Amuse Bouche

Bacon and Egg Salad

A trip to Russo's completed and inspiration for a salad in the bag.  I made this up for lunch as a wild storm blew in on a lazy Friday afternoon.

Guanciale rendered, browned, drained.  (I probably really should have called it cheek and egg salad, but it just doesn't have the same ring)

Garlic scapes chopped and sauteed in the rendered pork essence, drained. 

Chanterelle and morel chopped and torn and sauteed in the pork essence with a splash of sherry to finish. 

A quick pickle of thinly shaved red onion, brown sugar, salt and cider vinegar.

Baby arugula (Russo's), Vietnamese cilantro, shiso, mibuna, tatsoi (all from the garden) dressed in hazelnut oil and Brix verjus. 

Top with a pan fried egg, left slightly yolky and runny. 

I love summer.

Bivalvia Ostreoida Pectinina a la Normandy

A summer salad

Seared scallops on a bed of pickled red onion, artichoke hearts, scallions, oil cured tomatoes and butter lettuce with Camembert-Cider dressing

Watermelon salad

I returned from this mornings farmer's market visit and subsequent hunting and gathering expedition flush with ideas. 

My basket was filled with some gorgeous corn for tonight that just might have a meeting with a compound butter and the grill. 

There were freshly dug yukon gold potatoes with still wet and scrubbed skins.  They will be having a meeting with the chive I picked up at the Asian vegetables stand.  My chive plants have been taking quite a beating lately with me shearing them off at least once a week so I thought I might give them a litle break for a bit.

There is a gorgeous, freshly dug bunch of red onions and some pea tendrils that will have a meeting with some sesame oil, garlic and ginger later.

But right now I needed something for lunch and the watermelon in the fridge upstairs was calling my name. 

Sadly I am the only one in the house who enjoys watermelon and I refuse to buy the already cut ones that are  wrapped in sticky plastic and are already dry and mealy. So Friday I bit the bullet and bought the smallest round one I could find in the market and popped it in the fridge to get nice and cold, just how I like it.

I sliced the melon in half and took out chunks of it to fill a container for snacking later.  Then I took a bowl and filled it with the remainder of the half to make a salad.  Now I still had half a melon left and needed to do something with it before all the juice ran on to my board. I remembered last week at work Betsy made an Italian watermelon pudding with the 11 - 13 year olds.  It was an interesting idea that tasted a bit too much like cornstarch for me, but I loved the idea of pureeing the watermelon and straining the juice. I did exactly that with half of the melon and tonight there will be either a watermelon martini or a  watermelon and campari G&T. Alcohol and watermelon, really it doesn't get any better on a hot summer afternoon.

Now on to my salad.

I took chunks of fresh watermelon and sprinkled on some sea salt, Himalayan pink of course for the colour continuity and my own amusement.  Then I tore up some of the Thai basil I bought at the farmer's market and sprinkled it over the melon and I broke off some chunks of my favourite Valbreso feta.  I squeezed on some lime juice for tartness as I can't shake my recent fetish for the Thai flavour combo of hot, sour, sweet and salty. Remind me to tell you about my Thai beef salad, I gave that all a quick stir and while it macerated I took a slice of Iggy's Francese and toasted it and then rubbed it with a half a clove of garlic and drizzled on olive oil.

That salad was summer on a plate, sweet watermelon enhanced by the sea salt and the creamy, salty feta met with pungent crisp basil flavour and a bright lime finish.  This is one salad that will be getting a few repeats in this house.

86 feels like 100

Don't you love those forecasts that give you the 'feels like' temperature.  As if you needed them to tell you that yes indeed even though the thermometer registers a mere 86 the fact that the relative humidity of OFF THE CHARTS that it really feels like 100 degrees,in the shade, in your non-air conditioned house and your non-air conditioned truck.
Those Portuguese painters have left the building but I still had 4 rooms to paint myself along with their attendant closets and woodwork that was so badly painted and chipping off in great chunks from previous owners of this house that I have had to strip each frame, one BY one before I can even begin painting the rooms themselves.
Needless to say there is not a heck of a lot of cooking happening around here, but I am not a girl who likes take out nor fast food so occasionally we have to whip up something that does not involve a lot of time or energy.  Last nights dinner was just that.
This is a quick salad that just uses one burner for about 2 minutes to just warm the beans. Everything else is layered on top and it is drizzled in extra virgin olive oil and a good squeeze of lemon juice.  I use Valbresso feta in this dish and not Greek feta.  Valbresso is a French sheep's milk feta made with the milk that is left from the making of Roquefort.  It is not as salty as barrel brined Greek and it has a nice soft and creamy texture.  Ricotta salata might work well in this as well.

