Salad heaven ... *so* colourful :)

If there was such a place, would it filled with fresh spinach, amaranth, rocket and many other greens? With crisp pears and apples, a plethora of nuts, varieties of olive oil, grapeseed oil, some truffle for fragrance? Maybe juicy meyer lemons and blood oranges? How about marinated beets and eggplant? *sigh* ...

Ok, I'm back! But it was so good to be romping around in that field of greens :)

I'm pretty sure I sound like I'm off the rocker, but this was just another of my crazy food dreams! I woke up with a smile and a serious hankering for some yummy salad. Which finally brings me to the subject of this post - a salad. Surprised, anyone?

Every once in a while, we want a salad that is a little more substantial than just greens with a variety of garnishes - especially if that is going to be lunch following a workout. After puttering around the fridge and assessing possible salad options, my eyes fell upon an eggplant. Hmm ... was I ready to risk it?

"How can people say they don't eat eggplant when God loves the color
and the French love the name? I don't understand."
- Jeff Smith (The Frugal Gourmet)

I grew up a picky brinjal eater - we only got the small ones in India and we referred to them as brinjals. Brrriiinnjjaaaalll ... hmm ... somehow that sounds waaay more interesting than eggplant, don't you think? Anyway, I only used to like the little ones stuffed and crispy. But I've learned to embrace the giant variety that we get here, but I still have my reservations about it being chunked up into a salad!!

After staring at Mr.Big Brinjal for a while, I finally decided to go for it - diced eggplants marinated for a few hours in a lemon-muscat vinegar dressing. That can't be too bad, right?

Lemony Eggplant and Spinach Salad
Ooo ... and it has olives too :)

Servings: 2

1 large eggplant - cut into 1" cubes
2 handfuls of baby spinach leaves - washed and patted dry
1 T olive oil
1 T red moscato vinegar
grated rind and juice of 1 Meyer lemon
10-12 green olives - halved (I used those awesome jalapeno stuffed ones)
2 T chopped curly parsley
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 t red pepper flakes

Heat the oil in a wok and cook the aubergine for about 7-8 minutes, tossing frequently until golden brown. Add the vinegar and saute for a couple more minutes.
For the dressing, mix the lemon juice and rind, olives, parsley and seasoning.
Toss the aubergine cubes with the spinach and dressing till the aubergine pieces are coated with the dressing.
Add the red pepper flakes if you want a little more zing in your salad.

Opinion?

I bow to you, Mr.Big Eggplant - you can totally be the ultimate absorber of flavours! And that Meyer lemon kicks some serious ass!

***

Cook's Tips:

• You could potentially shallow fry the eggplant in a little more oil, but I'm not a big fan of that.
• The longer the eggplant soaks up the marinade, the better it tastes. This can totally be made a couple of days ahead and refrigerated. Just make sure that you return it to room temperature before serving - can't quite imagine cold eggplant *ick*
  

***

More salad recipes:

• Pepper Apple Tomato Salad
• Shredded Tofu Salad
• Beet Orange Salad
• Roasted Vegetable Salad

Got to love that pome!

No, I'm *not* talking about any fabulous device from that AAPL :)

A couple of days ago, I stumbled upon An Apple A Day hosted by Rosella. Her story is incredibly poignant - after having a stroke at 30, she seems to be doing well now and totally enjoying writing about her life and travails on her blog. And this event is extra special to her - she wants March 3rd, the day she had a stroke last year to be a celebration of healthy living and eating. It isn't any surprise that she chose to focus her event on apples along with a variety of other ingredients.

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.
- Martin Luther King

And I'll be totally fine with that - can't quite imagine life without apples - guess that's one of the best things about living in Washington :)

Apples, to no surprise, are way up there in terms of being a tasty source of goodness. They're full of soluble and insoluble fiber, the skin has a ton of Vitamin C, the pulp contains phenolic compounds ... and they're super delicious to boot!

It didn't take much effort to find a fun recipe showcasing apples and a couple of other ingredients from Rosella's list. I was initially thinking of a dessert, but figured a salad was a much healthier idea. This Moroccan salad seemed like the perfect option, brimming with sweet and tart flavours and some spice.

Pepper Apple Tomato Salad
- adapted from Traditional Moroccan Cooking: Recipes from Fez

Servings: 2 as an entree, 4 as an appetizer

1 Granny Smith apple - coarsely chopped
1/2 Gala apple - coarsely chopped
6-8 black cherry tomatoes - halved
20 sugar plum tomatoes - halved
1/2 red onion
1/2 red bell pepper
3-4 pepperoncinis - drained and chopped
10-12 almonds - coarsely chopped or ground
3 cloves garlic - crushed
2 T lemon juice
1 T chopped fresh curly parsley
1 t dried mint
1/2 t dried thyme
3 T red wine vinegar
1 t olive oil
salt
freshly ground pepper

Toss the tomatoes and apples with the lemon juice in a mixing bowl and let it sit for about 10-15 minutes.
Heat the oil in a wok and saute the onions.
Once browned, add the garlic and bell peppers and saute for another 3-4 minutes.
Add the contents of the wok into the mixing bowl and toss with the tomatoes+apples.
Add the chopped banana pepper and almonds and toss again.
Season with parsley, mint, thyme, salt and pepper.
Add the vinegar, 1 T at a time, checking the flavours before adding more.


Opinion?

*yum*! Those moroccans know how to fix a mean apple salad. This was fabulous. And is fabulous (as I struggle to type while feeding my face) :)

Off this goes to Rosella - hope you feel better and may the good times roll!

Beet Orange Salad ... and eternal admiration for Alice Waters!

Chez Panisse ... The name sets me aquiver. Organic, sustainable, local, ecologically sound, and above all fabulously delectable. *drool*. Well, I don't live in Berkeley, I've only been there once, but the memories are firmly imprinted, waiting to be refreshed. Well, I don't really remember what I ate, but I remember loving it ... every bite of it! And I can't wait to be back! In the meantime, I make do with reading Alice Waters' cookbooks - sometimes before going to bed! Nothing like waking up with amaranth or fennel on the mind, huh? :)

So, yesterday, Chez Panisse Vegetables was opened to page 45 - 'Red and Golden Beets with Blood Orange, Endive and Walnuts' it read. Guess it was our lucky day - the beets were in, the rest - we figured we'd substitute. Getting some flavor of this divine salad was *so* much better than skipping it! We decided to forego the raspberry undertones of the blood orange and replace it with the sweet satsumas instead. And the endive was replaced with red leaf lettuce instead - I know, totally different flavor, but that was the best we had! Trust me, the salad was still divine :) And the vinaigrette was sweet, tart, explosively flavorful - I slurped the leftovers and licked my bowl clean (a la Vodka!)

Red and Golden Beets with Satsumas, Red Leaf Lettuce and Walnuts
An ode to Alice Waters

Servings: 2

Salad

1 red beet
1 golden beet
2 satsuma oranges
1/3 cup of walnuts - lightly toasted
3-4 leaves of red leaf lettuce

Vinaigrette

2 T red wine vinegar
2 T orange juice
2 T olive oil
zest of 1/2 orange
1 t freshly ground black pepper
kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 400F.
Trim and wash the beets and put them in a baking pan with a splash of water.
Cover the pan tightly with foil and bake for 40 minutes until the beets can be pierced through with a sharp knife.
Uncover and allow the beets to cool.

Trim off the top and bottom of each orange.
Pare off the rest of the peel and slice the oranges into 1/4" thick rounds.

Make the vinaigrette by mixing the vinegar, orange juice and the orange zest (finely chopped or minced) along with the olive oil.
Season with the salt and pepper.

Once the beets are cool enough to handle, peel them (the skin actually comes off real easily!)
Cut off the tops and bottom tails of the beets and slice them into rounds.
Toss the beets gently with the vinaigrette.

Arrange the beets along with the orange slices and shredded lettuce.
Drizzle the remaining vinaigrette over the salad and garnish with the walnuts.

Good?
Could it get any better?! :)


And the love for everything Alice Waters has created continues. As does the countdown to the next visit to Chez Panisse. *so* excited. We'll be there soon!

