Amuse Bouche

Frisée salad: Salumeria Biellese guanciale, fava beans and tiny, teeny mushrooms

Summer has come early to New England for the first time in as long as I can recall.  May has felt very much like June, the garden is out of control for this early in the season and even though we have had a few nights that have threatened us with frost, I feel remiss for not having my tomato plants in their pots already.  I know that I am pushing things, Memorial weekend is the traditional plant your tomatoes weekend in my neck of the woods, then again Gran always said have your peas in the ground by St. Patrick's day which found me one year planting in a snow storm. Who am I to question Gran's wisdom?

Summer of course means salads, salads of all kinds and shapes and colours.  I consider salad like a good tapas meal, little bites and nibbles of this and that all available on a plate for combining various ways on a fork.  No taste bud burnout and new combos in each bite. Given my love of all things bitter it comes as a surprise that it took me 45 years to like frisée.  I used to call it the lettuce that bit you back with its vicious looking spines sticking out of a salad like coral on a beach.  A few tries later and some encounters with some lovely softer leafed frisée has changed my perception entirely. The impetus for this salad came when my pal Maggie at Kinnealey sent me some gorgeous Salumeria Biellese Guanciale when I ordered guanciale last week.

I've had it from La Quercia and Niman Ranch before but nothing and I mean nothing beat this pig cheek.  Marbled, cured, piggy porky heaven.

My other latest obsession are agrodolce or sweet and sour cipollini onions.  I had a pint one day that were languishing around so I found a Mario Batali recipe that didn't cook them in balsamic.  I like them well enough with the balsamic but I feel like it drowns them out a bit and I wanted something lighter tasting.  His recipe is simple.  Peel your onions, in my case a 1 pint container.  Add to a sauté pan with 2 TBS olive oil, 2 - 3 TBS white vinegar, 1/4 cup water, 2 TBS sugar and some salt.  Cook at a good simmer until the onions are knife tender and then lid off to let it reduce and glaze a bit.  I store them in a crock in the fridge and have them with everything.  They are very, very addictive.

Spring is also the season of the fava bean, broad beans to those of you on that island over the pond, the worlds most labor intensive, delightful, vegetable.  Piss and moan about artichokes all you want, for maximum work, waste and also reward the fava bean wins hands down.  First you choose the tightest freshest pods, far more than you think you will need, and then if you are me, sit down and join the 11+ class on a Wednesday night and chat with them all as you shuck them from the pod.  Proceed to then discard most of the weight of the product you bought in the trash, those empty pods weigh a lot and take a lot of real estate.  Since the burners are all in use, go and join the 9-11 class in the other kitchen who just happen to be blanching asparagus and quickly blanch and shock your fava beans in ice water.  Go back across the hall again to the 11+ class and sit down and peel the outer tough layer of each and every fava bean off.  Pare a 3 lb purchase down to, oh say, 6 ounces of beans.  Those were later sautéed with some teeny, tiny mushrooms I bought at Russo's in olive oil and garlic. Foolishly I did not get the name of the mushrooms and of course I haven't seen them there again.  They were like tiny representations of toadstools you might find in Alice in Wonderland, a bit like these.  We had some for dinner one night and the leftovers were sprinkled on the salad.

The salad itself was simple.  A bed of frisée topped with a few of those agrodolce cippolini, poached egg from my egg lady in Maine and the leftover fava beans (skip for paleo and primal) and mushrooms The dressing was guanciale sautéed until rendered and crisp, removed and drained and to the pan I tossed in a minced shallot sautéed until soft and added a final splash of cider vinegar. Fridge cleaning at its finest.

Salt and Pepper Squid, Bún(Herb Noodle Salad) and Chè Chuôi (Banana Tapioca in Coconut Milk)

On the whole I tend to cook in waves.  Reading a book on India?  Expect quite a few spicy dishes to crop up in the rotation. Watching a lot of Pedro Almodóvar films? Pimentón and chorizo are everywhere.  Friday I had to go to Kam Man in Quincy to stock us up at school for the upcoming  Thai, Vietnamese, Indian and soon Korean classes.
Allowing me loose in there with no time constraints and a long list is like heaven, it also means we will be eating from several cuisines, but all firmly in the far East for the foreseeable future.

I bought a half duck and Friday night I made lettuce rolls dipped in Nước chấm with the chopped up duck and to go with I was craving squid/calamari. For some reason salt and pepper squid popped into my head and wouldn't leave.  I've never made salt and pepper squid before but I guessed it would be pretty quick and pretty easy.  I hunted around the web and decided on cornstarch as my coating.  My tempura batter is heavy on the cornstarch and I like the light 'batter' it makes on the outside.  Cornstarch makes a very light, very crisp coating and unlike many traditional batters, it won't separate from what you have coated.  The lettuce rolls were good, but the squid, THE SQUID were heavenly. 

In fact, I had a few left in the ziploc that I didn't fry Friday night and much to my husband's horror, I fried them up quick for breakfast before I left.  He squinted his very British nose at me while he spooned in his milk and cereal and I vainly tried to explain that people in China probably ate this for breakfast and no one blinked an eye.  His retort was that we were not in China.  My retort back was then why aren't you eating fried beans, fried bread, fried tomatoes, fried mushroom and blood sausage then?  He shut up and continued spooning in his Harvest flakes.

Saturday I drove up to Framingham to look at FLOR tiles at Circle furniture for our remodel and I brought along The Little Saigon Cookbook by Ann Le for inspiration before I hit the local Whole Foods.  Before I left home I called to check in with Mom and SD.  Coincidently that very morning she, many states away  in VA, had driven to her local Asian market to stock up and as I waxed about S&P squid she said they had ordered it last night for dinner.  Coincidence?  I think not.  Anyway, I promised her I would put the recipe here in case she wanted to make it at home.  Her local had put it on a 'salad' of finely minced sautéed vegetables including chilies and I am guessing shallots, but if anyone knows what it is 'traditionally' served on, let me know so I can try to make that as well.

