Sunday, August 3, 2008
Cooking with no recipe
This is the best time of year to cook without a recipe. Next time you go to the market or grocery store don't take a list, instead look at the produce and decide what the freshest and tastiest samples are and build a recipe in your mind from there.
Here are a few hints:
*If Mediterranean ingredients such as tomatoes, eggplants and zucchini all look good, think of a ratatouille. I make it by sauteing separately (for about 5 minutes each) in olive oil sliced onions, eggplants, zucchini, red pepper and tomatoes, turn all the vegetables into a large pot, throw in half a dozen whole cloves of garlic and some salt and simmer on low until the vegetables have almost melted into each other, about an hour. Stir in some chopped basil before serving if you wish and accompany it with some crusty bread. If a stew doesn't appeal, take those same vegetables and roast them instead. Toss the chopped vegetables in olive oil and spread out on a baking tray in a single layer if possible. Roast at 400 degrees until the edges are browned and all the vegetables are soft. Serve over couscous to which you have added a lot of parsley.
*If you have left overs in your fridge, keep them in mind. A chicken or roast beef can be sliced and added to a vegetable salad. See the recipe for an Asian style dressing from my blog about Vietnam. You can buy a rotisserie chicken if you don't have leftovers! Lamb pares beautifully with cherry tomatoes, mint, red onion slices and feta cheese. A plain dressing of olive and lemon juice is all that's needed.
*Everyone loves corn, but you don't have to just boil it and serve it whole. If you have a teenager who has braces on their teeth they will thank you if you strip the kernels off before cooking. I use a serrated bread knife. Right now the corn is so good you can eat it raw. Alternatively, saute some onion and chopped pepper for 10 minutes then add the corn and some salt and toss to heat through. If cornbread is on your menu add fresh corn -and maybe some grated cheese too- to the batter before baking, this will dramatically improve the cornbread made from a mix. Bake the cornbread for an extra 5 or 10 minutes. Corn pudding can be whipped up quickly by pureeing raw corn and adding cream or half and half in a ratio of 2 parts corn to 1 part cream. Add 1 egg for each cup of liquid, season boldly, maybe adding some chili too and bake at 350 degrees until the center is almost set. Serve warm.
* Buy a vegetable that you haven't cooked before or at least not for a long while. If you don't know what to do with it, ask the vendor or Google for recipes.
It's good for a cook to step out of the comfort zone every now and then.
Here are a few hints:
*If Mediterranean ingredients such as tomatoes, eggplants and zucchini all look good, think of a ratatouille. I make it by sauteing separately (for about 5 minutes each) in olive oil sliced onions, eggplants, zucchini, red pepper and tomatoes, turn all the vegetables into a large pot, throw in half a dozen whole cloves of garlic and some salt and simmer on low until the vegetables have almost melted into each other, about an hour. Stir in some chopped basil before serving if you wish and accompany it with some crusty bread. If a stew doesn't appeal, take those same vegetables and roast them instead. Toss the chopped vegetables in olive oil and spread out on a baking tray in a single layer if possible. Roast at 400 degrees until the edges are browned and all the vegetables are soft. Serve over couscous to which you have added a lot of parsley.
*If you have left overs in your fridge, keep them in mind. A chicken or roast beef can be sliced and added to a vegetable salad. See the recipe for an Asian style dressing from my blog about Vietnam. You can buy a rotisserie chicken if you don't have leftovers! Lamb pares beautifully with cherry tomatoes, mint, red onion slices and feta cheese. A plain dressing of olive and lemon juice is all that's needed.
*Everyone loves corn, but you don't have to just boil it and serve it whole. If you have a teenager who has braces on their teeth they will thank you if you strip the kernels off before cooking. I use a serrated bread knife. Right now the corn is so good you can eat it raw. Alternatively, saute some onion and chopped pepper for 10 minutes then add the corn and some salt and toss to heat through. If cornbread is on your menu add fresh corn -and maybe some grated cheese too- to the batter before baking, this will dramatically improve the cornbread made from a mix. Bake the cornbread for an extra 5 or 10 minutes. Corn pudding can be whipped up quickly by pureeing raw corn and adding cream or half and half in a ratio of 2 parts corn to 1 part cream. Add 1 egg for each cup of liquid, season boldly, maybe adding some chili too and bake at 350 degrees until the center is almost set. Serve warm.
* Buy a vegetable that you haven't cooked before or at least not for a long while. If you don't know what to do with it, ask the vendor or Google for recipes.
It's good for a cook to step out of the comfort zone every now and then.
Friday, August 1, 2008
The Original Smith Island Cake?
Regular readers may recall my blog about our new official Maryland State dessert, Smith Island Cake. Thanks to my friend Dalma, one of the best cooks I know, I believe I have found the derivation of a multiple layer cake where the layers are cooked separately and not split.
Dalma is Australian, but Hungarian by heritage. She read my blog about Smith Island Cake and told me about Dobos Torte as it is so similar in construction. As a child she would ask for this cake every year for her birthday and she showed me the web site http://www.europeancuisines.com/ which has a recipe for the confection. The cake layers are made without butter and filled with a most delicious chocolate cream. The cake is topped with a layer of caramel which looked pretty intimidating to make but was not nearly as difficult as I’d anticipated.
According to one source, the word dobos means drummer in Hungarian and the cake is so named because it is supposed to look like a drum. However, the inventor’s name was Jozsef Dobos and I think it more likely that he named it after himself. I can’t think of a better memorial personally, than a really good recipe! The idea behind the caramel topping was that, in an era without refrigeration, the caramel would prevent moisture loss. For at least two reasons, I would keep this cake refrigerated. Most importantly the chocolate cream contains raw eggs. I do not believe this is a problem if you use eggs from pasture raised chickens. The incidence of salmonella poisoning from raw eggs is usually from intensively reared poultry and not from outdoor, pasture reared livestock but anyone with a compromised immune system, the very young or old should beware. Most cakes set rather hard when they are refrigerated because of the amount of butter in the cake batter. This torte however, has no butter in the cake layers so stays very soft. An additional reason for keeping the cake in the fridge is that it will keep it out of reach of children who always seem to want to touch a good looking cake.
Dobos Torte -serves 12
The cake batter
6 eggs, separated
2/3 cup vanilla sugar
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
Chocolate filling
6 oz semisweet chocolate
3 tablespoons strong coffee
1 cup butter
1 cup sifted vanilla powdered sugar
3 eggs
(my inauthentic addition is ½ cup heavy cream)
Caramel glaze
¾ cup regular sugar
Note: Vanilla sugar is made by storing a vanilla pod in a jar of sugar. If you do not have any to hand, use regular sugar and add a couple of drops of vanilla essence.
Make the cake layers first. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Line 6 9 inch cake pans with parchment paper and butter them or spray with baking spray.
Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they form stiff peaks, set aside.
Beat together the egg yolks and the vanilla sugar until the mixture is thick and pale in color. Resift the flour onto the egg yolks about a ¼ cup at a time and fold in to the mixture.
Add a couple of tablespoons of the egg whites to lighten the mixture, it will be very thick and sticky, then fold in the rest of the egg whites as quickly and lightly as possible. The aim is not to lose too much of the air from the beaten egg whites but to incorporate everything into an even mixture.
Spread one sixth of the batter into each pan being sure to have the batter touch the sides of the pan and be as level as possible.
Bake the cakes for 10 to 12 minutes, the edges will harden and the cakes will start to smell great.
Cool them on racks and peel off the parchment swiftly as it starts to stick.
To make the filling, melt the chocolate either in the microwave on very low heat or in a bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water.
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the melted chocolate, the coffee and finally the eggs, beating well after each addition. At this point I decided that, as half the consumers of the cake were to be children, the filling had too grown-up a chocolate taste so I added in ½ cup of heavy cream that I had whipped to soft peaks. No one complained.
Choose the best looking cake layer to be the top of the cake and set it aside on a large piece of wax or parchment paper.
Assemble the other cake layers on a cake stand with a layer of the filling in between using about one sixth of the filling for each layer. Top the fifth cake with filling reserving the rest for the sides of the cake.
Glaze the top layer of cake by making caramel out of the ¾ cup of sugar. In a heavy pan warm ¼ cup of water and the sugar over a low heat until it is almost melted. Turn the heat up to high and let the sugar mix bubble and turn color until it is a med
ium brown. Be patient and shake the pan rather than stir it. As soon as you have reached the desired color pour the caramel over the cake being sure that it is covered entirely. Take care, it is super hot and it’s no fun to eat cake with your hand bandaged.
Working quickly between the time that the caramel is cool enough to handle and before it is too hard to cut, cut the cake layer into 12 segments with a buttered knife. Lay the segments onto the cake and finally cover the edges of the cake with the rest of the chocolate filling. If you use a warm palette knife you can get a professional look.
Cool in the fridge for a couple of hours before serving to an admiring audience.
Dalma is Australian, but Hungarian by heritage. She read my blog about Smith Island Cake and told me about Dobos Torte as it is so similar in construction. As a child she would ask for this cake every year for her birthday and she showed me the web site http://www.europeancuisines.com/ which has a recipe for the confection. The cake layers are made without butter and filled with a most delicious chocolate cream. The cake is topped with a layer of caramel which looked pretty intimidating to make but was not nearly as difficult as I’d anticipated.
According to one source, the word dobos means drummer in Hungarian and the cake is so named because it is supposed to look like a drum. However, the inventor’s name was Jozsef Dobos and I think it more likely that he named it after himself. I can’t think of a better memorial personally, than a really good recipe! The idea behind the caramel topping was that, in an era without refrigeration, the caramel would prevent moisture loss. For at least two reasons, I would keep this cake refrigerated. Most importantly the chocolate cream contains raw eggs. I do not believe this is a problem if you use eggs from pasture raised chickens. The incidence of salmonella poisoning from raw eggs is usually from intensively reared poultry and not from outdoor, pasture reared livestock but anyone with a compromised immune system, the very young or old should beware. Most cakes set rather hard when they are refrigerated because of the amount of butter in the cake batter. This torte however, has no butter in the cake layers so stays very soft. An additional reason for keeping the cake in the fridge is that it will keep it out of reach of children who always seem to want to touch a good looking cake.
Dobos Torte -serves 12
The cake batter
6 eggs, separated
2/3 cup vanilla sugar
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
Chocolate filling
6 oz semisweet chocolate
3 tablespoons strong coffee
1 cup butter
1 cup sifted vanilla powdered sugar
3 eggs
(my inauthentic addition is ½ cup heavy cream)
Caramel glaze
¾ cup regular sugar
Note: Vanilla sugar is made by storing a vanilla pod in a jar of sugar. If you do not have any to hand, use regular sugar and add a couple of drops of vanilla essence.
Make the cake layers first. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Line 6 9 inch cake pans with parchment paper and butter them or spray with baking spray.
Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they form stiff peaks, set aside.
Beat together the egg yolks and the vanilla sugar until the mixture is thick and pale in color. Resift the flour onto the egg yolks about a ¼ cup at a time and fold in to the mixture.
Add a couple of tablespoons of the egg whites to lighten the mixture, it will be very thick and sticky, then fold in the rest of the egg whites as quickly and lightly as possible. The aim is not to lose too much of the air from the beaten egg whites but to incorporate everything into an even mixture.
Spread one sixth of the batter into each pan being sure to have the batter touch the sides of the pan and be as level as possible.
Bake the cakes for 10 to 12 minutes, the edges will harden and the cakes will start to smell great.
Cool them on racks and peel off the parchment swiftly as it starts to stick.
To make the filling, melt the chocolate either in the microwave on very low heat or in a bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water.
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the melted chocolate, the coffee and finally the eggs, beating well after each addition. At this point I decided that, as half the consumers of the cake were to be children, the filling had too grown-up a chocolate taste so I added in ½ cup of heavy cream that I had whipped to soft peaks. No one complained.
Choose the best looking cake layer to be the top of the cake and set it aside on a large piece of wax or parchment paper.
Assemble the other cake layers on a cake stand with a layer of the filling in between using about one sixth of the filling for each layer. Top the fifth cake with filling reserving the rest for the sides of the cake.
Glaze the top layer of cake by making caramel out of the ¾ cup of sugar. In a heavy pan warm ¼ cup of water and the sugar over a low heat until it is almost melted. Turn the heat up to high and let the sugar mix bubble and turn color until it is a med
ium brown. Be patient and shake the pan rather than stir it. As soon as you have reached the desired color pour the caramel over the cake being sure that it is covered entirely. Take care, it is super hot and it’s no fun to eat cake with your hand bandaged.Working quickly between the time that the caramel is cool enough to handle and before it is too hard to cut, cut the cake layer into 12 segments with a buttered knife. Lay the segments onto the cake and finally cover the edges of the cake with the rest of the chocolate filling. If you use a warm palette knife you can get a professional look.
Cool in the fridge for a couple of hours before serving to an admiring audience.
I wonder who on Smith Island had a connection with Hungary?
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Tomatoes
The tomatoes in my garden are just beginning to ripen but the markets are full of locally grown, sun ripened, glorious tomatoes. Below are a few ideas to celebrate these fruits.
* Panzanella
Use up old bread (preferably sourdough with a sturdy crumb) by slicing it into cubes about a half inch square. Chop twice the quantity of tomatoes together with some red onion and basil and toss together with good olive oil and sea salt. You could also add capers, some lemon juice or red wine vinegar and chopped anchovies if they appeal to you. Serve at room temperature.
*Tomatoes and Mozzarella
Slice tomatoes and arrange beautifully on a platter with slices of mozzarella cheese and fresh basil leaves torn up and scattered over. Dress with salt and olive oil shortly before serving. You can find freshly made mozzarella cheese most days at the Italian Market on Defence Highway, they do a great job there. Pick up a loaf of their Italian bread too and use it to mop up the juices. A carnivore could add some sliced salami (sold at the same store) and call that lunch.
*Gazpacho
This is just a salad made into a soup but is dead easy if you have a food processor. Originating in Spain, it was traditionally made with a pestle and mortar, thank goodness for technology! Squeeze out most of the seeds from two pounds of tomatoes, peel and seed a pound of cucumbers. Process the tomatoes and cucumbers with half a mild onion, a couple of crushed cloves of garlic, a slice of bread, a couple of tablespoons of red wine vinegar, salt to taste and about a half cup of olive oil. To serve, add small mounds of chopped red and yellow peppers, cucumbers, onions and home made croutons if you want to be fancy. Chill the gazpacho before serving.
* Panzanella
Use up old bread (preferably sourdough with a sturdy crumb) by slicing it into cubes about a half inch square. Chop twice the quantity of tomatoes together with some red onion and basil and toss together with good olive oil and sea salt. You could also add capers, some lemon juice or red wine vinegar and chopped anchovies if they appeal to you. Serve at room temperature.
*Tomatoes and Mozzarella
Slice tomatoes and arrange beautifully on a platter with slices of mozzarella cheese and fresh basil leaves torn up and scattered over. Dress with salt and olive oil shortly before serving. You can find freshly made mozzarella cheese most days at the Italian Market on Defence Highway, they do a great job there. Pick up a loaf of their Italian bread too and use it to mop up the juices. A carnivore could add some sliced salami (sold at the same store) and call that lunch.
*Gazpacho
This is just a salad made into a soup but is dead easy if you have a food processor. Originating in Spain, it was traditionally made with a pestle and mortar, thank goodness for technology! Squeeze out most of the seeds from two pounds of tomatoes, peel and seed a pound of cucumbers. Process the tomatoes and cucumbers with half a mild onion, a couple of crushed cloves of garlic, a slice of bread, a couple of tablespoons of red wine vinegar, salt to taste and about a half cup of olive oil. To serve, add small mounds of chopped red and yellow peppers, cucumbers, onions and home made croutons if you want to be fancy. Chill the gazpacho before serving.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Visit Vietnam but Sleep in your Own Bed.
So far this summer I have taken a mother/ daughter trip to Mexico and visited Vietnam with my family. The trip to Mexico was 5 days of having fun with school friends on the beach. The trip to Vietnam was just a day out.
The Eden Center near Falls Church, Virginia used to be a regular shopping center. In the early 1970s, during the fall of Saigon, many of the South Vietnamese who had worked with the American forces there were evacuated to the US. Families with links to the military and living close to the Pentagon opened their homes to the refugees and soon a thriving Vietnamese community existed in that locality. The Eden Center now has mainly Vietnamese stores and I highly recommend a visit as a quick and inexpensive way of dipping one’s toe into a different culture. One can wander around the souvenir, music and jewelry stores but for me, the restaurants, cafes and supermarkets hold more allure: I am a culinary tourist.
Vietnamese food has been influenced by not only the prevailing Asian ingredients and culture but also the French who had established a colonial power base there. This has resulted in a café society that favors coffee and pastries and there are many Vietnamese dishes that feature spicy grilled meats or vegetables filling bread that looks very French to me, as well as dishes that are Chinese in appearance. We always visit the same pho shop because it is the children’s favorite. Pho is the national dish, a flavorful broth made from either chicken or beef, served in a huge bowl with rice noodles, herbs and slices of the chosen meat. Bean sprouts, chilies, basil and other herbs are served alongside to add in to the soup, together with an assortment of spicy relishes. The pho shop we visit always has the TV blaring and a group of older men at the back playing board games, often mah jong, but others too that I don’t recognize.
The supermarket stocks all manner of interesting ingredients, often with no English on the label. I pick up spices and grocery items such as mushroom soy sauce, rice wine and jars of kim che the Korean picked vegetable assortment which makes a good side dish to barbecued meats. Pork is sold with the skin on and I either roast it plain in the English style or braise it with red spices, Chinese style. There is a good selection of fresh vegetables too, some totally unfamiliar and sometimes I ask other shoppers what things are and how they are used. Last week I bought some rambutans which were my absolute favorite fruit when I lived in Malaya as a child. In the supermarket they appear under plastic wrap looking like small red hedgehogs, when I lived in Malaya we bought them from road side vendors by the branch. Think lychee but larger, they are best served chilled. Saving the best for last I stop by the friendly roast meat vendor at the front of the supermarket, roast ducks and part of a large pig usually hang in the window. I buy a roast duck for my recipe below and also a chunk of the roast pork which makes the car smell divine all the way home and can either be reheated in the oven or served cold for dinner that night.
I like to visit Vietnam, but it’s great to sleep in my own bed at night!
Roast Duck Salad -serves 6
1 Asian style roast duck
10 cups of assorted vegetables, such as carrots peeled and sliced on the diagonal, bean sprouts, sugar snap peas cut length ways, green beans, batons of cucumber, wedges of iceberg lettuce or florets of broccoli.
Sesame oil
A small bunch of cilantro, chopped
Dressing
Juice of 2 limes
1 large clove garlic crushed
1 teaspoon sugar
¼ cup Asian fish sauce (nam pla)
1 chili chopped small if you like spicy food
The vendor in the supermarket will be keen to chop the duck up for you. Don’t let him do this. You can let him split the duck in half if he looks too disappointed.
Heat the oven to 375 degrees.
Bone the duck leaving only the leg and wing bones in. Roast it, skin side up for 45minutes. This will crisp up the skin and render a lot of the fat. Pour off the fat and leave the duck to cool a little. Slice into bite size pieces, discarding the rest of the bones.
Blanch the hard vegetables in boiling water, cool and dry. Rinse and dry the salad items.
Mix all the dressing ingredients and toss with all the vegetables. Pile them on a platter and arrange the duck on top.
Drizzle a little sesame oil over the platter just before serving and scatter with chopped cilantro.
