by marinating a london broil in teriyaki sauce overnight. I left the london broil whole but next time I would probably slice it thinly before marinating so it takes more of the marinade.

The next day, I drained the marinade and patted the beef dry before thinly slicing it. I also sliced an onion and two green peppers into thin strips and put them in the teriyaki marinade. I then sauteed the beef in batches until cooked through. I set the beef aside, wiped out the pan and cooked the peppers and onions until soft.

At this point it was time to build the sauce. I added about a tablespoon of jarred black bean sauce and cooked for about 1 minute. I then added about half a cup of water to the pan, cooked the mixture for a few seconds and then added the beef back to the pan. I then added about a tablespoon of cider vinegar and a tablespoon of soy sauce. I added a few pinches of sugar and black pepper. To finish the sauce, I added a corn starch slurry (corn starch and water) to the pan until the sauce was the consistency I wanted. I served over rice. I enjoyed it but the sauce was a little too spicy for KC (the jarred black bean sauce had chiles).

Impromtu Islander

I'm beginning to think I'm the only person cooking these days...where is everyone? This meal was supposed to be prepared by N, but work intervened, so I had to throw something together at the last minute. We had mahi mahi, and I love citrus and seafood, so I marinated the fillets in olive oil, lime juice and lime zest. Then I sprinkled it with some Old Bay and cooked it on the panini pan. I've always wanted to grill fish, but having never lived in a place with an outdoor area, much less a grill, the panini pan was as close as I could get. I thought I was thawing some frozen hericot vert in a pan with a little bit of water, but I ended up cooking them way too much. Oops? But to continue the citrus theme, I tossed the beans in some olive oil, butter, lemon juice and salads. Not as good as my mother makes, but not too bad either. Finally, I roasted some potatos and onions, which took waaay too long. Next time I will cut them smaller or maybe just cook them on the stove. The potatoes were not remarkable looking, but the psuedo-grilled fish deserved a picture: