Asian Cucumber Salad

Before you leave your comments, let me say it for you: "Man, would that picture have been so much better if I had artfully arranged some cilantro sprigs on top of the salad." You know the drill on why this didn't happen, because it's happened to you. I'm at the store buying ingredients for dinner, and I KNEW I had a bunch of cilantro at home. Of course upon arriving home I find that there was no cilantro anywhere to be found, but I'll be damned if I'm going to go pack C-boy back out to the car, run to the store and fight the after work crowd, just so my f*cking picture turns out better. I may be a bit obsessive about taking pictures of my food, but I'm not THAT crazy! So there ya have it.

In any event, even without the visually pleasing, but unnecessary to the enjoyment of, cilantro, this bright tasting cucumber salad was delicious. A perfect accompaniment to the cod with two sauces I served with it (that freakishly good..and easy...recipe tomorrow). It received the highest compliment from w, who said it tasted similar to the cucumber salad her dad makes (and w's dad is not to trifled with in all things Asian-flavored). Its cool, fresh flavors played off the spicy, full-flavored fish dish perfectly, and took all of about ten minutes to throw together, not counting the hour it sits in the fridge where the magical flavor melding happens. Try it out, you'll be impressed!
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Asian Cucumber Salad
adapted from Southern Living Magazine (proving that one never knows where inspiration may come from!!- bb)

serves 6

ingredients:
3/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar
1/8 cup water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon lite soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 large cucumbers, peeled and sliced
2 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted

method:
Stir together first 7 ingredients in a large bowl. Add cucumbers, tossing to coat. Cover and chill 1 hour. Using your hands, place on salad plates, letting excess dressing drain off into bowl before plating. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top. Serve immediately.

Pan Roasted Corn and Tomato Salad, because you care about others!

In my continuing effort to rid your pantries of those pesky piles of excessive seasonal produce and give you fabulously satisfying reasons to spend quality time in your kitchens, may I supply you with another recipe that I guarantee will draw admiring looks and choice compliments from those lucky enough to share it with you. This isn't something you share with just anyone. This is for people you really, really like. And when their tongues are hanging out of their mouths in astonishment and they are begging for the recipe, you absolutely DO NOT want to tell them how ridiculously easy this was to throw together. Just promise to print out the recipe when you get a chance and then conveniently "forget". You may be asking "well then why are you sharing it?" Because I am a great humanitarian who is filled with nothing but altruistic impulses and cares for nothing more than your happiness, that's why! Geez, have you read anything I've posted??

Okay, this isn't just about me being so nice. Actually it is more about Mark Bittman's altruistic impulses and way with an easy food fix, as I grabbed the recipe off of the New York Times site. So with that disclaimer, and with everything (almost) you need at your local farmers markets right now, this is the side salad you MUST SERVE this holiday weekend! Happy Labor day everyone!!
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Pan-Roasted Corn and Tomato Salad
from Mark Bittman

ingredients:
1/4 pound bacon, chopped
1 small red onion, chopped
4 to 6 ears corn, stripped of their kernels (2 to 3 cups)
Juice of 1 lime, or more to taste
2 cups cored and chopped tomatoes
1 medium ripe avocado, pitted, peeled and chopped
2 fresh small chilies, like Thai, seeded and minced
Salt and black pepper
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, more or less.

The bacon and corn commingling in a most holy union!

method:
1. Cook bacon in a large skillet over medium-high heat until it begins to render fat; add onion and cook until just softened, about 5 minutes, then add corn. Continue cooking, stirring or shaking pan occasionally, until corn begins to brown a bit, about 5 more minutes; remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes. Drain fat if you wish.

2. Put lime juice in a large bowl and add bacon-corn mixture; then toss with remaining ingredients. Taste, adjust the seasoning and serve warm or at room temperature.

Yield: 4 servings.