Think I'm going to send this to Simona for Weekend Herb Blogging #112 - no herbs here, but the plethora of vegetable and fruit flavours makes it an ideal candidate!

Powerless, yet tasty!

I noticed this Powerless cooking event organized by the Simple Indian Food blog a few days ago and interpreted it as concocting a dish that basically used no source of power - including gas! Well, that was a tough one - especially given I was busy using my beater making the dough for some cookies that I was going to stick in the oven. Hmm, no chance of using that as a submission! :)

Well, yesterday was one of those "Not sure what I want to eat" days ... and yet, we didn't want to indulge in super elaborate cooking. After some puttering around, finishing up some dosa batter seemed like the quickest option. Maybe a chutney to go with it? Somehow, that sounded "lame" (usually chutneys are *never* lame! :)) and uninteresting.

And then, I remembered about the powerless cooking event and the obvious idea came to mind - a Southwestern black bean salad! I ended up marinating the vegetables for over an hour so I could get flavours to soak in without any cooking involved - the only reason I even thought the salad might need marinating was because I threw in some squash - never tried that before.

And this went really well with dosas. And with some tortilla chips - they worked perfectly for mopping up the remaining dresssing :)

Southwestern Salad
Nada power, mucho flavour!

Servings: 4

1 small red onion
2 roma tomatoes
1/2 yellow squash
12-15 pickled jalapeno slices
1 can black beans
1 T olive oil
2 T red wine vinegar
1 t red cider vinegar
a handful of chopped cilantro
salt
1 t red pepper flakes

Dice all the vegetables and toss them into a bowl along with the black beans.
Toss with the olive oil and vinegars.
Season with salt and red pepper flakes.
Marinate for about 1 hour.
Garnish with chopped cilantro before serving.



Off this goes to EasyCrafts!

Good old black bean burgers

Ever since I tried the black bean burger special years ago at the Hilltop, I've been hooked. I remember how disappointed I used to get when the special disappeared and I had to settle for the cilantro pesto quesadillas (good, but doesn't stand a patch against the BBB!) instead. And then we discovered that the 74th Street Ale House carries the BBB as a regular entree. As does the Columbia City Ale House! Weeeeeeeeee!!!

So, the next natural step in the BBB ingestion process was to attempt recreating the burger. Pretty much all attempts so far have been pretty good. Plus the burger patties freeze really well - and it works better to make a big batch since I need to use atleast a can of black beans when making these. Well, last night was one of those BBB nights. It has been a few months since I made these, plus the blog doesn't have an entry for it! Which means it was time to embark on making another batch of BBBs. And this time around was the best, by far! All the flavors balanced out, it seemed like the quantities were perfect and the patties cooked really well and held together. And now I *have* to document it for the next time I need to whip up a batch!

Black Bean Burgers
(makes 10 large patties)

1/2 medium vidalia onion - chopped fine
1/3 medium red onion - chopped fine
1/2 orange bell pepper - chopped fine
1/2 granny smith apple - chopped fine
4 cloves garlic
1 jalapeno pepper
1.5" ginger
2 cans black beans
1/2 t allspice
1 t olive oil
1 t cumin seeds
salt
a few drops of habanero sauce

Grind up the garlic, ginger and jalapeno into a coarse paste, adding a little water if needed.
Heat the oil in a saucepan and toss in the cumin seeds. Once they're browned, add the onions and saute them till translucent.
Add the bell peppers, apple, allspice and ginger/garlic/jalapeno mix and cook for another 3-4 minutes.
Now add the black beans, salt and habanero sauce and stir.
Lightly mash the mixture with the ladle - not too much! (We still want chunky black beans in our patties :))
Cook'n'stir for a couple more minutes.

Once the mixture cools, take generous handfuls and flatten each into a chubby 4" diameter patty. These can be cooked in batches on a lightly greased pan till browned and crisp on both sides.


We usually eat these with mediterranean flatbread from TJ's. Place a patty in a folded, toasted flatbread, dress it with maybe some horseradish dip (yum!) and some salad.

