Just call me Miss Cleo

I'm seeing my own future - and I like what I see!

Ever since moving to Birmingham, Jon & I have been dying to go to Hot & Hot Fish Club, a local restaurant that features all local and seasonal ingredients, including those from the Jones Valley urban farm which occupies several acres of abandoned land downtown.

Marking our first date since before Delaney was born, we are finally going to celebrate my birthday next month! I've been pointlessly drooling over the menu (it changes quite regularly) but saying my prayers that they'll still have their renowned Tomato Salad. So famous, in fact, that it was featured in the August issue of Cooking Light.

As we've had a bounty of heirloom tomatoes from our own garden, we decided to make our own attempt at the Hot & Hot Tomato Salad...and not the light version ;)

Heirloom Tomato Salad (adapted from the Hot and Hot Tomato Salad - Chef Chris Hastings)
serves 2

Ingredients:

3 heirloom tomatoes (we used black brandywine, green zebra and Mr. Stripey)
4 thin slices, prosciutto
8 pieces baby okra
1/3 cup pink field peas (can substitute black eyed peas)
1/2 cup flour
6 oz beer
2-3 tablespoons reduced-fat mayonnaise
1-2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1-2 tablespoons chopped chives

Preparation:

The key is to start with delicious summer produce. The variety of heirloom tomato doesn't matter and in fact, beefsteak tomatoes would be just fine.


These are topped with prosciutto chips. What are those you ask? Oh, just heaven! Put the thinly sliced prosciutto into a cast iron (or other heavy) skillet on medium high heat until it reaches the consistency of bacon. You can thank me later.

(Oh, the other stuff on the plate is chunks of salt pork for the pot'o'beans we made!)

You'll want to cook the field peas for just a few minutes in boiling water or broth.

To prepare the okra (this makes the most glorious fried okra EVER), combine half a beer with 1/2 to 2/3 cup flour, dip the okra in the batter, and fry for just a few minutes in peanut oil (until golden brown).

The "dressing" for this is a chive aioli that could not be more simple. Whisk together the mayo and vinegar to get a consistency slightly thinner than your average ranch dressing. Then toss in the chopped chives. That's it!

As previously mentioned, we cooked the remainder of the field peas like we would black eyed peas. Jon is in charge of this task but I'm fairly certain it includes: onion, chicken broth, hot pickled okra, jalapeno, garlic and of course the salt pork. In full disclosure - we've made this with thick cut bacon or ham hock before as well...I like the salt pork but it is salty so do not add any extra!

To assemble the tomato salad, layer 2 slices of each tomato per stack, sprinkle the field peas and okra around, dress liberally with the chive aioli and top with the prosciutto chips.



Yeah. Amazing right? Look, there's a reason a James Beard Award nominated restaurant is most famous for this dish. There are no real words (and ours is just the amateur rip-off version!)

We ate ours with steak. While we are die-hard ribeye people, we discovered a cut at our local supermarket that delivers similar texture and flavor for a much smaller price tag. They're labeled "chuck eye" steaks. Less expensive + still delicious is always a winner in my book.

Making an exception

I'm a veggie girl. It is probably my favorite food group. I realize that makes me a bit of a freak. But there are very few vegetables I don't like. And when it comes to salads, I welcome it all. Especially the stuff my mom so endearingly refers to as "weeds". Arugula, watercress, frisee...bring it on. There is one lettuce, however, that seems to be the object of my disdain. Iceberg. Ick. The "white" lettuce...all water, no substance or flavor.

But I am here before you to admit today that sometimes when you make exceptions to your own rules, you can find yourself in a very pleasantly surprising situation.

Take this lettuce for instance - something I had so long looked past, I gave a second glance. I came across a mention of a wedge salad with homemade dressing. Probably on a food blog, maybe in a magazine or other recipe website. Can't be certain because I am (gladly) surrounded by all of them constantly. Anyway, the urge to make homemade blue cheese dressing struck and ultimately brought me to this glorious epiphany. When used as a vessel to get homemade buttermilk gorgonzola dressing into my mouth, iceberg lettuce is a very very good thing!