Sitting in the parking lot of Whole Foods sipping my iced coffee I decided I was going to have the squid again.  I know!  Again!  I never, NEVER eat the same thing three meals in a row.  I assure you right now that this is going to be my summer addiction.  I flicked through the book at decided that I would make a bún or herb salad to go with it.  My garden has a great patch of Vietnamese Coriander this year and that is just something I can't find in the stores.  Even Russo's my faithful Asian produce supplier never seems to carry it so I take matters in my own hands and grow it. I find my plants at Russell's in Wayland. That is some Vietnamese Coriander  up in the top right hand corner of the bowl with the long pointed leaves.  It tastes like a cross of cilantro and Thai Basil.  I adore it.  Cilantro haters will despise it with equal measure. The salad was loads of mint, Vietnamese Coriander, cilantro, mung bean sprouts, a few sliced shallots and it was all tossed with some cellophane noodles, topped in fried garlic slices and at the last minute doused in Nước chấm.  Bright, fresh, and the perfect foil to the fried squid. 

For dessert I decided to try my hand at the Chè Chuôi.  If you are a tapioca fan like I am this was heaven.  Tapioca cooked in water until translucent and then you add in coconut milk, sweetened condensed milk, sugar, salt and banana, simmer for a bit and then let it sit.  You can top it in shaved coconut, but I had it as is at room temperature and it was heaven.  

So for the sake of Mom who requested it, here is all you need to do for heavenly salt and pepper squid.

No measurements here since it will all depend on the amount of squid you have, but I had between 1/2 - 3/4 pound of squid bodies.  I cut the cleaned tubes open and then scored them across with my knife and cut each body into 4 pieces.  My squid were about 3 - 4 inches long.

In my suribachi (or mortar and pestle or coffee grinder) went about 2 TBS of black peppercorns and about the same of Maldon sea salt.

After I ground it a bit it looked like this.  Some larger and smaller chunks of everything.

Into a ziploc went about 1/3 - 1/2 cup of cornstarch (sub coconut flour for paleo) and 3/4 of the salt and pepper.  I save some for sprinkling on after frying.  In go the squid.  Toss, shake, shimmy, toss.  Heat oil (coconut oil or rendered lard, I've also used duck fat) in a wok, not very deep, just enough to cover squid.  Set up a paper towel to drain.  Add in a few pieces at a time and fry quickly, I repeat QUICKLY, 2 minutes...maybe.  pull and drain, sprinkle with a bit more s&p.

I served mine with Kewpie, cause I like it that way.  But sometimes I would dip it in the Nước chấm
and then the kewpie.  Oh....my. Tonight I am feeling a bit French.  It will be an omelette with a nice side salad and a glass of wine.  Ohh la la.

Tuna Salad

This is what passes for tuna salad around these parts when the days get long, and the garden work calls until the sun sets. After the dirt and grime are scrubbed off and a cocktail is consumed, the music fills the kitchen and some variation of this dish is made for each of us.

This one happens to include: My favourite ewe's milk feta; Valbreso , butter beans tossed with olive oil and salt and pepper, watercress tossed with EVOO, a dribble of truffle oil, lemon juice and S&P, a quick pickle of finely shaved red onion (toss with vinegar of choice, sugar and salt, let rest, squeeze out - enjoy), sun dried tomatoes, a supreme of tangelo and at the heart always, ALWAYS a jar of Ortiz tuna. If you remotely think you do not like tuna in a can or tuna in a jar I dare you to buy some Ortiz and try again. Spain knows seafood and Spain knows how to process seafood in a tin and seafood in a jar. It puts Charlie to shame. I topped it with salmon roe and a dribble of creme fraiche on the side. Eaten in a typical European fashion with a bit of this and a bit of that pushed on to a fork using your knife it is summer heaven. Trust me on this one. Oh, and drink a nice chilled Rosé.

Squid (Calamari) Salad

A quick outing this morning to hit the Farmer's market in Waltham, Captain Marden's and Roche Bros in Wellesley and we came back home to unpack.  I whipped this up for lunch in under 15 minutes, again inspired by the lovely book The French market by Joanne Harris & Fran Warde.  I'm planing recipes for Everyday French for create a cook in two weeks and every time I flick the page on one of her cookbooks I want to cook something, in fact dinner tonight for me is coming out something I saw a few pages later.

Squid (Calamari) Salad
Toss some lettuce leaves with lemon juice and a little salt. 
Add some EVOO and, if desired, a few drops of white truffle oil, toss. 
Take some cleaned squid bodies and slice them in rings. 
Zest 1 lemon and chop up some parsley and lemon or regular thyme leaves, toss this in a small bowl and add some minced garlic, maybe 2 cloves, mix this up. 
Heat some olive oil on high in a sauté pan, toss in the calamari rings and season quick with salt and pepper. 
Stir or toss for about 45 secs, add the parsley, garlic mixture and toss/stir for about 1 minute more or until the calamari are just white.
Taste for seasonings and place on top of the dressed lettuce leaves and serve immediately.

Friday: We're Having (or I should say We Had)
She: Salad of Olivia's organics lettuce, butter beans, red onion, fresh corn cut off the cob and baby tomatoes (Nonantum farmer's market) tossed with EVOO, white truffle oil and lemon juice with Ortiz tuna, which is on special right now at whole Foods for $7.99 a jar.

He: His usual tuna salad of Olivia's Organics Spring Mix, Ortiz tuna, cucumber, red onion, tomato (garden) and cole slaw.  he is nothing if not consistent.

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.