Wait, we need a salad! Which brings me to my current favorite fruit - pomegranate! *so* good! Uwajimaya currently has some awesome pomegranates, can't wait to go back for more! So, I had to throw those into my green salad!

Yummy mixed greens salad

2 cups romaine/endive/spinach greens mix
8-10 sugar plum tomatoes - sliced
a handful of pomegranate seeds
1 t balsamic vinegar
a few drops of truffle oil
salt'n'pepper
grated beer cheese

Basically, just toss all of these together :) This beer cheese - a new item at TJ's is totally awesome! Milky, yet somewhat firm and bursting with flavor. And it does have a slight beer aftersmell! Which actually tastes good :)

Mmm ... pomegranates!


These BBBs might just have to be my unconventional entry for Marie's sammy event!


This goes to Zorra and Sandra for their Best of 2007 event - the first batch of burgers that I made were pretty good, but it took a few rounds of experimenting before I finally hit the perfect balance. Burger heaven is a great place to be in!

Rajmah Anardhana ... sort of! :)

Every once in a while, I get a craving for a different kind of lentils - not the usual tuar dhal with some veggies. So, I poked around my books until I found this recipe for rajmah (who wouldn't love that?!) flavored with pomegranate seeds. Rock! I got all excited about this! Wait ... no rajmah - canned or raw! And I don't feel like running to the store. Hmm ... how about white kidney beans instead? A lot softer, but it might work. And it did! The next time around, I might go a little easier on the masala, seems like the red beans absorb a lot more of the spices than the cannellini beans.


The original recipe that I based off of (someday, I'll try to follow a recipe all the way instead of improvising along the way :)) is from Art of Indian Cuisine - I bought this book at Landmark last year.

Rajmah Anardhana
(my morphed version!)

2 C of cannellini beans
1T butter
1 onion - minced
2t ginger paste
2t garlic paste
1/2 C tomato puree
1t turmeric

2T pomegranate seeds

For the masala
===========
2t dhania seeds
3 red chillies
2t jeera seeds
4 cloves
1" cinnamon
rock salt

Dry roast and grind the spices for the masala.

How to:
======
Cook the beans (if using raw beans) in about 6 cups of water till tender, mash some of the beans against the side of the pan
Heat the butter and add the onions, ginger and garlic. I massively cut down on the butter needed, so this step took quite a while!
Add the tomato puree and cook for another minute
Throw in the masala and turmeric along with the salt and cook for 2-3 minutes
Add the beans to this and bring to a boil - takes about 5-7 minutes

Dry roast and grind the pomegranate seeds to a fine powder before adding it to the beans. Garnish with a ton of cilantro :)

I felt the craving for salad, indian style, to go with this. So, I chopped up a bunch of veggies and drizzled them with lemon-ginger juice. It made for a much prettier picture than most other dishes! :)

Pasta makes me happy!

I found this new sprouted wheat papardelle at Trader Joe's (not a day goes by without my revelling in the glory of that store!) the other day - and it looked curious enough to try out. Hmm ... hearty pasta with a nutty flavor ... I wasn't quite sure what kind of sauce that warranted - I finally just tossed the pasta with some extra virgin olive oil and added a simple artichoke garlic sauce seasoned with a generous helping of red pepper flakes. The artichoke tasted pretty good with the pasta, but I think I can do better here. The nuttiness warrants a tarter sauce - maybe a spicy marinara or even just a balsamic vinegar reduction.

The pasta ended up looking pretty boring, resulting in this almost monochromatic picture!


The pasta was decent, but the tomato salad that went with it was mucho fabuloso! I can't wait to make this again :)

Tomato Bread Salad

1 lb of sugar plum tomatoes - halved (it doesn't take that long :))
10-12 basil leaves - shredded
1/2 red onion - sliced thin
2 olive rolls (from the amazing Trader Joe's)

Cut the olive rolls into this slices and soak them in a shallow bowl of water for about 20 minutes. In the meantime, lightly saute the onions and toss them with the tomatoes and basil. Squeeze most of the water out of the rolls and shred the slices into bite size pieces. Toss these along with the tomato mix in 1 T olive oil + moscato vinegar + kosher salt + pepper. Love it!