Sara's Creamy Buttermilk Gorgonzola Dressing (& wedge salad)
Serves 2-4 depending on your salad appetite

Ingredients:

1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup low fat sour cream
2 tablespoons low fat mayonnaise
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1/2 - 1 tablespoon grated onion (to taste)
1 small clove garlic, grated
1/2 cup crumbled gorgonzola cheese (or blue cheese)
salt & pepper to taste
1 head iceberg lettuce, halved or quartered
Handful of grape tomatoes, halved

Preparation:

Add the first four ingredients (buttermilk, sour cream, mayo and vinegar) into a mixing bowl.


Next, grate the garlic and onion. I use my microplane. It says 1 small clove of garlic but just grate as much as you can without endangering your fingers.


And make sure to flip it over and get all the yumminess off the back of the microplane.

Repeat with onion. You will end up with this beautiful amalgamation of white on sorta-white.



Next, throw in 2+ ounces of crumbled cheese. I prefer gorgonzola - it is creamier than many blue cheeses and has a consistent flavor. By all means use blue cheese, this is just a preference of my own.



Sprinkle in salt and freshly ground black pepper and whisk everything together.


Last but not least, serve it up (liberally) over a wedge of iceberg lettuce. Flip the entire head over and cut out the core, then half (and maybe quarter) it. The first time we made this recipe I tried to be lady-like and only eat a quarter but this time I was much more honest with myself and ate an entire half. I like to throw in some halved grape tomatoes for some sweetness and contrasting flavor.


Perhaps this discovery will lead to some eye-opening with other foods I've previously turned my nose to. I guess be on the look out for a recipe with beets. Or ham. But probably not ham. Yuck.

Taking a stand

As I sit here now, typing, I have to admit that I'm quite opinionated about potato salad. And this after growing up in a sheltered potato salad world, blissfully eating the only version I'd ever known. It's hard to pinpoint exactly this seismic shift occurred...but apparently now is the time to take a stand. Against overly mayo-y, texturally mushy potato salads.

Afterall, what better time to get my message out to the public (ha!) than right before the 4th of July, right?

Since discovering myself, at least in the potato sense of the term, I've made quite a few potato salads that I've really enjoyed. This is one I tried for the first time this summer and will definitely be repeating in the future. No mayo in sight, you can tell it's actually POTATOES in there (and not just glop), and there are fresh, yummy vegetables!

Fresh from the Market Potato Salad (adapted from Cooking Light, June 2010)
Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

2 pounds of fingerling potatoes, cut into “bite-sized” chunks
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons whole-grain mustard
½ teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 yellow summer squash or zucchini, diced
¾ cup sliced sweet onion
1 cup grape tomatoes, halved
2 cups arugula

Preparation:

Place your cut potatoes into a pot of salted (non-boiling) water. Bring the potatoes and water to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer, allowing the potatoes to cook through. This only takes a few minutes, depending on your definition of "bite-sized".


While the potatoes are cooking, slightly cook the zucchini or summer squash. I suggest lightly steaming or grilling, but sauteeing works as well. It should still retain some of its crunch - just not be raw.

Now is also a good time to assemble the "dressing". Remember, this isn't a mayo potato salad. Combine the olive oil, tarragon, vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper.

Once your potatoes have cooked, drain the water and put the potatoes back into the hot pot for 30 seconds - 1 minute to get rid of the excess moisture.

Then toss the potatoes and the rest of the veggies into the dressing.

It is superbly fresh and satisfying.

I apologize for being preachy about the whole thing, but I clearly have stronger-than necessary opinions on the whole matter.

A girl can never have too many pearls

In complete honestly, despite considering myself a fairly adventurous eater and cook, the only time in my life I can recall having barley is in beef & barley soup. I don't have a good excuse as to why but I finally decided it was time when I came across this recipe.

This salad combines a lot of different ingredients and flavors that I absolutely love. However, it is a perfect venue for me to express how easy it is to change and adapt recipes. I'm not normally a huge fan of feta cheese but found that it worked really well with all of the other flavors. The lesson to be learned is to not shy away from a recipe if you just don't like one or two ingredients (I'll caveat this to say that if it is clearly the main ingredient, there is an exception to my rule). But if you don't like feta, or olives, or whatever it might be - the recipe will be fine without it. And if you're wanting to make it gluten free, brown rice or quinoa could easily be subbed for the barley. Don't let a few miscellaneous ingredients scare you away from an otherwise amazing recipe! *now stepping down from my soapbox*

Greek Salad with Chicken and Pearled Barley (adapted from Cooking Light, January 2010)
Serves 4

