too hot, too tired … Summer Melon and Ginger Salad

It’s melon season in Southwest France and I’m crying that I’m missing it. They’re incredible – a variety called charentes with a deep orange flesh and a fragrant sweetness that I’ve never experienced anywhere else. So so good. When I visit, I’ll make a point of buying several at the markets and the farmer will carefully select and mark them – 1, 2, 3 – based on what order to eat them. Amazing. My dear friend Bill often makes a simple melon salad with a bit of piment d’esplette, olive oil and sea salt that is so great. I think he once pickled the melon which was also fantastic.

Speaking of melon salads, a friend got married a few weekends ago and the food was outstanding – shout out to Maison Cuisine. There was a salad on the dinner buffet that really tickled my fancy and reminded me of Bill – melon, red onion, cucumber with the delightful addition of candied ginger. I made a quick note in my phone for later (one never knows where you’ll find inspiration), grabbed another cocktail and danced the night away.

I can’t really get great melons like those in France, more’s the pity. Sometimes, for a short week or two, something similar might be at the farmers market but for the most part, it’s rather bland cantaloupes. Sad. My plan was to take one of those mediocre grocery store cantaloupes and see if I could zhuzh it up with some of these flavors, inspired both by Bill and that wedding salad. I bought one and that was the plan but then I did something typical. I forgot about that melon. I overcommitted myself and never quite got to it. But something amazing happened as it sat on the counter. That damn thing ripened to an amazing sweetness. Sure it was just this side of turning but holy hell was it good – sweet and flavorful and wonderful. Better than when I bought it, most certainly!

The combination of sweet melon, cucumber, red onion and those surprise bits of ginger with a bit of lemon juice, mint and a hint of spice was outstanding. Crunchy, cold, refreshingly wonderful, it’s another one for those too hot and too tired to cook kind of days. I had originally thought of adding some honey to bring up the sweetness but my lackadaisical attitude took care of that and I didn’t even need it. If your melon isn’t quite up to par, maybe add a little honey. Or just forget about it on the counter for a week because that apparently works too. 

STRESS THERAPY BAKING FACTOR: PROCRASTINATION FOR THE WIN! If you can’t find a good melon, maybe plan ahead for this one. I can’t guarantee that a mediocre melon will turn into a great one after a week on the counter but it can’t hurt to try. 

thirteen years ago: Tart Tips & Tart Dough, Sour Cherry Sorbet

twelve years ago: Betty’s Pies exploring Minnesota

eleven years ago: Sweet & Spicy Beer Mustard

ten years ago: Bastille Day Bomb Pops, Sour Cherry Slab Pie

nine years ago: Spicy Pineapple Paletas, Hungarian Cherry Soup

eight years ago: Guinness Crème Anglaise

seven years ago: Blender Gazpacho,   

six years ago: Blueberries & Cream Popsicles, Beef Bulgogi & Rice Cake Skewers, Thai Grilled Coconut Rice & Banana

five years ago: Salmon Rilettes

four years ago: Greek Salad Piadini Sandwiches

three years ago: Strawberry Mascarpone Galette

two years ago: Pico de Gallo White Bean Salad, Simple Summer Fruit Tarts

last year: Sorrel (Hibiscus Drink)

SUMMER MELON AND GINGER SALAD

serves 4-6

I like a bit of spice in this mix; it goes so well with the sweetness of the melon and the herbal notes from the mint. In the spirit of my French friends, I used piment d’esplette, a mild ground red pepper from the Basque country but can be hard to find. In its place, Aleppo pepper is nice but also may be a challenge to locate. That delightful Mexican spice mix, Tajin, is great or, taking a tip from Cooks Illustrated, use a mix of sweet paprika and cayenne.

1 cantaloupe, peeled, halved, seeded, and cut into 1 ½” chunks (6 cups)

½ red onion, thinly sliced

½ English cucumber, halved lengthwise and sliced thin

1 generous tablespoon candied ginger, sliced into thin batons

¼ cup fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon mild honey, optional

1 teaspoon piment d’esplette (or dried Aleppo pepper, Tajin or ¾ teaspoon sweet paprika + ¼ teaspoon cayenne)

½ teaspoon sea salt

¼ cup fresh mint, chopped

1. Taste your melon: if you’re lucky and it’s very sweet and flavorful you can skip the honey. 
2. Combine red onion and lemon juice in large bowl and let sit for 5 minutes. 
3. Stir in piment d’esplette (or spice of choice), salt and honey if needed. 
4. Add the cantaloupe, cucumber, candied ginger and chopped mint; stir to combine. 
5. Transfer to shallow serving bowl and serve. Salad is best eaten the day it’s made.