The duck that keeps on giving

I keep having the same pesky kitchen problem. What is it? What is causing me to lie awake at night, tossing and turning? Two words: duck confit. A fridge that lately has been full of duck legs ever since I made a big batch of confit the other week (using this recipe). Man, is my life hard or what? I did a terrific confit and fava pasta the other night. I still had a couple of legs left and had to do something with them, if only so I could sleep at night. So I stole some ideas from epicurious, did a little riffing, and came up with a savory bit of salad deliciousness that would be a great first course at a dinner party. This was one of those fast, easy, and healthy (as long as you don't eat too much fatty-crispy duck skin, which w didn't but I of course did) salads that just felt good to eat. The original recipe called for pears, but this is early season for those. There were ripe white nectarines in abundance at the market and their juicy sweetness set off the other ingredients perfectly, and the browned/fried pecans added a nice nutty complexity. epicurious also called for blue cheese crumbles. Why do they always do that? Usually you don't need them. In this salad it was completely unnecessary, and would have been way too strong for the duck. It turned into a pretty damn impressive salad.The downside: now my fridge is devoid of duck, so back to Nicky USA I go!
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Duck Confit and White Nectarine Salad
adapted from epicurious
serves 4-6

ingredients:
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon Sherry vinegar
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons finely chopped shallot
1/2 cup pecans, coarsely chopped
2 confit duck legs
3 firm-ripe white nectarines
8 cups mixed greens, such as frisée (French curly endive), tender watercress sprigs, and baby spinach leaves

method:
Preheat oven to 225°F.

Whisk together mustard, vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste in a large bowl. Add 4 tablespoons oil in a slow stream, whisking until emulsified, then whisk in shallot.
Heat remaining tablespoon oil in a 10-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat until hot but not smoking, then cook pecans, stirring, until golden brown. Transfer nuts with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain, then season with salt.

Heat skillet with any oil remaining in it over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then brown duck on all sides until crisp, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board and tear meat into bite-size pieces and discard bones. Keep duck warm, covered, on a baking sheet in oven.

Slice nectarine into thin wedges. Add nectarines, greens, duck, and nuts to dressing with salt and pepper to taste, then toss gently to combine.

Leftover relief: Curried Chicken Salad

In the laboratory of leftovers that our fridge tends to become, where unidentifiable science experiments lurk beneath every plastic storage container, the one thing that I never worry about becoming the next domestic Superfund site is roast chicken. There are so many ways to go with any bits of bird remaining from dinner. w and I love roast chicken sandos taken to work. There is the stupendous satisfaction that is this tomatillo verde enchilada recipe, where almost any meaty remains can find salvation. One thing I hadn't made in years, only for the reason that my mind seems to be able to hold only so much culinary inspiration, is curried chicken salad. The cool thing about this, besides it satisfies that craving for Indian food with every bite, is that there are so many ways to go. Add grapes, raisins, apples, chopped mangos, or any number of additives. It all tastes good. This recipe I cobbled together from epicurious, with a couple of deletions/additions of my own. Do what you will with those mystery containers in the chilly confines of your coolers, but don't ever let a good bird go to waste!
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Curried Chicken Salad

This works great on sandwiches, some salad greens, or all by itself for a healthy snack after a workout.

ingredients:
1-1/2 pounds chicken
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup plain yogurt
4 to 5 teaspoons curry powder to taste
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon honey
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 medium red onion, chopped (1 cup)
1 cup red seedless grapes (5 ounces), halved
method:
Chop chicken into 1/2"-ish cubes. Whisk together mayonnaise, yogurt, curry, lime juice, honey, ginger, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Add chicken, onion, grapes, and stir gently to combine. Adjust curry seasoning. Use as you will!

Note: feel free, as I said above, to add whatever combo of fruit/nuts you desire. That is the fun of this. Go through your cupboards and be creative!
The recipe called for adding chopped roasted-salted cashews to the salad when you mix it up. We add them at the last minute to our salads or sandwiches so they don't become soggy and they lend a terrific crunchy/salty texture.

Getting Steamy over Crab & Fuji Apple Salad!

Don't give me that "it's too cold outside to grill" whine. In 25* degree weather in Portland, the perfect antidote to a midwinter chill is throwing some fatty rib eyes on the grill, getting a nice, crusty char on them, and digging in to some serious meaty goodness while dreaming of summer 'ques to come! What's that? Yeah, yeah, I know that isn't a new recipe, and this month is all about making only new dishes at home. Do you really think I'd forget??