This is a nice quick, easy and very satisfying supper, great with a nice chilled rose and some slices of country bread to mop up the juice after.

Oyster, pear and mission fig salad with Green Goddess Dressing

On Friday nights we often just have a salad here at casa Sheep.  It used to be our traditional 'hot date' night when we met after work to go grocery shopping for the week.  Salad was a nice easy thing to make when we finally arrived home close to 8:00 and tired.  Husband is pretty staid in his salad selections but me, I like to shake it up a bit.  I've been on a jag lately of making various Green Goddess dressing recipes in my pursuit of the perfect one.  Tonight's was nice, bright and clean and I'll try it again a day later just to see if the flavours have mellowed nicely.  For the salad I really wanted some fried oysters.  My Mom has been talking about them lately and my craving gene kicked in full force.  So I built this salad on fried oysters and Green Goddess Dressing.  Whatever floats your boat I guess.  I wandered around the produce section at Whole Foods deciding what to include in my salad.  This is what I ended up with.

Fig and Smoked Duck breast salad

Okay, I made a fab-u-lous salad yesterday to bring to work today. At least I think it is, you may quite clearly disagree with me if you wish.
It's decadent but rather seasonal so here we go.

Smoked Duck Breast
Goat Cheese/Chevre
Baby Arugula/Rocket
Baby Romaine
Bunch of chives
5 or 6 Figs, quartered*

Lay arugula/Rocket and Romaine leaves on the botton, snip the chive in 1/4 inch pieces all over. Lay the fig quarters around, crumble the goat cheese/Chevre over. Slice duck breast as this as you can and lay on top.

Dressing
1 shallot minced fine
1/2 to 1 TBS of GOOD Balsamic
Extra Virgin olive oil, about 1/4 cup
Black pepper
Sea salt

Mix together and shake or whisk well.

Dress at the last minute.

*I also made it the other day with a fresh peach cut into thinish slivers. I think the fig is better though.

Orzo salad

During the summer I like to make something on Sunday that I can bring to work with me for lunch during the week.  This has become a summer staple as it incorporates all of my favourite flavours, olives, feta, fresh garden tomatoes and good tuna.

This is a sort of Niciose salad with a few modifications.  You can mess with this to your hearts content adding and deleting things, but there is one thing you should not skip, the anchovies in the dressing.  This is key to how this salad tastes and trust me when I say it will NOT taste fishy if that is a flavour you are not so fond of.

1 cup orzo
1/2 pound green beans, cut diagonally into 1/2-inch pieces or hericot vert if you can find them

For dressing
1 TBS red-wine vinegar
1 TBS Sherry Vinegar
1 TBS fresh lemon juice
4 anchovies, chopped
1 TBS Dijon mustard
1 garlic clove, minced and mashed to a paste with 1/2 teaspoon salt
about 1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil

6-ounce jar marinated artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
6- to 7-ounce can tuna, drained (I use Ortiz in a jar, this is amazing tuna almost like a filet in a jar)
12 cherry tomatoes cut in half or left whole
1/2 cup finely chopped red onion
1 1/2 tablespoons minced fresh thyme leaves
1/3 cup Kalamata or other brine-cured black olives. cut in half
Chunk of Sheep's milk feta cheese (Sheep's milk feta like 'Valbresso' is soft and not as salty as regular cow's milk and other brined feta's)

In a saucepan of salted boiling water cook beans until crisp-tender, about 4 to 5 minutes. Drain beans plunge in cold water to stop them cooking further.  I usually scoop them out of the water so I can reuse it for the orzo. 

In a large saucepan of salted boiling water cook orzo until tender and drain in a colander. Rinse orzo well under cold water to stop the cooking process and drain well.  Put in a large bowl, add green beans.

Now make the dressing.  I have a small hand processor or you could use a blender.
In the processor or a blender add the vinegars, lemon juice, anchovies, mustard, and garlic paste.  The photo above is how you want your garlic to look before you add it.  With motor running add oil in a stream and blend until emulsified.

Now on top of the orzo add the artichoke hearts, olives, thyme, green beans, onion, cherry tomatoes, tuna and feta.  Drizzle all of the dressing over and mix.

I keep it in a big tupperwear in the fridge.  It tastes better if you let it come to room temperature before serving.