Ingredients:
6 boneless, skinless chicken breast tenderloins (or 2 breasts)
3 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
3 1/2 cups reduced sodium chicken broth
1 cup pearled barley
1 cucumber, peeled seeded and cubed
1 cup grape or cherry tomatoes
1 medium red bell pepper
1/3 cup pitted kalamata olives
1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion
1 tablespoon fresh basil ribbons
1 tablespoon fresh italian (flat leaf) parsley, roughly chopped
3 oz crumbled feta cheese
Zest and juice of one lemon
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3/4 teaspoon sea salt

Preparation:

The barley takes a little bit to cook. Get it started first by bringing 2 1/2 cups of the chicken broth to a boil. Add the cup of uncooked barley, cover the pot and reduct the heat. My barley needed to simmer for 45 minutes to absorb all of the liquid which was plenty of time to prepare everything else for the salad.


To cook the chicken, first sprinkle it with 1/4 teaspoon of salt and some pepper and brown it for 1-2 minutes on each side in a non-stick skillet that has been coated with olive oil. Once the chicken has browned, pour in the remaining cup of chicken broth, cover the pan and reduce the heat to a simmer. Allow the chicken to cook around 10 minutes before removing it from the pan.

Now is the time to start prepping all the veggies for the salad. You will want to halve or quarter the tomatoes and cut the bel pepper into bite-sized cubes. Before chopping the cucumber into bite-sized pieces, it's best to seed it. If you've never done it before, here's how. Just cut the peeled cucumber in half and run a spoon down the center to scoop out the seeds.

I just started throwing the ingredients of the salad into a large bowl as I chopped them. Hold off on the basil and parsley until the end so that the leaves don't get bruised. I've found that the best way to cut fresh basil is to stack the leaves, roll them up and cut it into ribbons.

To prepare the dressing, zest one lemon into a small mixing bowl and add 3 tablespoons of olive oil, the juice of the lemon, the redwine vinegar, garlic, thyme and a 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

Once the chicken has cooled, shred it. After the barley has finished cooking, fluff it and mix it with all of the veggies, the feta and the dressing. I actually preferred this salad a bit chilled, which allowed the flavors to really come together in the fridge.

I love love love this combination of flavors and will definitely be cooking more with these lovely little pearls in the future!

Salad - on a grill!

I went through a phase when I was younger when I "hated" lettuce. I mean, I literally decided that I despised it and argued to my parents that I had always hated it. Always. I'm not sure what poor lettuce ever did to me, but I've since come to my senses and realize that lettuce is my friend. In fact, I like my friend lettuce so much that I decided I needed to bring some excitement into its life. Who wants to be cold ALL the time? Not me. So I introduced my friend lettuce to my other friend, the grill. And a beautiful relationship formed...

Nowadays at our house, when we are having salad, it's often grilled. If you've never stuck lettuce on your grill, you're probably not alone. But you should really consider it. The heat of the grill brings out a new flavor that totally lets the lettuce shine! (Not to mention, the recipe couldn't be simpler and requires very little chopping and prepping)

Sara & Jon's Grilled Salad

Ingredients:

Romaine hearts (1 heart usually serves 2 people)
1 head radicchio
Garlic (1 clove, minced per head of lettuce)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Sea salt
Cracked black pepper
White wine vinegar

Preparation:

I love to make this salad with a combination of both romaine and radicchio for the contrast in color as well as flavor. However, we've made this plenty of times with just romaine and it is still wonderful! If you've never used radicchio, it is a small and compact head of lettuce that by first glance may look like a tiny red cabbage. It has a stronger flavor than romaine or iceburg lettuce - with slightly spicy and bitter hints.



To prep the lettuce, simply half the romaine, leaving the core intact. Because the radicchio is so dense, I typically quarter it.

Important note: these lettuces retain A LOT of moisture. A lot. But because you need the halves or quarters to stay intact to grill them, you can't send them for a ride through the salad spinner. To wash, I usually rinse and place cut-side down on a clean kitchen towel or stack of paper towels and leave them for 30 minutes to an hour. And just before grilling I will blot them again to make sure I get any excess moisture out. Cooked wet lettuce is mushy lettuce. Just say no.

Once my lettuce is sparkly clean and dry, I drizzle it will olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and squish my minced garlic into its little nooks and crannies.