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more hot day food … Peaches, Halloumi, Mint Vinaigrette

When did fruit salads fall out of favor? Exactly when did they universally become a bowl of underripe cantaloupe, watermelon chunks, tasteless strawberries, hard pineapple and red grapes? What happened to those intricately carved watermelons that looked like baskets or whales filled with fresh, flavorful fruit and the judicious use of a melon baller? Remember when you could order a fruit salad on a restaurant menu and it was good? As a kid I used to make really elaborate fruit salads, prettily fanned out on a plate in mosaic patterns with a bowl of berry yogurt in the center for dipping. I haven’t done that in years. I think it’s time to reclaim the damn fruit salad.

I have an abundance of peaches at the moment, the result of my brilliant idea to get a summer subscription of Georgia peaches. They are wonderful, truly wonderful, but I can’t seem to get through a shipment before the next one arrives and that’s created a bit of a backlog. First world problems, yes, I know. I’ve made ice cream and sorbets, a pie or two and last night a really wonderful salad with salty cheese and a mint vinaigrette. A delight. The best fruit salad I’ve had in a long, long while.

The peaches are not my only abundance problem right now. The mint in my garden plot is rather plentiful. No, that doesn’t quite adequately describe what is happening. My mint is a beast that requires an aggressive trim at least twice a week to beat it into submission. I’m constantly looking for things to do with it as one cannot live on mojitos alone (news flash). I love mint + peaches so I dug up a vinaigrette recipe I haven’t made in far too long. A bunch of mint, bright lime, a bit of honey; it is lovely and exceptionally good with summer stone fruits. 

Anyway, I was thinking some salty feta would be a nice addition but a trip to the farmers market had me throwing a favorite cheese into my bag from a WI vendor called Brunkow. I just call it “Brunkow Cheese” but technically it’s a ‘juustoleipa” – a mild, salty, firm, sort of bouncy cheese from Finland that holds up to heat. It reminds me a lot of halloumi or the Greek kasseri. You grill or pan fry to get a toasty crust and a melty center. If you can find this type of cheese in your store, by all means use it, otherwise look for the more readily available halloumi or kasseri as it essentially works the same. Toasty melty salty cheese, mint and peaches are a wonderful combination, especially on these hot days when you really don’t feel much like eating anything.

STRESS BAKING THERAPY FACTOR: COOL RUNNINGS. I’m not even entirely sure what I mean by that but I’ve watched 1,764 hours of Olympic coverage in the fist six days and the Jamaican bobsled team is on my mind tonight. Weird, I know. But really, I think the gist is it’s hot and I don’t feel like eating a damn thing and yet, this salad went down really well. Fresh, bright, easy and refreshing; it’s all that summer food should be.

additional peach recipes: Roasted Peach Sour Cream Ice Cream, Peach Buttermilk Ice Cream, Peach Sorbetto, Peach Frozen Custard, Peach Blackberry Cobbler, Ginger Peach Hand Pies, Peach Pandowdy, Peach Crostada, Bourbon Peach Rugelah

twelve years ago: Tart Tips & Tart Dough, Sour Cherry Sorbet

eleven years ago: Betty’s Pies exploring Minnesota

ten years ago: Life in Southwest France

nine years ago: Bastille Day Bomb Pops, Sour Cherry Slab Pie

eight years ago: Spicy Pineapple Paletas, Hungarian Cherry Soup

seven years ago: Guinness Crème Anglaise

six years ago: Blender Gazpacho  

five years ago: Blueberries & Cream Popsicles, Beef Bulgogi & Rice Cake Skewers, Thai Grilled Coconut Rice & Banana

four years ago: Salmon Rilettes

three years ago: Greek Salad Piadini Sandwiches

two years ago: Strawberry Mascarpone Galette

last year: Pico de Gallo White Bean Salad, Simple Summer Fruit Tarts

PEACHES, HALLOUMI & MINT VINAGRETTE

Serves 2-3

Ripe, juicy peaches are pretty important for this one. This would also work well with nectarines, plums and probably even apricots. I might even consider plump, sweet cherries. I sometimes also like a sprinkle of Tajin on the peaches, that lime-chili-salt stuff that is weirdly addictive (I use Rancho Gordo’s version.)

