Salad on the Grill

Last night my friend Tom and I had a "blind box" cook-off.  His friend Tish had given him a bunch of produce from an event she was catering, and I had some things left over from a series of cooking classes I did over the weekend.  So we pooled our resources to come up with an improv dinner. We started out with pretty grand plans (well, he did; my plans are never really all that grand).  Perhaps it was my powers of persuasion or maybe his fatigue after working all day, but we ended up with a delicious grilled romaine salad.

When I was a student in the Natural Chef program at Bauman College, I ended up "pulling the short straw" on many occasions, and got the "improv salad" as my assigned recipe.  While it got more than a little old for me, my classmates were  impressed with every concotion I threw together, and one of them dubbed me "The Salad Queen."  This salad is my absolute fave....

Fire up the grill and while it's heating up, thinly slice some onions.  Heat a bit of olive oil in a large skillet and when it's good and hot, add the onions. Let them hang out until they get nicely browned, tossing (if you're Tom) or stirring (if you're me and not as fancy-pants) occasionally. In a separate (dry) pan, throw in a couple handfuls of roughly chopped walnuts. After a few minutes of toasting, add some bleu cheese (Pt. Reyes is my preference; it's local and it is perfect creamy goodness).  Saute until melted and take off the heat.

While the onions and nuts are cooking, place the peppers on the grill.  If you can get these little guys, they work perfectly for a salad...

While the peppers are cooking, cut the romaine in half lengthwise, keeping the ends in tact.  Brush the cut side with olive oil and place cut side down on the grill.  Close lid and cook for 3-4 minutes until charred on the cut end.  I normally pull them from the grill then, but I think he flipped them and cooked a couple more minutes..... that works, too.

Then start layering on the flavors. Lay the romaine halves on plates and top with the peppers.

Pull the onions off the heat and add a good drizzle of balsamic vinegar.  Keep your face out of the way, because when vinegar hits a hot pan, it's a serious thing - no flames, but some big-time potent fumes!  Pour the balsamic onions over the peppers and then top with the oh-so-delicious walnuts & bleu...  

Serve with a baguette and you are good to go!  It's surprisingly satisfying, but if you need a little more for your dinner, you can bump it up with a some grilled chicken or pancetta.

Seriously, you've got to try this one!

Salad Days

Went on a bit of a salad kick this week. A sweet couple came for their second cooking class and brought me some yummy  heirloom tomatoes from their garden.  Some people see tomatoes and think sauce; I think caprese salad.  Ooooooh it's one of the best things about summer!

Made this pretty little Caprese Stack... 2 types of tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and basil with a little olive oil and balsamic.  Almost too pretty to eat. Almost.

And then there's my caprese-panzanella union - the Caprazella Salad....

... the same ingredients in my caprese stack, but chopped up and tossed with cubed sourdough bread that I sauteed in a little olive oil and garlic.  It's a hard choice between the two, but I think this one wins; it's the best of both worlds.

Now, I'm a fan of warm salads.  I know I'm alone in that a lot of the time, but clearly I am the only sane persoon out there.  I love to brush romaine halves with olive oil and grill them, just a few minutes, til they get a nice little char on the cut side.  But this time I didn't feel like firing up the grill - too impatint and hungry - so I sauteed some onion slices, threw in some sourdough cubes (yes, again!  I bought a whole baguette, so what do you expect me to do with it?), a few different types of tomatoes, and then tossed the chopped romaine in the skillet.  You just want it warm enough to melt the goat cheese (or bleu cheese) that you sprinkle on top...

Man, I have to stop posting so late at night...it always makes me hungry!

Beet Me!

I love a good roasted beet salad, but I never make it at home.... that is until today.  The thing that has always tripped me up is the hour that it takes to roast them.   I guarantee that I will spend that hour nibbling and noshing, and when the beets are finally ready, I'll be full.  Here's the trick - don't wait until you're hungry to make a roasted beet salad!  I roasted three beets yesterday, put them in a ziploc bag and they were ready and waiting at lunchtime today.  The rest of the salad comes together in no time flat.

First, wash the beets well and cut the stems leaving about an inch attached.  I like to put the beets in a casserole dish, drizzle with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, and cover with foil (don't let the foil touch the beets) and roast at 375 for about an hour.  When they are cool enough to handle, wipe off the skins with a paper towel.  It's hard to avoid beet juice on your fingers, but a little lemon and salt will clean you up.

 Don't throw out the beet greens; you can saute them in a little olive or coconut oil with garlic,onions, a pinch of red pepper flakes and a splash of red wine vinegar...super delicious, super healthy.  I love that you get two completely different flavors from one veg.

There are certain foods that I associate with beets, so I threw them into my salad: orange segments, candied walnuts (saute 1/3 cup walnuts in a half tablespoon of buttter with a pinch each of salt, pepper and brown sugar), red onion slices (soaked for 15 minutes in cider vinegar to mellow the flavor), and a couple ounces of goat or blue cheese.  Sprinkle with the juice that comes from cutting the orange and a little oilve oil.  And voila....

Give beets a try this weekend.  They are so tasty and so good for you - they contain betacyanin, which gives beets their deep color, and is a powerful cancer-fighter.  They also help detox the liver...depending on how your weekend goes, you might need that...