Then place your lettuce on your selected grill surface. We have made this on our grills (charcoal and gas), in our grill pan on the stove and even in our George Foreman grill (just don't close the lid). Because it happened to be raining outside, this lettuce was cooked in the grill pan. I started with the radicchio and placed it into the grill pan cut-side down for 3-4 minutes or until it got grill marks and the edges just started to cook/wilt.

Next was the romaine. This takes only 2-3 minutes to "cook". Obviously if you're doing this on your grill it can happen simultaneously, just put the radicchio on a minute or two earlier.

Here's what you're aiming for on the lettuce. You want to tell it's been on the grill but you still want it to retain its texture and crunch.

All that's left to do is chopping it into bite-sized pieces (removing the cores)

And tossing it into a bowl with a few splashes of white wine vinegar, another drizzle of olive oil and an extra sprinkling of salt and pepper, if you're so inclined.

Another easy way to add a little variety to your veggies!

Green beans....again???

I really love vegetables. A lot. There are very few I can think of that I don't love. In fact, one time, at a get-together of family friends my mom said to me (in a very matter-of-fact, stern and embarrassing way), "Sara, back away from the food," as I hovered over the veggie tray. True story. In my defense, at least it was veggies and not nachos, meatballs, or any other food item that may make me seem like more of an oinker than I already am. Moral of that story is - I love vegetables.

But for some reason, when it comes to dinner time, it seems like we always have the same old things! Green beans, asparagus, zucchini, and occasionally a salad. I absolutely adore the way I typically make green beans (blanch green beans, drain from water, throw into saute pan with olive oil, garlic, and sometimes a guest appearance by shallots) - the trick is taking the green beans from the boiling water once they change color to that really vibrant green. I need my veggies tender with a tiny bit of crunch still in them. But despite how well these turn out each time, a girl needs some variety in her life. And so I concocted a new method for preparing my beloved green beans.

Sara's Green Bean Salad

Ingredients:

Fresh green beans (enough for however many you're serving...I eat tons of them so I probably get close to a half pound just for 2 of us!)
Half pint of grape, cherry or Campari tomatoes
1/3 medium sweet onion, thinly sliced
1 1/2 tbsp dijon mustard
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
~1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
sea salt & cracked black pepper to taste

Preparation:

First snap the ends off of your green beans. They really should be fresh. I suppose you could use frozen, if you had to, but they get watery and just don't have the same texture or flavor. While I acknowledge that fresh produce can sometimes be more expensive than frozen, green beans don't typically have a high price per pound and are very affordable. Also worth noting: if you even considered using canned green beans for this recipe - we can't be friends. I don't do canned green beans. Ick.

Toss the beans into a pot of salted boiling water. They should take only a few minutes to cook. Once they turn a really bright green, I usually snatch one from the water (carefully - it's boiling!) and take a nibble off the end to check for doneness.

While the water is boiling or green beans are cooking, prep the other veggies. If you're using grape or cherry tomatoes, halving them is sufficient. Because we had Campari tomatoes, I cut mine into quarters or sixths, depending on their size. Mmmm Campari tomatoes (drool)


You should also slice your onions at this time. For the record, I almost always buy sweet onions, unless a recipe specifically calls for red onion. When Vidalia onions are in season I go for those, but my supermarket carries just plain "sweet" onions from Peru year round. I like their flavor both raw and cooked and truth be told, they don't make my eyes water when I cut them! Win-win situation!

To make the "dressing" for this salad, you'll combine the dijon mustard, balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil. Start with a good squirt of mustard in the bottom of a bowl. Another confession: I am horrible at measuring (probably why I'm horrible at baking) - I eyeball everything...but I'd say about a tablespoon of mustard. Err on the low side to start because you can always add more. As you make this vinaigrette more and more, you'll get a sense of the proportions you like. Then add a few shakes of balsamic vinegar.


It is important that you save the oil for last so that the dressing mixes properly.


You will want to whisk the ingredients in one hand while you drizzle the oil with the other. This happens to be a difficult process to capture on camera for those of us who don't have three hands.


Your dressing will end up looking like this.


Once the vinaigrette is made and the green beans are through cooking and have been removed from the water, toss the veggies in there and refrigerate it for a few minutes. It doesn't have to be served cold, but I like it better when the beans aren't steaming hot!


Now no more excuses for boring green beans!