for the mint vinaigrette:

¼ cup roughly chopped fresh mint (10g)

3 Tablespoons lime juice

1 Tablespoon white wine vinegar 

1 Tablespoon honey

½ teaspoon kosher salt

1/8 tsp coarse ground pepper

⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil

for the salad:

2 ripe peaches, pitted and thinly sliced

½ pound halloumi or kasseri (or juustoleipa cheese if you can find it)

Optional additions: arugula, Tajin (or cayenne)

1. For the vinaigrette: add mint, lime juice, vinegar, honey, salt and pepper in a blender and process until smooth-ish.
2. With the blender on low, drizzle in the olive oil and run until emulsified. Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed. It will be on the thin side. Set aside until needed. Vinaigrette is best within a few hours but will keep refrigerated for a few days though the freshness of the mint tends to fade a bit over time.
3. For the salad: Leave the cheese in big pieces so it’s easier to handle, one or two pieces.
4. Preheat a grill or or a dry non-stick pan over medium to medium high then cook the cheese until lightly browned and crusty on the outside and warm and melty on the inside. If in doubt, go with the lower temperature as the cheese will brown very quickly on a higher heat before it gets soft and melty on the inside.
5. Cut the warm cheese into pieces.
6. Divide the peaches and warm halloumi between two plates and drizzle a spoonful or two of the vinaigrette on top. 
7. If desired, top with a sprinkle or two of tajin (or a pinch of cayenne) and a sprig of fresh mint. For more of a salad, placed the peaches and cheese on a bed of arugula.
8. Serve immediately while the cheese is warm.

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bright bites for dreary days … Roasted Beet and Orange Salad

I’ve got a real thing for a good tangerine. Mandarins more so. In fact, to be even more specific, satsumas are really my thing. Starting around the holidays, I’ll start pacing the produce aisles of Asian markets and Whole Foods looking for large piles of those bright orange orbs with the telltale leaves and stems. When fresh, they are incredible – bright, full flavored, juicy, sweet but with a little bit of tartness for a wonderful flavor balance. I adore them and will eat as many as I can during the short season.

A few weeks ago, I did a thing. After reading an article in Bon Appetit about a California citrus farm specializing in tangerines, I placed an order. It took a few determined weeks to make it happen but it happened. Orders open up only once a week and as demand is high and supply is naturally limited. They usually sell out quickly, especially early in the season. It was cold and grey outside and I desperately needed a little sunshine. I opted for a variety pack to try a little of everything – a few Valencia oranges, a few blood oranges, three types of amazing tangerines, two gorgeous lemons and the best avocado I’ve had in my life. Ten pounds of beautiful citrus was picked on Saturday and on my kitchen table by Tuesday. It was glorious. The best tangerines I’ve ever had. Next year I’ll get my butt in gear earlier for satsuma season. I’ve got the reminder set in my calendar and am drooling just thinking about it.

I’ve enjoyed most of the shipment as is but with some beets sitting in my produce drawer, I decided to combine the two and make a salad. Roasted beets and fresh citrus are a marvelous combination and so very pretty if you mix up the beet colors. The beets are tucked into foil packets and roasted in a hot oven, as this is my preferred method for best flavor. I’ve never understood why some people boil beets. ugh. The oranges get a sort of fancy treatment called “supreme” in which you carefully separate the flesh from the rind and membranes into nice little segments. Sure it takes a little bit of time but the effort is well rewarded in the end. Take care to cut off the rind and pith, following the curve of the fruit and leaving as much of the orange flesh behind as possible. It does take a little practice; when I worked in restaurants I bet I suprememed a couple cases of oranges every week. You get really good after the first case.

I roasted both red and yellow beets and tossed them in a simple, light vinaigrette type of thing along with both orange and tangerine segments. The dressing is mostly orange juice and vinegar with just a little bit of olive oil so it’s light and bright, perfectly accenting the whole mix. A handful of toasted walnuts went on top because they go great with citrus and beets and the crunch is delightful. I also reached for the za’atar, that wonderful middle eastern spice mixture of thyme, sesame, sumac and other lovely things that is also, coincidentally, amazing on citrus and beets. The whole thing is delicious. Bright and a little earthy, sweet and a little tart, fresh and crunchy. A wonderful combination of all the things.