To get to Vietnam, take Rt. 50 to Washington DC, then 395 South to 66 West. Leave Rt.66 at exit 69 and turn left. This road will turn into Roosevelt Blvd and you will see the Eden Center on your right.
The Eden Center near Falls Church, Virginia used to be a regular shopping center. In the early 1970s, during the fall of Saigon, many of the South Vietnamese who had worked with the American forces there were evacuated to the US. Families with links to the military and living close to the Pentagon opened their homes to the refugees and soon a thriving Vietnamese community existed in that locality. The Eden Center now has mainly Vietnamese stores and I highly recommend a visit as a quick and inexpensive way of dipping one’s toe into a different culture. One can wander around the souvenir, music and jewelry stores but for me, the restaurants, cafes and supermarkets hold more allure: I am a culinary tourist.
Vietnamese food has been influenced by not only the prevailing Asian ingredients and culture but also the French who had established a colonial power base there. This has resulted in a café society that favors coffee and pastries and there are many Vietnamese dishes that feature spicy grilled meats or vegetables filling bread that looks very French to me, as well as dishes that are Chinese in appearance. We always visit the same pho shop because it is the children’s favorite. Pho is the national dish, a flavorful broth made from either chicken or beef, served in a huge bowl with rice noodles, herbs and slices of the chosen meat. Bean sprouts, chilies, basil and other herbs are served alongside to add in to the soup, together with an assortment of spicy relishes. The pho shop we visit always has the TV blaring and a group of older men at the back playing board games, often mah jong, but others too that I don’t recognize.
The supermarket stocks all manner of interesting ingredients, often with no English on the label. I pick up spices and grocery items such as mushroom soy sauce, rice wine and jars of kim che the Korean picked vegetable assortment which makes a good side dish to barbecued meats. Pork is sold with the skin on and I either roast it plain in the English style or braise it with red spices, Chinese style. There is a good selection of fresh vegetables too, some totally unfamiliar and sometimes I ask other shoppers what things are and how they are used. Last week I bought some rambutans which were my absolute favorite fruit when I lived in Malaya as a child. In the supermarket they appear under plastic wrap looking like small red hedgehogs, when I lived in Malaya we bought them from road side vendors by the branch. Think lychee but larger, they are best served chilled. Saving the best for last I stop by the friendly roast meat vendor at the front of the supermarket, roast ducks and part of a large pig usually hang in the window. I buy a roast duck for my recipe below and also a chunk of the roast pork which makes the car smell divine all the way home and can either be reheated in the oven or served cold for dinner that night.
I like to visit Vietnam, but it’s great to sleep in my own bed at night!
Roast Duck Salad -serves 6
1 Asian style roast duck
10 cups of assorted vegetables, such as carrots peeled and sliced on the diagonal, bean sprouts, sugar snap peas cut length ways, green beans, batons of cucumber, wedges of iceberg lettuce or florets of broccoli.
Sesame oil
A small bunch of cilantro, chopped
Dressing
Juice of 2 limes
1 large clove garlic crushed
1 teaspoon sugar
¼ cup Asian fish sauce (nam pla)
1 chili chopped small if you like spicy food
The vendor in the supermarket will be keen to chop the duck up for you. Don’t let him do this. You can let him split the duck in half if he looks too disappointed.
Heat the oven to 375 degrees.
Bone the duck leaving only the leg and wing bones in. Roast it, skin side up for 45minutes. This will crisp up the skin and render a lot of the fat. Pour off the fat and leave the duck to cool a little. Slice into bite size pieces, discarding the rest of the bones.
Blanch the hard vegetables in boiling water, cool and dry. Rinse and dry the salad items.
Mix all the dressing ingredients and toss with all the vegetables. Pile them on a platter and arrange the duck on top.
Drizzle a little sesame oil over the platter just before serving and scatter with chopped cilantro.