That's why, to precede these hunks 'o flesh, I made an awesome new salad I picked up from my blogging pal Jaden's fabulous food site, Steamy Kitchen. If you've been paying attention, you feel my love of all things crabby when we're in the height of Dungeness crab season here in the NW. There was the silly good holiday crab pasta, the killer crab cakes, and now another new favorite thing to add to the repertoire. Jaden adapted this insanely fresh and delicious (and a snap to throw together) Fuji apple and crab salad from Crab: Buying, Cooking, Cracking by Andrea Froncillo and Jennifer Jeffrey. I grabbed a couple of live crabs on the way home from work from ABC Seafood to throw in the crab pot. After they succumbed to a bubbly demise, w and my sis were kind enough to shell them while I got the other edibles ready. This mix of fresh crab and Fuji apples was off the hook, and the Thai dressing was the perfectly piquant set off to the crab/apple/baby greens mix. It could be a main course all by itself with some crusty bread and a good bottle of Sancerre, but it rocked pretty hard as a warm-up to our steakage. You've gotta give this a taste while the crabbing is good. Thanks, J!!
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Crab/Fuji Apple Salad with Thai Dressing
adapted from Crab cookbook by Jennifer Jeffrey and Andrea Froncillo
serves 4-6 as first course

ingredients:
8 ounces fresh crabmeat (I used snow crab)
1 large Fuji apple, cored, julienned and tossed with a squeeze of fresh lime juice
4-6 cups mixed baby greens
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 tbl julienned fresh mint

Thai-Style Salad Dressing
3 tbl rice vinegar
2 tbl fish sauce
1 tbl sugar
1/4 tsp finely minced chili (leave seeds in if you like it hot)
juice of 1/2 lime

method:
Prepare the dressing by combining ingredients and whisking. In a small bowl, combine crabmeat and apple and toss lightly with just a sprinkle of sea salt and fresh ground pepper. Assemble plates by layering baby greens, a mound of crab/apple mixture. Top with fresh mint and freshly ground black pepper. Use a teaspoon to drizzle salad dressing onto the salad. Be careful not to use too much - you should have some dressing left over.

Beet it!

So you thought you got off the hook this holiday season. Your friends are cooking the main dishes in these meat and starch infused food fests known as holiday dinner parties. Of course you're going to ask what you can bring, right? So you'll hear the "Oh, how about a side dish?" response. What could be easier, and maybe even healthy, than a good salad? But come on, these are your friends and families. Don't give them the usual bag of lettuce with some dressing sloshed on top, when with a little more effort you can bring a drop dead beautiful and delicious salad that will have them "oohing" and "aahing" all through the meal.

People, I give you the golden beet. And with this humble, yet beautiful, root vegetable, you can prepare an awesome salad that will raise the (salad) bar for meals to come! My friend DOR showed me this easy to prepare and crazily good dish a few weeks ago, and I took it yesterday for my contribution to my sister and bro-in-law's off the hook Thanksgiving meal. The requisite compliments were heard, accepted, and appreciated. Now it's your turn!
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Roasted Golden Beet & Arugula Salad
serves 8

ingredients
6 golden beets about the size of a tennis ball
Two large handfuls (or one bag) of arugula
1 sweet or red onion
10 or 12 caper berries
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Salt & freshly ground pepper

special tools
A mandoline, unless you're incredibly patient and steady handed enough to thinly slice your beets and onions.

method:
1-Turn oven on bake to 500*. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aprchment paper. Wash beets and dry off excess moisture. Rub lightly with olive oil and sprinkle lightly with sea salt. Arrange on baking sheet and out ion oven for 30-40 minutes. Beets are done when a fork goes in with a bit if resistance.

2-While beets roast, slice onions very thin, about 1/8".

The beets laid out and ready to be finished.


3-When beets are done, remove from oven, let cool, and peel with a paring knife. Slice beets with mandoline about 1/8" thick. Arrange beets on platter and sprinkle lightly with kosher salt. Arrange a couple of large handfuls of arugula on top of beets, leaving edges of beets exposed. Sprinkle onion slices generously on top. Drop the caper berries around the outside of the platter. Drizzle extra virgin olive and balsamic on top to taste. Sprinkle with salt and a few grindings of pepper. Serve immediately.

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I know your next question: "Where can I get me one 'o them fancy slicin' machines?" Being the kitchen gadget whore that I am, I have long had a mandoline on my list. When OXO came out with theirs a few months ago, I was ready to pounce. Luckily I'm a world class procrastinator. My friend David brought his little Zyliss Easy Slice 2 over when he made the above salad. it worked fantastically. For the "serious" home cook, maybe you would want to upgrade to a fancier unit, but for most of us, this does plenty at a great price, around $25-$30. I got mine, and I love it! Very sharp slicing blade, portable, easy to clean, safe. It pretty much has it all!