Fair warning that red beets will stain everything – your hands, your cutting board, every damn ingredient they come in contact. The trick is to lightly oil or spray your hands with cooking spray to prevent this (your cutting board too.) Keep them separate from your other ingredients too, in their own bowl until the last moment, unless you want the salad a lovely day-glow shade of fuchsia.

twelve years ago: Khachpuri (cheesy Georgian bread)

eleven years ago: Oatmeal Jam Bars  

ten years ago: Guinness Stout Floats

nine years ago: Chocolate Banoffee Tart

eight years ago: Lemon Tart – Sunday Lunch Polish Easter

seven years ago: Guinness Crème Anglaise

six years ago: Flourless Chocolate Cookies

five years ago: Potato Goat Cheese Strudel, Chouquette

four years ago: Pici (hand rolled spaghetti), Old School Garlic Bread

three years ago: Easter Recipe Round Up (and some polka favorites) 

two years ago: Sourdough Spätzle

last year: Corned Beef Dinner Hand Pies

ROASTED BEET & ORANGE SALAD

Serves 4 as a side dish

I like to keep this simple, but a soft goat cheese or salty feta crumbled on top is quite nice. Pistachios would be nice though I prefer the earthy slightly tannic flavor of a walnut. Be sure to zest the oranges first.

1 bunch beets (about 1 ½ pounds), scrubbed, trimmed and cut in half or quarters if large

olive oil

kosher salt and ground pepper

¼ cup walnut pieces

2 oranges or 1 orange + 2 tangerines or 4 tangerines (zest first)

For the dressing:

1 teaspoon finely minced shallot, about ¼ of a shallot

2 Tablespoons white wine vinegar

1 teaspoon mild honey, like wildflower or clover

2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest 

¼ teaspoon za’atar

Good pinch of kosher salt

Few grinds of ground black pepper

¼ cup fresh orange juice

1 Tablespoon good olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. 
2. For the beets: place the beets on a large piece of foil on a sheet pan (if roasting various colors of beets, keep the red ones separate.)
3. Drizzle with a little olive oil and a pinch each of salt and pepper. 
4. Fold foil around beets and crimp ends to form a neat packet. 
5. Roast until tender when pierced with a paring knife, about 45 minutes.
6. Let cool completely then peel the skins off with a paring knife (lightly oil your hands if working with red beets to prevent having fuchsia tinted hands all day.)
7. While the beets are roasting, toast the walnuts on a sheet pan until fragrant, about 5 minutes (keep an eye on them – they’ll go from perfectly toasty to burnt in seconds). If large, coarsely chop once cooled. Set aside until needed.
8. For the dressing: in a large bowl, whisk together the shallot, orange zest, vinegar, salt, pepper and za’atar. Set aside while you prepare the oranges and beets.
9. Supreme the oranges: Cut about ½” off the top and bottom of each orange/tangerine to expose the flesh. 
10. Place the orange/tangerine cut side down on a cutting board and with a chef’s knife, follow the curve of the orange to remove the rind, including the pith (the white part.) Try to cut as close to the pith as possible, reserving as much of the flesh as you can. Discard the rind.
11. Switch to a paring knife and over a bowl to catch the juice, cut each citrus segment from the membrane by cutting gently on one side of the membrane then the other, carefully removing each segment (discard any seeds as you come across them.) 
12. Squeeze the remaining membrane over the bowl for any excess juice then discard. Continue with any remaining oranges/tangerines.
13. Measure off ¼ cup of accumulated orange juice for the dressing. If you don’t quite have enough, give it a few minutes. I’ve found that orange segments will continue to give off juice for a while, so if you wait a bit, you might eventually get what you need. If not, squeeze another orange or tangerine to top it off.
14. For the salad: thinly slice the peeled beets (about 1/8” thick) and place in a small bowl (keep red and orange/yellow beets separately to prevent everything from turning bright pink. Hint: spray your hands and the cutting board with cooking spray or lightly oil to keep it all from staining.)
15. Finish the dressing – add the orange juice and olive oil to the dressing bowl and whisk to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed.
16. Add the dressing to the various bowls of things – citrus segments, beets – and gently toss to combine. If using tangerines, take care as they are rather delicate and tend to break apart.
17. On a serving platter, scatter about the dressed beet slices and orange/tangerine segments. Drizzle any excess dressing over, top with the walnuts and a good pinch of za’atar.
18. The salad can be made ahead – however, and this is a big however – if you’re using red beets they will turn everything pink. So, if making ahead, keep the red beets separate in their dressing and combine just before serving. 