To get to Vietnam, take Rt. 50 to Washington DC, then 395 South to 66 West. Leave Rt.66 at exit 69 and turn left. This road will turn into Roosevelt Blvd and you will see the Eden Center on your right.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Traveling Food
The glorious weather inspires a lot of us to be outside more and even to take our meals outside, whether as part of a long bike ride, a journey to a tourist destination or just enjoying the garden, local park or playground.
There are many salads that can be easily packed up and toted along; I have been trying to think ‘outside the sandwich’ this summer.
An antipasto I once had in Italy consisted of canned tuna and canned white beans seasoned with a lot of chopped parsley, lemon juice, crushed garlic, black pepper and extra virgin olive oil. It sounds too simple to be delicious but the combination is terrific and it gets better if it has a couple of hours to let the flavors meld together, being shaken around in a bicycle basket does it no harm at all! I add chopped cucumber which gives the salad a good crunch and it is one of my lunch mainstays this year.
Another bean salad that has been well received is the addition of chopped tomato, olives, anchovy and parsley to a can of white beans dressed with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
The recipe below is another well traveled lunch salad.
Smoked Trout and Fennel Salad
1 package smoked trout, -available in local groceries
2 bulbs fennel, tops removed
1 apple
½ cup plain yogurt
¼ cup mayonnaise
Lemon juice
Black pepper
Mix the yogurt and mayonnaise together in a large bowl.
Remove the skin from the trout fillets and pull the meat into bite size pieces, adding it to the dressing.
Slice the fennel and apple into thin shreds and combine with the trout and dressing.
Add lemon juice and black pepper to taste.
Serve over greens if you wish.
There are many salads that can be easily packed up and toted along; I have been trying to think ‘outside the sandwich’ this summer.
An antipasto I once had in Italy consisted of canned tuna and canned white beans seasoned with a lot of chopped parsley, lemon juice, crushed garlic, black pepper and extra virgin olive oil. It sounds too simple to be delicious but the combination is terrific and it gets better if it has a couple of hours to let the flavors meld together, being shaken around in a bicycle basket does it no harm at all! I add chopped cucumber which gives the salad a good crunch and it is one of my lunch mainstays this year.
Another bean salad that has been well received is the addition of chopped tomato, olives, anchovy and parsley to a can of white beans dressed with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
The recipe below is another well traveled lunch salad.
Smoked Trout and Fennel Salad
1 package smoked trout, -available in local groceries
2 bulbs fennel, tops removed
1 apple
½ cup plain yogurt
¼ cup mayonnaise
Lemon juice
Black pepper
Mix the yogurt and mayonnaise together in a large bowl.
Remove the skin from the trout fillets and pull the meat into bite size pieces, adding it to the dressing.
Slice the fennel and apple into thin shreds and combine with the trout and dressing.
Add lemon juice and black pepper to taste.
Serve over greens if you wish.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
More on Foraging
An article today in the New York Times about food from the wild refers to collecting berries and sour cherries, also known as Morellos.
A couple of books are recommended so that you can identify fruits in the field and collect only those items that won't poison your family. They are "A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and Central America" by Lee Allen Peterson and Roger Tory Peterson (Houghton Mifflin, 1999) and "Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not So Wild) Places" by Steve Brill (William Morrow/ Harper Collins, 1994).
A couple of books are recommended so that you can identify fruits in the field and collect only those items that won't poison your family. They are "A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and Central America" by Lee Allen Peterson and Roger Tory Peterson (Houghton Mifflin, 1999) and "Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not So Wild) Places" by Steve Brill (William Morrow/ Harper Collins, 1994).
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Food for free
I have been spending a lot of time out on family biking trips. That's how I noticed the wild raspberries in Quiet Waters Park. I am told (courtesy of Google and via the children) that the raspberries are Rubus idaeus LINN, whatever their name we have gathered enough to sprinkle on our morning cereal and we have frozen a small bag of them so we can have wild raspberries on our cereal on Christmas morning. I highly recommend them, they are tart and seedy but with a great burst of fruit flavor and FREE!
We picked just a few so there's plenty left for everyone and the deer too.
We picked just a few so there's plenty left for everyone and the deer too.