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umami wonders … LuLu’s Two Bean Salad

I have a remarkable cadre of friends in Southwest France, mostly retired, who are truly living their best lives. They are constantly posting beautiful, luscious, envy inducing photos of meals they’re enjoying through this pandemic and it’s been enough to make me tear up a few times. Maybe one day we’ll be able to enter the country again. Maybe one day, I’ll see them again and share a lovely meal.

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bright, juicy, crunchy …. Vietnamese-Style Chicken Salad

I’ve been on a salad kick lately and was looking for something bright and tangy the other day after eating several plates of filling, hearty spätzle. Vietnamese food came immediately to mind and thought a salad incorporating those flavors would be nice. Something with a bracing nuoc cham type of dressing, bright with lime juice, chilies and fish sauce. I pulled a chicken breast from the freezer. Took stock of my vegetable bins. Grabbed a package of rice noodles from the pantry. I hashed out an idea from a recipe I’ve used before, stopped by the Asian market for fresh lemongrass and picked up some mint while I was there too.

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my kind of salad … Old School Antipasto Salad

I’ve had a series of failures lately. A few St. Patrick’s recipes that didn’t go as planned. A cake that was 5 kinds of awful. A bad batch of chocolate chip cookies. They were stacking up but that’s ok; it happens. Distractions, busy work projects and overconfidence were derailing my best intentions. I’ve also been eating a lot of overly rich, creamy foods lately that haven’t been sitting well so today I wanted a salad. One of those old school Italian, red sauce joint kind of salads with all the stuff in it. So I made one.

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go back to the beginning … The Original Kale Salad

I shut down my little community garden plot this week, in anticipation of winter and the garden closing date. It’s been a strange year for that plot; a terrible season for tomatoes though my herbs did quite well as did the kale and chard. I didn’t harvest much of the kale over the summer, rather, just left them to grow. And grow. And grow. This week I harvested nearly 4 pounds of beautiful Tuscan kale from plants that were the size of small trees. The leaves were gorgeous – big, dusty dark green, crinkled just so. I brought home a gigantic bag and no real plan. There’s soup and pasta dishes and sautéed batches, of course. And there’s salad. Hmmmm. Kale Salad. Yippee.

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cool food for hot days … Watermelon Jicama Salad

It’s hot. I was in France last week and it was hot. I came back to Chicago, and it was hot. So damn hot. In this kind of weather I don’t have much of an appetite, not that it slowed me down much in France (copious amounts of cold rosé certainly helped) but back home, my dinners have been a bit lackluster. Truth be told, I decided the other day I wasn’t going to eat much else besides fresh sweet corn and cold watermelon for rest of the month.

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fast good food … Greek Salad Piadini Sandwiches

I was hungry. It had been a long, chaotic day spent on my feet cooking for other people and the last thing I wanted to do was cook for myself. A drive thru was in order. Driving home, I passed the usual suspects and wasn’t all together thrilled. Burger? Fries? Ugh. I started thinking about healthy fast food and the lack thereof. In general, the options are not great. Back in my advertising days, I worked on my fare share of fast food accounts and time and again, no matter how great the option, healthy fast food never sold. The sad truth – surprisingly (or maybe not), there’s not a high demand for healthy options in fast food restaurants. But there was one thing, quite a while ago, that was pretty good. Back in the late ‘90s Wendy’s had fresh pita sandwiches on the menu and they were delicious. Really good.

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cool food for hot days … Tabbouleh Salad

Despite this recent heat wave, we’re nearing the end of the gardening season and my little community plot is still happily cranking along. Though it wasn’t the best year for tomatoes, my herbs have been unbelievable. At least once a week I’m aggressively cutting back the basil, lemon verbena and mint in an effort to tame and contain the little beasts. I recently trimmed the oregano so aggressively I think it might shiver a little as I approach. My rosemary bush is having a year like no other but it’s the parsley that is the most surprising. No matter how much I cut it back, it springs forth with new vigor in all its vibrant, bushy glory. I’ve been using it quite a bit in the last month but needed to step up my efforts. It was time for tabbouleh.

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